In the May issue of the Squeaker I reported on the progress of the all-important Pastoral Scheme being drawn up by the Church Commissioners on advice from the Portsmouth Diocese. This legal document is what has to be approved by a committee of the Commissioners which will then allow the Bishop of Portsmouth to formally close Langrish Church for worship and enable our parish to amalgamate with that of East Meon. Before the Commissioners’ committee could be asked to consider the Scheme it had to be circulated for ‘informal’ consultation then, when comments had been received, amended if necessary, and recirculated for formal consultation. By May this year the informal process had completed without a hitch and the formal consultation had been initiated so my optimistic forecast was that the church would close in August or September.
Well, it didn’t, did it!
What happened was that Canon Terry Louden, who many of you will remember was our vicar from 1996 to 2013 raised an objection. Terry has helped out frequently over the past three years by taking Sunday services, officiating at baptisms and funerals and could therefore, reasonably claim to have an informed opinion on the church closure Scheme. In short, he wrote to the Commissioners arguing against closing the church making many valid points which had to be answered, thus delaying the decision-making process. The Commissioners then wrote to the Bishop of Portsmouth inviting his comments on Terry’s objections which he has now done and the Pastoral Scheme together with all these comments will be considered by the Commissioners’ committee on 5 November.
Exactly what happens after that is not entirely clear. We know that the Commissioners need to establish the legal title of the church and, it would appear, they wait for the decision on closure before embarking on this but there is no knowing how long it will take. We have had conflicting legal advice on the actual process of amalgamating our parish with East Meon – an easy one and a complicated one – with East Meon saying they will not support the Scheme unless the easy one is adopted. A rather casual mention has been made by a diocesan source of a monumental hike in the Langrish Parish share, payable to the diocese, which will be simply added to East Meon’s existing share on amalgamation to which, again, East Meon are, understandably, objecting and would also be grounds for removing their support for amalgamation. These are not trivial concerns; they need to be sympathetically considered by the diocesan staff and resolved to everyone’s satisfaction if the church closure and amalgamation of parishes is to go ahead.
I have learned, to my cost, not to make predictions on when the church might close but it is clearly not going to happen this year. In view of that, the PCC is planning for the full set of Christmas services to go ahead – Hurrah!
In my May article I mentioned the plan to remove the stone WWI memorial with the wooden WWII memorial beneath it, place them in temporary storage and then re-erect them in All Saints East Meon which, by then, will have become our parish church. This was to have been a combined PCC and secular Parish Council (PC) project but the PC is now considering a project to erect a new memorial somewhere suitable in an outside space so the PCC is continuing alone in its effort to re-locate the existing memorials. Quotes of about £12,000 for the work have been received and grants will be sought from the War Memorials Trust and other bodies to cover as much of this cost as possible.
David Mowlam
LANGRISH CHURCH SERVICES
– Morning Prayer is usually held at 9am on Wednesdays, to check please contact Joy 01730 261991 joyrsang@gmail.com
Sunday Services are still being held on the second Sunday of the month at 9.00am (a Service of the Word) and on the fourth Sunday of the month (a Eucharist, usually with a choir). Other services you may wish to attend at St Johns Langrish are:
7 October 1800 Compline
4 November 1800 Compline
9 November 1600 Remembrance Sunday Service
2 December 1800 Compline
21 December 1800 Carol Service
24 December 1600 Scratch Nativity
25 December 0900 Christmas Eucharist
On 1 November there will be an All Souls service at East Meon at 6pm where the names of those who have died that you wish remembered, will be read out in All Saints Church. There will be a form to complete on the table at the back of Langrish Church, please print their names clearly.
The Remembrance service on 9 November is at 4pm to which everyone is invited and will include representatives from our local community to lay wreathes for those from Langrish, Ramsdean and Stroud, lost in WWI and WWII.
Finally you have all the dates for the Christmas Services. The Lessons and Carols for both Langrish and East Meon on 21 December at 6pm.
Back by popular demand Reverend Terry will be taking our 4pm Scratch Nativity on Christmas Eve and Reverend John Paul will be leading our Christmas Day service at 9am. For both Remembrance Sunday and Christmas, anyone wishing to help with the flowers please do get in touch with me.
In the meantime I wish you all health and happiness, enjoy the sunshine and all the produce from our gardens this Autumn.
Joy Sang
The Squeaker 