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Papalscope is gratified to find that the ‘Powers that Be’ are like minded over two of its recent suggestions.

1. WHY NOT GOD AND MANNA ?
(REPRINTED.)
Great to see all this ‘fly posting’ concerning Nadder Hall Music Café. One hopes the Hall is proving to be an attractive venue.
A while ago there was an Ecclesiastic’s suggestion that Tisbury needed a central café as a meeting point for the community ( Tisbury West would not be excluded). Would not St John’s be an excellent venue for that? What a shame that our Village’s Church does not contribute far more to the Community than it already does. Prior to Victorian Times such was the norm. One reads that Hindon PARISH CHURCH seeks funding that will enable it to host non liturgical events.
Tisbury is littered with the debris of Christian Worship reincarnated as Domestic Accommodation. Most Churches were originally financed by their Community; one way or another whether willingly or not. It is financially incongruous to expect dwindling congregations to maintain them. Retrenchment relocated Tisbury West’s Church of St. Andrew , into St John’s Tisbury.
Without being too specific the Temples of Christendom are at risk. Possibly not here in Tisbury but certainly enough elsewhere. If Parish Churches were again centres of Social activity, then their maintenance could be a burden more willingly shouldered by the many. Paltry village halls came into being when Parish Councils were instituted in 1892. Hence names such as the Victoria Hall. Was ours subsequently purchased as a War Memorial ? Few things are lovelier to behold than a village Church and all that goes with it, but unless appropriate steps are taken , things soon ‘ain’t going to be what they used to be.’

One doesn’t suppose Sir Roy Strong reads Papalscope or that he wrote his book as recently as last month, the which rather more eloquently states the same case. One is obliged to Simon Jenkins’ Article in the Sunday Times September 9th 2007 for exerts from his Review of:

A Little History of the English Country Church
By Roy Strong
Reviewed by Simon Jenkins
In the heart of most English towns and villages is a hole. It is filled by a deserted meadow littered with incised stones and a large building, often gloomy, locked and unused except by a tiny fraternity of citizens for a couple of hours a week. Nowadays, most young people have little idea what it is for and many shudder when they pass it. The English parish church has become the ghost in the machine of local Britain. It must be the ripest plum for a property-hungry government to pick, offering the parochial equivalent of the dissolution of the monasteries. I can hear the Treasury protesting that there are plenty of places for Christian worship, so why waste space on 20,000 underused properties?

Roy Strong, a former director of the V&A, is an Old High Romantic.

Since it is unthinkable to destroy the 10,000 medieval churches extant in England, it is madness now to leave them to rot.
Parish churches will never be fully reused by the Church of England and something must be done to reengage public affection for them. Strong is right in concluding that this often means “adaptation not conservation”. New uses must be found for those parts of parish churches no longer needed for worship. Often in the Middle Ages they were places of congregation, litigation, education and trade, as well as of peace and meditation. There is no shortage of such purposes today.
Change will require Anglicans to stop regarding parish churches as private chapels. (How often have I been told that a church is “not open to the public”?) Equally, local taxpayers should accept a modest obligation to support them. It does not require Christian belief to wonder at the artistry to which Strong’s sensitive eye draws attention. Parish churches are the memory of local Britain but they are also an incomparable resource. For all Strong’s eloquence, they are too important to be left to the church.
A LITTLE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH COUNTRY CHURCH by Roy Strong
Cape £16.99 pp272

2. MADELEINE
(Reprint from Recent Papalscope Blog)) It does seem more likely than not that the Portuguese Police may well be incompetent. Clearly they might have done a lot more than they did immediately after the alleged abduction of this child.
Hopefully our own Government is doing all it might be proper to do,in support the Parents, and too their three children .

Excert from First Post News Desk Special

Detective ‘faces discipline’
McCanns urge next man to 're-energise' the search Goncalo Amaral could face a disciplinary process after the outburst which led to his abrupt sacking yesterday, according to the Portuguese newspaper that printed his original comments.
Jornal de Noticias says Amaral has returned to the Policia Judiciaria in Faro where he used to oversee serious crime. "A policeman does not limit himself to one case. There is a lot of work to be done, " Amaral told the paper.
The detective was fired yesterday by fax, terminating his 'commission of service' on the case of Madeleine McCann, who vanished five months ago today. The decision to sack the lead detective was taken solely by the national director of the Policia Judiciaria, Alipio Ribeiro, who didn't even call a meeting after hearing what he regarded as "very serious" comments by Amaral, says Diario de Noticias. The McCanns' spokesman Clarence Mitchell has urged the Portuguese police to "get back out there" in the investigation over the missing four- year-old. "We hope whoever takes over from Mr Amaral will re-energise the search for Madeleine, " he said.

contact : John B. Pope
Email : pionono@tiscali.co.uk