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Archbishop offers to sell All Saints Church in Maerdy | Archbishop offers to sell All Saints Church in Maerdy |
(about 3 hours later) | |
Campaigners trying to save a church in the Rhondda from closure say they are considering an offer by the Church in Wales to let them buy the building. | Campaigners trying to save a church in the Rhondda from closure say they are considering an offer by the Church in Wales to let them buy the building. |
The offer was made by Archbishop of Wales Dr Barry Morgan at a meeting on Tuesday night. | |
Protesters have staged a sit-in at All Saints Church in Maerdy since the beginning of the month. | |
Dr Morgan said he had "tried to find a compromise", and the church could be bought for less than its market value. | |
The parochial church council (PCC), which is made up of elected members from the three local churches of Maerdy, Ferndale and Tylorstown - the benefice of Rhondda Fach Uchaf, had voted to close All Saints. | |
The Maerdy branch had abstained from the vote over the church's future, which needs £400,000 in repairs. | |
The PCC has refused to give the church a year's reprieve, and the archbishop has refused to overrule that decision because it had been taken by a democratically elected body. | |
The archbishop, who made the offer to sell the church at a PCC meeting in Tylorstown on Tuesday evening before accompanying protesters to All Saints, said it was "a sad situation" to see any church close. | |
He told parishioners: "What I've said to them is I'll try to find a way for the Church in Wales to transfer this to a charity which you've set up and then you will own this building and you will repair it. | He told parishioners: "What I've said to them is I'll try to find a way for the Church in Wales to transfer this to a charity which you've set up and then you will own this building and you will repair it. |
"Once you've put it into a good state of repair then Anglican worship can resume here." | "Once you've put it into a good state of repair then Anglican worship can resume here." |
The archbishop also said that three weddings which had been due to take place at All Saints over the next few months would now be able to go ahead. | |
One protester, Rhondda Cynon Taf councillor Gerwyn Evans, gave a word of caution to parishioners. | |
He said: "All we asked for is a further 12 months to continue the worship here, as what's happened in the last 126 years. They said 'no'. | He said: "All we asked for is a further 12 months to continue the worship here, as what's happened in the last 126 years. They said 'no'. |
"Is this a signal of where the Church in Wales is going to go? | "Is this a signal of where the Church in Wales is going to go? |
"I would caution every parishioner that's in the Church of Wales, next Sunday, when they go to these churches and worship, is their church going to be next on the market?" | "I would caution every parishioner that's in the Church of Wales, next Sunday, when they go to these churches and worship, is their church going to be next on the market?" |
However, the Church in Wales said the decision to close any of its churches was always taken by the local PCC. | |
Only once the PCC had made the decision could the Church in Wales take steps to close a church. |
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