Public Consultation on the future of St Barnabas Temple-Cloud

23rd June 2026

Introduction

Thank you for being here today. St Barnabas has stood at the heart of our village for generations, serving as a beacon of faith, a place of quiet reflection, and a landmark we all know and love.

However, we have reached a critical crossroads. The reality of maintaining this beautiful, historic building has outpaced the resources of our current congregation. Today, we want to share the honest challenges we face, explore the practical realities of the building's future, and ask for your input and support.

The Challenges We Face

To secure the future of St Barnabas, we must confront three major hurdles:

1. Financial & Physical Upkeep

The building requires urgent, costly repairs that are beyond our current means. Most pressing are:

• Damp in the walls that needs addressing to maintain the fabric of the building.

• Roof repair, including the replacement of broken and missing tiles.

But the maintenance of this building extends beyond those two pressing concerns.

2. A Small Congregation Carrying a Large Burden

Our current congregation has done as much as it can to maintain this building but it is stretched to its absolute limit, both physically and financially. We are currently maintaining two separate church buildings (St Barnabas and St Augustine’s in Clutton) and receive minimal financial support from the local government and the Church of England to do this. A building of this scale requires dedicated manpower, specialised expertise, and consistent funding that our small numbers simply cannot sustain alone. The ability to fundraise for the church through alternative avenues—such as hiring it out as a venue—has also been diminished because of our third hurdle…

3. Parking & Accessibility

The sale of the adjacent Rectory and its associated parking area, combined with strict roadside parking restrictions in the surrounding area, means there is now no parking near St Barnabas. This creates a severe accessibility issue for the elderly, the disabled, and families with young children—our current congregation and those we are seeking to join our congregation.

It also severely limits using St Barnabas as a wider community hub or meeting space. By comparison, the nearby Village Hall offers ample parking, modern heating, and superior facilities, making it a more practical choice for local groups.

Assuring Our Community

We want to give you our absolute assurance: the church and its Christian presence is not leaving Temple-Cloud. No matter what happens to the bricks and mortar of St Barnabas, your pastoral and spiritual needs will be fully met:

• Weddings, Baptisms, and Funerals: These milestone life events will continue uninterrupted at our nearby sister church, St Augustine’s (where many village families already choose to hold them)

• Sunday Services: The church leadership is keen to explore vibrant, accessible alternative venues within the village for regular Sunday morning worship, including the Local School and the Village Hall.

• Pastoral care: Revd Guy and the church will continue to care for the spiritual needs of this community, visiting the residents of Cholwell House, being involved in the school, and will always be happy to visit those who are unwell, in need of prayer or support of any kind.

How You Can Help

If we are to find a sustainable future for the St Barnabas building, we need the collective strength of the entire village. We cannot do this without an injection of time, expertise, and funding from the wider community.

If you want to see these doors stay open, please consider how you might step forward:

• Join the PCC (Parochial Church Council): We need leadership, fresh ideas, and project management skills to help oversee the building's future.

• Offer Practical Expertise: Are you a builder, surveyor, historic property enthusiast, or grant-writer? Your professional advice is invaluable to us.

• Spearhead Fundraising: We need dedicated volunteers to organise community fundraising events and apply for heritage grants specifically for the roof and damp repairs.

• Financial Stewardship: Consistent financial donations earmarked specifically for the building's maintenance fund.

Thank You

Whether you have attended St Barnabas for decades or simply value its presence in the village, we thank you deeply for your time, your passion, and your love for this community. Your voice tonight matters immensely as we discern the best path forward together.

Minutes from the meeting of 23rd June 2026

The meeting was opened by the Archdeacon of Bath, The Ven. Charlie Peer (CP). Assistant Diocesan Secretary, Peter Evans (PE), and Rector of St Barnabas, Revd Guy Martin-Scott (GM) were also in attendance

Apologies were received from Mark Lidster, the Church Buildings Advisor for the Diocese of Bath & Wells.

GM Laid out the current situation as described in the consultation document highlighting the financial difficulties, the lack of manpower and energy within the current congregation, and the removal of the church car park as three primary factors that have led to the consultation over the future of St Barnabas church. GM stated he had no desire to close the church, but that to be able to secure the future of St Barnabas church, something needed to change and the current congregation needed help.

Questions were received from the floor:

A question was asked about the sale of the Rectory and why the funds from that could not be used for the repair and maintenance of St Barnabas church.

CP - Explained there were laws around the sale of clergy housing stating that the money raised from any sale has to go into the stipend fund which is used to house clergy and so could not be given to the PCC that look after St Barnabas church for its upkeep.

PE - Explained that if the church building was sold no money would come to the PCC but that it would be split 2/3 going to the Diocese and 1/3 going to the Church Commissioners. He also said that church buildings are not worth as much as one might think.

A question was asked about whether church assets could be sold to help fund the maintenance.

CP - Explained that silverware and other valuable assets are considered to be part of the heritage of the church and are difficult to sell.

GM - Stated that even if the church were to come into money to fund all the repairs, it would still be left with a manpower problem regarding who was going to co-ordinate repairs and workers and then regularly check on the upkeep and use of the building once any work was completed. He also posed the question of what would be the purpose in doing repairs and updates to the building if the building was going to struggle to be used because of the lack of readily available parking.

The owner of the Rectory said that he would be very happy for the car park to be used so long as they weren’t blocked in. He also mentioned that the PCC received £20, 000 pounds from the sale of the Rectory as part of the car park was church land – could this not be used for maintenance?

GM - Confirmed the receipt of £20, 000 from the sale of the Rectory and although it would be a good start to any work that is needed on the building the work required on the building is in excess of that as there is work that needs to be done on the roof, walls, basement, the west windows, as well as addressing damp problems. He also reminded those gathered that this was not just a problem where money could be thrown at it, it also required people who would be willing and invested in the future of the building to offer their time creativity, and skill on a long-term basis to secure the future of the building.

A villager who grew up in Temple-Cloud expressed her sadness at the Diocese being willing to sell off the car park with the Rectory. She also expressed her love of the building saying that it offered a lovely feeling compared to traditional church buildings which would be a shame to lose.

A question was asked about whether money could be sought by the diocese from the central Church of England to help parishes like St Barnabas.

CP - Explained that the church investment fund is not generally accessible by the Diocese as it is only released through specifically directed funding avenues.

A school governor expressed her joy that the family church service that runs out of St Barnabas that allowed young families to access faith and the church. She stated that she could not see a future for Christian mission in Temple-Cloud without St Barnabas.

GM - Explained that even if the worst-case scenario of the church building closing were to happen, it would not be the end of the Christian presence in the village as both the school and the village hall offer alternative spaces in which the family service could be held. Additionally, the church still goes into the village school for collective worship to share the good news of Jesus.

Revd Dave Phillips explained that he was exploring the possibility of being able to use the nearby BT hub as a car park for church events.

GM - Welcomed the possibility but reminded those gathered that there was still the issue of manpower to be addressed to secure the future of the building.

PE then laid out the options for the future of the church

(✓ indicates what would be required for each option):

Manpower Money

1. To continue as a church ✓ ✓

2. To become a chapel of ease† ✓. ✓

3. To lease the building to a trust Shared Shared (trusts may have access to other funding avenues)

4. Closure and sale

† A chapel of ease means the church would no longer be a parish church

The meeting closed with an appeal to all those gathered to consider all of the challenges facing St Barnabas church and whether they could help in any of the ways outlined by Revd Guy in his opening remarks: joining the PCC, offering practical expertise, spearheading fundraising, or through financial stewardship. Revd Guy mentioned that it would take a combination of all of these over the long term to secure the future of St Barnabas.