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The aim of the projects is to make church maintenance easier and less of a burden for clergy, staff and volunteers, enabling them to spend more time and energy on mission.\u00a0<\/p>\nHow churches can better work together to help maintain their buildings has been the key focus of a recent Diocese of Leeds project: Maintenance Collectives.<\/p>\n
Maintenance Collectives are a concept to improve church building maintenance, focused on collaboration in a geographical area.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aspects of maintenance and compliance are common between churches, and the projects aim leverage economies of scale and resources across multiple churches.<\/p>\n
The Diocese of Leeds has had grant funding from the Church of England\u2019s Church Buildings Management Partnerships programme to trial collectives in two areas, one rural and one urban.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Our Maintenance Collective rural pilot has been running in the Wensley deanery in the Ripon area.<\/p>\n
The funding is being used to pay for an external architect to support development of bespoke maintenance plans; training sessions for church staff and volunteers; and administrative support for the project and to assist the participating churches.<\/p>\n
The aim of the projects is to make church maintenance easier and less of a burden for clergy, staff and volunteers, enabling them to spend more time and energy on mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Regular maintenance of buildings should also reduce the need for and cost of major works in the long run.<\/p>\n
Recently people from churches in the Wensley deanery were able to attend the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings\u2019 Faith in Maintenance course, which is a day-long, award-winning training course, paid for as part of the Maintenance Collective.<\/p>\n
Some 20 attendees from the Wensley deanery gathered at St Alkelda and St Mary\u2019s Middleham on Saturday, September 13, along with four diocesan participants.<\/p>\n
The course focused on equipping attendees with understanding around how to approach church maintenance, looking at the benefits, and where to start.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The day included a guided walkaround of the St Alkelda and St Mary\u2019s to learn what to look for, as well as looking to identify issues as a group, and opportunities to ask questions and discuss issues.<\/p>\n
Participants were provided with a toolkit, containing documents and guides to help people look after their places of worship.<\/p>\n
The course was well received, with positive reactions and appreciation shared for being able to participate.<\/p>\n
Steph Durrant, Administrator for the Upper Wensleydale Benefice, said: \u201cThe entire day was well put together and both informative and interesting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only did we learn a lot about how to spot things going wrong, but it was lovely to be able to network with our colleagues across the patch and with the diocesan Church Buildings Team.\u201d<\/p>\n
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A churchwarden in the deanery said: \u201cThe whole day was enjoyable and informative.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI found the lecturers were well informed and a font of knowledge I will tap into again, I\u2019m sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was also useful to talk to others in the same boat and share experiences and problems.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI look forward to putting it all into practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another churchwarden said: \u201cI found it very useful, particularly as I am fairly new to the role of churchwarden.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe speakers were very good and there was a wonderful atmosphere that made me feel that no question would be thought of as daft.\u201d<\/p>\n
We are looking to launch our urban pilot Maintenance Collective shortly, and will look to take learnings from both pilots into the future.<\/p>\n