What's happening at the St Barnabas Site?

As you may well know by now, after much thought and a great deal of prayer, the PCC at St Barnabas and with the support of All Saints, has asked the Diocese to start consulting about the closure of St Barnabas as a place of worship and the creation of a future parish made up of the two communities and based at All Saints.

Please note that all services during the winter months will be held at All Saints Church, Kenley, as St Barnabas Church cannot be heated and its Church Hall cannot be used.

All readings of Banns, Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals will take place at All Saints Church, Kenley during this period. Please see here for more information.

Proposal to close St Barnabas as a place of worship

The Church Commissioners have now prepared a draft Scheme in respect of proposals sent to them by the Bishop of Croydon, providing solely for the church of St Barnabas to be declared closed for regular public worship. 

You can read the draft Scheme here, and it may also be inspected at the church of St Barnabas, Purley; the church of All Saints, Kenley & Kenley Co-op, 60 Godstone Road, Kenley, CR8 5AA. You can also see it on the Church of England website.

The deadline for submitting your views is midnight on Monday 6th January 2025.

Why?
It's a really hard decision to have made, because we love St Barnabas and its buildings and it holds special memories for so many people. But St Barnabas is now a very small worshipping community and we are not able to undertake the significant costs of maintaining the existing church or of undertaking the significant work required to upgrade our church and halls. We believe that without the burden of maintaining the St Barnabas buildings we will be freed to focus on sharing the good news of God's love in the Purley and Kenley areas.

What will happen to the site?
Firstly, the proposed new parish of All Saints and St Barnabas will continue to own and look after the Memorial Gardens, the oak tree and the area from the church down to Higher Drive, retaining that green space for the community. 
Anyone buying the site will have to provide community space, equivalent to the space currently occupied by the two halls. The provision of this space, either on the same site or locally is of vital importance to the PCC and Church, many of whom use the halls for social and activities  themselves.

When and how will this happen?
There is a formal process of consultation that has to take place if a church is to cease being a parish church or an ongoing place of worship within the Church of England. This will take a minimum of 12 months, but may take longer.
Charity law means that we also have to consult specialists to ensure that we comply with charity law when the site is sold and before we begin any further thinking about working with developers on the site. No decisions or discussions with developers have taken place or are likely to take place in the very near future.  We will keep you fully informed as things progress. 

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please  get in touch via our Parish Office by email or call the office on: 07454 246 059.

Revd Justine's sermon is here, 23 minutes in.