Church votes on future

Parishioners and school pupils are being asked for their views on whether Sacred Heart RC Church should close, should be refurbished at a cost of around £350,000, or be demolished and replaced.

Last year Hindsford St Ann'e CE Church closed because of major structural problems.

Working parties were set-up to look at aspects of Sacred Heart parish life and the future of the 19th century church, which once attracted 1,000 strong congregations.

Their findings will be released in a report which comes out on Sunday to prepare the community for a mid-September vote.

Father Stephen Cooper explained how dry rot and subsidence problems had affected the church, which, when originally built, stood for 18 months without a roof while the parish found the funds to finish it off.

He said: "We have met with the Archdiocese finance department and will present three options.

"The first is to close Sacred Heart and amalgamate with St Ambrose, Holy Family and St Richard's -- but I don't think people would go for that.

"Since there won't be a priest available we could cut costs by demolishing part of the house and spend money on repairs. But if we ran out of money during the refurbishment we would have to close.

"The third option for the long term future is to build and sustain a new church on the old school site with an extension to the parish centre and later to build a long-awaited parish hall.

"The problem is we have only 250 people coming to church each week. In the old days it would have been a thousand.

"The church was built to a very high specification but there have been subsidence and water damage problems."

A parish meeting will be called to gauge response and those who attend mass on September 16 and 17 can vote. Over the next three days parents of pupils at St Mary's High and Sacred Heart will be invited to vote.

The views of St Mary's students and the Hindsford community - including non-Catholics - are also being invited.