Welcome to our latest round up of news and projects from Ecclesiastical Property Solutions.
At EPS we want to keep you informed about topics which are directly relevant to your work and concerns, so in this newsletter we devote attention to the most fundamental ideas of what your church buildings are for, and look at the key issues to be thought about before embarking on a building project.
Plus there is good news – we are putting our prices down. Read on to find out more!
Finally, we have a new telephone number: 01885 400311. The old one (01398 351581) still works but has a voice message to redial the new number.
What Do Churches Want? The EPS Manifesto for Church Buildings
It is easy to get bogged down in the every day and lose sight of the bigger picture of what your church is
actually for. Even easier is to be overwhelmed by the enormity of change.
In our experience, most Church communities want some or all of the following for their buildings:
- To be welcoming from the outside through to the inside
- To be less threatening, foreboding and hierarchical
- To have sufficient space for people to meet throughout the week (not just before and after services), with the possibility of serving refreshments
- To have a building that is connected to the wider community and does not appear to be just for the ‘members'
- To be understandable to people who don't know very much about Christianity or the Church
- To be up to date, relevant and accessible to hearts and minds as well as bodies
- To be open seven days a week
- To have a worship space that is fit for purpose and meets the requirements of different worship patterns and contemporary liturgies
- To be adaptable for a wide range of uses and activities, not just worship
- To have facilities for people of all ages, specifically babies, children and young people
- To have sufficient and decent lavatories, well equipped kitchens and sufficient storage space
- To use modern technology
- To be warm and comfortable, with some more intimate space for private prayer
- To meet the statutory requirements of the Disabled Discrimination Act
- To be straightforward to look after with minimum costs for maintenance and repairs
- To be energy efficient
- To speak of today and not so much of ‘yesterday'
EPS exists is to help you achieve these aims.
Do you agree with our manifesto? We'd love to hear your thoughts.
Before You Start
Many Church communities are keen to re-order their church buildings and make them more suitable for
contemporary needs. Before any design ideas are contemplated, there are a number of items that
require investigation before a firm commitment is made to move forward.
Our advice? Do not start the design work before you have thought about these things:
Training, Consultation and Education. This can be done as a workshop for as many Church members as possible, to provide the theological input, agree priorities for mission and reach a common mind. Workshops allow for issues and concerns to be voiced in a large forum and provide a common starting point so no one can claim ignorance of what is being proposed.
Asset Management Plan for the building(s). Using either
the current Quinquennial (if it has sufficient information) or a
Building Condition Survey the various elements will be
examined for lifespan and repair/replacement cost for the
next 25 – 30 years
Option Review of the possible uses for the building(s). This is a broad brush listing of the many possibilities, from which a few options may be selected for a more detailed Feasibility Study.
Financial Health Check This is to gain accurate information and ensure there is a financial strategy to meet liabilities, balance the books and ensure long term sustainability.
Community Review. More than just an audit, the Review explores the context in which the church building(s) and Church Community are placed together with identifying other stakeholders, local needs and possible partnerships
Assets Review. To examine whether the best use is being made of the property assets and identify ways of maximising their potential
Conservation Statement. More detailed than the listing information or Statement of Significance, this will identify the conservation value of the building in terms of both the building's features but, more importantly the historical context and social history.
EPS Cuts Costs!
Great news for Churches. After restructuring our business we are able to pass on significant price cuts to you, our clients.
We've found a way to reduce the costs of our early consultations and facilitation without any detriment to the quality of our service. We are now able to bring in specialists at a later stage so EPS can be cheaper for the initial stage advice and project facilitation for Churches. You are the ones to benefit.
We're cutting our daily charge out fee to £350 per day or £50 per hour. This figure excludes the VAT, but even so the gross amount is only £411.25 per day or £58.75 per hour.
Whilst we're talking about money…the tricky issue of fees and VAT
Clients often ask us how we calculate our company charges and what we get paid.
It's very straightforward: EPS fees are based on the costs of delivering the various services, running the company, keeping Professional Indemnity Insurance and paying our consultants. We aim to keep our ‘take-home' pay in-line with the cost of a clergy stipend which, with the house & pension etc, is currently calculated at £36,000 p.a.
VAT is an issue about which Churches can be unhappy, almost resentful that the tax gets put on the bill! Any company with a turnover of above £65,000 per year has to be registered for VAT and EPS is no exception. As you will be aware, some of VAT charged can be recovered by the Church if the goods and services are all part of a scheme of repairs to a listed building.
We are looking at a way to remove the requirement for EPS to charge VAT, especially on the work where the Churches cannot recover it. This includes project facilitation service items like the initial visits, workshops and general advice. However to ‘de-register' for VAT will require us to reduce the company turnover to below £62,000 per annum, which would obviously cause EPS to have a much reduced company profile, probably with a team of self-employed associate consultants. Such an arrangement may not be beneficial to the service that EPS provides and so we will be very careful about making this decision.
We will keep you informed.
EPS Provides Training and Inspiration
We've been out and about over the winter providing training and inspiration for people involved in church building projects.
Building management for Curates:
Bristol Diocese recognise that problems with buildings can be a significant cause of clergy stress and
so in February EPS were asked to provide a training course and supporting material for curates. Most
clergy receive little information and guidance about buildings and property and are expected to learn on
the job, which can lead to a reactive mode resulting in mistakes rather than a proactive and informed
point of view. EPS helped address these issues and boost the confidence of clergy and ministers.
Success at the EASA Spring Conference:
EPS' Andrew Mottram provided a keynote address at The
Association of Ecclesiastical Architects and Surveyors'
spring conference. He spoke initially about All Saints
Hereford where, when he was Priest in Charge, he took the
building from near dereliction to the hugely successful and
iconic example of church redevelopment.
Although the completed project is now over 10 years old, the reordering of All Saints is still regarded as the benchmark example of what can be achieved in returning a church building to the community. Andrew went on to speak about how what was learnt from All Saints and other EPS projects can be used in the future. The presentation was well received as the following extract of the letter from the EASA president demonstrates:
"On behalf of the Association, may I thank you for such an inspiring talk. The stunned silence was fascinating, but later discussion indicated that it was the highlight of the weekend. I am hoping that many members will have heeded your comments, and that they will act as catalysts in their dealings with parishes, to help them realise that there is more than one approach and there is a world of exciting possibilities to explore. Your time, enthusiasm and positive input were much appreciated."
Day Conferences for Portsmouth Diocese:
Portsmouth Diocese has asked EPS to provide input about buildings as part of the Diocesan Kairos
Initiative. The day conferences, aimed at clergy, churchwardens and PCC buildings officers, will help
people be ambitious in their thinking and see their buildings as an asset and opportunity. The need to
combine vision with proper planning will also be addressed, with the overall aim of tuning participants
into the ‘broader, leaner, deeper' Kairos agenda.
Latest Projects from EPS
St Paul's, Grangetown, Cardiff
Any parish congregation would be overwhelmed by the enormity of the St Paul's in Grangetown and its
associated problems. Built in the early 1880s by Lord Windsor, who also owned Cardiff Docks, much of
the original building is still in place, including the roofs which are now beginning to fail.
On behalf of the Church community, the PCC engaged EPS to assist them with their difficulties. We initially ran a congregation workshop where their hopes for the future and priorities for mission and action were identified. This was followed by a full building condition survey (AMP) which identified that St. Paul's would need over £1 million to be put into good order.
EPS is now undertaking a feasibility study to investigate the options available to the Church community, which include: the potential to develop on site; whether to relocate or to combine two Church communities and raise funds by the redevelopment of one of the sites.
St. Mary's, Almondsbury
Just outside Bristol, in the centre of the village of
Almondsbury, lies the parish church of St. Mary's. It is a
fascinating building, with architecture that tells a story of
change and development through the ages from its
medieval origins to the 20th Century.
The same old story applies though – the church building is not particularly accessible or suited to contemporary needs.
The PCC has been considering how to improve the building for a while and consulted EPS in 2007 about a possible reordering. Not long afterwards the heavy rain of the summer identified an urgent requirement: roofing repairs which are expected to cost in excess of £100,000.
EPS is now helping St. Mary's move forward. We are directing a Community Review to help win support for the church building among the community, and then will move on to the next stage of finding possible options for internal re-ordering.
St. Margaret's, Leicester
Think of a huge medieval building surrounded by a ring road, derelict factories, a College of Further
Education and a dwindling parish population. By the end of the 20th century this was the situation of St
Margaret's in Leicester, a grand building but set in a context that had seen better days. Some were even
questioning whether the church building had a future at all.
However all is not lost. St Margaret's eclectic congregation is committed to keep the worshipping life and keep the church building in good order. Their 'little but often' approach to the essential maintenance and repairs is to be commended. Their commitment is boosted by a recent urban regeneration initiative which will see the construction of large numbers of new homes in the area and the opening up of the river area for recreation and green space.
St. Margaret's has commissioned EPS to investigate the possible uses for St. Margaret's church building to extend and enhance the mission of the Church community. While there was no easy answer or obvious activity to locate in St. Margaret's, the early commissioning of the study has allowed the Church to prepare both themselves and the building for the new opportunities.
