{"content":[{"text":"REPORT OF THE CHURCH BUILDINGS REVIEW GROUP","bbox":{"left":0.182456,"top":0.127141,"width":0.6350229999999999,"height":0.023096000000000005}},{"text":"Summary","bbox":{"left":0.450396,"top":0.165339,"width":0.09924100000000002,"height":0.023096000000000005}},{"text":"This is the first attempt in many years to undertake a review of the Church \n of England’s stewardship of its church buildings. It is timely since the \n Church of England has been reviewing many other aspects of its \n institutional life as part of its Reform and Renewal programme. The aim of \n that programme, to which this report is a contribution, is to enable the \n Church of England to focus more effectively on securing spiritual and \n numerical growth and serving the common good.","bbox":{"left":0.142955,"top":0.203102,"width":0.703373,"height":0.13701999999999998}},{"text":"In Part 1 of this report we have pulled together a wide range of statistics in \n order to assess the present situation. Some 78% of the Church of England’s \n 15,700 churches are listed. Over 57% of churches are in rural areas, where \n only 17% of the population lives. 91% of rural churches are listed, \n compared with 63% in suburban and 55% in urban areas. The Church of \n England is responsible for around 45% of the grade I listed buildings of \n England and almost three-quarters of these are in rural areas.","bbox":{"left":0.142955,"top":0.356217,"width":0.708872,"height":0.13698299999999997}},{"text":"The position varies very considerably from diocese to diocese (see \n paragraphs 27-35) and the main responsibility both for strategic planning \n and developing new initiatives must remain within dioceses. We set out a \n number of recent initiatives (paragraphs 42-45). There can be no one \n Church of England strategy. But there is a need for national reflection on \n the challenges given concerns about current trends (paragraphs 49-56).","bbox":{"left":0.142955,"top":0.509153,"width":0.690844,"height":0.11790800000000001}},{"text":"This needs to start with theology. Part 2 (paragraphs 57-118) explores why \n neither a ‘high view’ of place nor a ‘low view’ will do. It argues that \n ‘churches have a significance much deeper than being just places to meet.’ \n While ‘there is an ongoing need to guard against an idolatrous attitude to \n buildings’ it is a ‘scriptural truth that place is a fundamental category of \n human and spiritual experience.’ As a result our ‘churches …and our great \n cathedrals assist in proclaiming the gospel just by being there.’","bbox":{"left":0.142955,"top":0.643013,"width":0.704218,"height":0.1359410000000001}},{"text":"The primary purpose of churches is and should remain the worship of \n Almighty God, to be houses of prayer. But that can and needs to be \n sensitively combined with service to the community. The imaginative \n adaptation of church buildings for community use in many areas is \n breathing new life into them.","bbox":{"left":0.142955,"top":0.795985,"width":0.6561980000000001,"height":0.0987809999999999}},{"text":"1","bbox":{"left":0.494978,"top":0.922392,"width":0.010079000000000005,"height":0.019013999999999975}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}