AS a former choirboy and worshipper at St Wulfram’s Church, I was appalled by last week’s front page Save Our Spire story.
In this so-called age of austerity, how dare the local representative of one of the world’s wealthiest organisations ask cash-strapped local people to stump up money they haven’t got, towards the cost of repairing one of its most magnificent if crumbling buildings?
This is an especially audacious demand when the church could fork out the much-needed £600,000 itself with hardly a hiccup to its own vast resources.
Does Canon Christopher Andrews have such little regard for his parishioners of all faiths or a secular lifestyle even that he and his superiors can do such a thing?
I understand the Church of England would fund the whole restoration if St Wulfram’s were to be mothballed and inaccessible to those who wish to worship within its hallowed walls.
How ludicrous! Telling us that if we want to keep the faith we must dig deep in our already empty pockets to do so.
It’s true that there are organisations and individuals in the town, some connected with the church, who could afford to fund the project. That would be up to them.
Maybe even the National Trust could be persuaded to take over the preservation and running of the building.
Or with congregations dwindling alarmingly in most churches nowadays, perhaps the other places of worship in Grantham could be closed and sold off to developers and all services held in St Wulfram’s.
Even then I doubt whether the place would become overcrowded. Amen.
PETER CLAWSON
Riverside Flats, Welham Street
Grantham