On 23rd January 2025, Marsha De Cordova MP, representing the Church Commissioners, gave the following written answers to questions from MPs:
Churches: Music
Stuart Anderson MP (Con, South Shropshire): To ask the Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church is taking to support churches in rural areas engage local communities in music.
Marsha De Cordova MP (Lab, Battersea): Through the Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board, the National Church Institutions are supporting new musical initiatives in churches in the following ways:
• Hympact! is funded in partnership with the Royal School of Church Music, the dioceses of Salisbury and St Albans, to create and publish music and resources, and develop and pilot ‘school to church pathways’. It also includes the development of faith notes for clergy and parish lay staff to use both in schools and churches to explore the theological, religious and spiritual themes of the songs, and to provide a framework within which to engage children and adults in an age-appropriate way on the road to discipleship.
• Choir Church in Blackburn Diocese, seeks to work intensively with eight parishes and schools, planting new local congregations built around children’s choirs which:
a) learn excellent music with the Gospel at the heart;
b) pray and worship together as a congregation of children, parents, teachers, and the wider community;
c) work for social justice using the techniques of community organising, modelling a church which is both of and for the poorest.
The Diocese Investment Programme (DIP) has also recently supported choirs and traditional church music in London and in Southwark dioceses:
In Southwark funding is supporting the establishment of a new junior choir in All Saints Church, Kingston, providing children from all backgrounds with a free first-class musical education. It will:
• involve children in a regular pattern of worship and a supportive church community;
• ensure the future health of the choir;
• bring new families into church, providing excellent opportunities to engage with parents and siblings and encourage them with music education.
In London, the Hackney & Islington Project DIP has funded a music director to support catholic mission & renewal, and support the development of liturgical and sacramental music.
In Portsmouth the Director of Music Dr David Price and his team are working with schools and churches to transform music across the diocese. The cathedral recently welcomed hundreds of school children from Gosport, Fareham, Havant and Portsmouth to a special St Cecilia Evensong and it has partnered with churches such as St Mary’s Fratton, to support the development of a growing and confident choir of children and young people. Portsmouth Cathedral also recently played host to Gabrieli ROAR where 200 young singers from across the diocese joined Portsmouth Grammar School for highly successful choir workshops and ten performances of “A Grand Georgian Christmas”, supported by the Gabrieli Consort.
Churches: Conservation
Sir John Hayes MP (Con, South Holland and the Deepings): To ask the Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church is taking to help ensure the preservation of historic churches in (a) South Holland and the Deepings constituency and (b) Lincolnshire.
Marsha De Cordova: The Church Commissioners and Archbishops’ Council agreed funding of £11 million for 2023-25 in support of Buildings for Mission. £9 million was allocated to dioceses to fund 30 building support officers to give specialist advice, and there was a small works grant fund. More information about the fund can be found here: Church of England announces £9 million to help parishes with repairs and specialist advice | The Church of England(opens in a new tab)
The National Church Institutions has directly funded 14 grants to Anglican churches in Lincolnshire, amounting to £217,000, through its conservation grants programme and allocated Cultural Recovery Funding.
There are also a small number of other national grant-making bodies, such as the National Churches Trust, to which churches can apply for support, as well as a small number of local Lincolnshire charities that give small grants to local churches, and the Church is very grateful for their continued support.
Along with the lead bishops for church buildings, the Bishop of Bristol and Bishop of Ramsbury, I have welcomed the Government’s renewal of the Listed Place of Worship Grant Scheme, which will help many listed churches in Lincolnshire reclaim the cost of VAT on church repairs. The Church Commissioners continue to advocate for the Scheme, and for it to be put on a more long-term footing. Comment on the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme announcement | The Church of England(opens in a new tab)
The National Church Institutions are awaiting the Government’s formal response to the 2017 Taylor Review (The Taylor Review: Sustainability of English Churches and Cathedrals – GOV.UK(opens in a new tab)) into the Sustainability of Church Buildings commissioned by the Department of Culture Media and Sport.
Church Commissioners: Food Banks
Jim Shannon MP (DUP, Strangford): To ask the Member for Battersea, representing the Church Commissioners, what support the Commissioners offered local food banks during the run up to Christmas.
Marsha De Cordova: Church of England churches run or support 35,000 social action projects, including 60% of churches supporting 8,000 food banks with volunteers, donations, venues, or a combination of these. 12,000 churches are involved in the Trussell food bank network overall.
In July 2024, the General Synod voted by 274-1 in favour of a motion that noted the contribution to social welfare being made by churches and others in the provision of food banks, and with concern about the levels of dependence on food banks, called on His Majesty’s Government to review the adequacy of current social security provision. The debate highlighted specific examples from churches across the country in meeting the need for food and other essential goods.
The Church of England in Parliament 
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