Vicar's fight to keep church open
THE priest-in-charge of Newstead St Mary's Church has told of her battle to keep it open.
The Rev Liz Turner-Loisel attended a meeting of Newstead Parish Council to scotch rumours that the Musters Road church is to close.
But she conceded that she had faced an uphill struggle since she first took over the church in April 2004.
She found that only six people were attending a midweek service and only eight on Sunday evenings, including worshippers from Annesley to boost the congregation.
There were no churchwardens, no secretary and a treasurer Jack Amott, who is now 82.
Mrs Turner-Loisel said she and her husband, Philippe, ran the church on their own for a year and resisted calls to shut it down.
A revival has been achieved because the traditional Sunday communion service was replaced by an all-age service once a month, led by a musical group..
Between 30 and 35 Newstead people of different generations regularly attend the service, which has proved so popular that it has been extended to two Sundays a month.
Philippe has taken on the position of churchwarden, along with Pat Staton, but the church stlll has no secretary.
Mrs Turner-Loisel went on to tell of the time she knelt in the vestry and her knees went through the floorboards because of rot under the carpet.
It was also noticed that the organ was sinking into the floor and damp was causing paint on the walls to flake off.
Repairs to the church over the next five years will cost at least 20,000, although a donation of 5,000 has been received towards this amount.
Mrs Turner-Loisel mentioned that a garden project for the churchyard, previously highlighted by the Dispatch, had also helped towards a sense of regrowth.
"There are positive signs but also signs giving real cause for concern," she said. "I will fight tooth and nail to stop the church closing but we need people to help us.
"No matter how much goodwill there is, we can't meet our challenges with skeleton numbers."
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Weather for Hucknall
Wednesday 23 May 2012
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