HOLY INNOCENTS’ CHURCH SPIRE AND TOWER

People of Adisham have had regular updates in this Newsheet and elsewhere on the exciting modernisation plans for Holy Innocents’, and the related fund-raising led by The Friends of Adisham Church.  Possibly less well-known is that in parallel the PCC has been pursuing a completely separate - but complementary – campaign to enable vital building repairs to the spire and tower of Holy Innocents’.  These repairs are needed not only to make the Church weatherproof but also to ensure a secure building for the modernisation to proceed.

As background, if you’ve ventured into the spire (see Martin Taylor if you think you’ve enough bottle to climb the ladder) you’ll have been struck by the awe-inspiring glow that greets you.  Though maybe not inappropriate for a holy building, this glow unfortunately does not reflect any divine presence.  Rather, it’s light coming through due to loss of shingles through weathering and – particularly – bird damage.  People who know their Bible will be aware that  “the birds of the air ... do not sow, neither do they reap or gather into barns”.  From the collected bird debris in our spire, it seems that Adisham birds have not read St Matthew 6:26!

I’m very pleased to report that - through various grants and loans - we have now raised just over £50,000 to enable the spire and tower repairs to go ahead.  We are particularly grateful for grants from Viridor Credits, Friends of Kent Churches, Marshalls Charity and All Churches Trust Limited.  Those of you with long memories may remember that the spire was re-shingled in 1959.  Jim Colthup, our friend and former Churchwarden, dropped me a note to say his records reveal that this cost the princely sum of £149 and 10 shillings!  I suspect there is another biblical reference dealing with inflation in church repairs ... I’ll let you know when I find it.

Finally, it’s worth just a mention that the funds have been achieved without requesting any financial contributions from the village.  This is because we didn’t want to interfere with the fund-raising efforts of The Friends.  Given the positive benefit of the modernisation for the whole community, the PCC felt that, on this occasion, the people of Adisham might wish to preferentially support that campaign.  So if you’ve not given or pledged already to The Friends .... you know what to do .....

David Rance; PCC Secretary.