St Luke's is the oldest of the three churches in Clifford and has been serving the parish since 1842. We serve the village in a variety of ways, by being available for weddings, baptisms and funerals, as well as putting on events such as carol singing in the Albion, a writing course, and concerts. The churchyard is also a well-loved and frequented part of the village, and the resting place for many local loved ones, as well as being a pleasant place to sit and enjoy the wildlife, trees and flowers which flourish there. We are part of a larger group of five churches and are actively engaged in ecumenical dialogue and collaboration with our local Roman Catholic and Methodist churches through Christians Together, so we are not without friends in other churches, but our current congregation is small, often only in single figures on a Sunday, and so our ability to continue to serve the parish effectively is affected, and the future of the church is in question.

The future of St Luke’s Church
St Luke's is currently operating without any churchwardens, and no treasurer which is not a sustainable position to be in. Similarly we have nobody who can act as site / buildings manager to help oversee the upkeep of the church and churchyard. We have very few active members of the congregation who are involved in the governance of the church by membership of our Parochial Church Council, and our monthly income is struggling to cover our basic costs of lighting, heating, and insurance, let alone the cost of the upkeep of a Grade II listed building or a sizeable churchyard. I am very grateful to all those who currently support St Luke's financially, but if more people felt able to set up a regular payment by Standing Order, we would be able to budget with more confidence. 

But without more people actively involved in the governance and running of the church, additional finances alone cannot secure the viability of St Luke's for the future. Putting it in bald terms, we are in a season of make or break.

The Churchyard
Many people have commented on the magnificent display of wildflowers including orchids and harebells which we had as a result of adopting no-mow May this year. We hope to maintain our commitment to bio-diversity but we do recognise that this year some people have found it hard to access and tend their family graves, a situation which we regret. We found funds to address this in early July, but this used up all the church’s current account funds. Our intention is to cut the front part of the churchyard less often whilst maintaining the area around the more recent graves (including the area where ashes are buried) more frequently in the main growing season. We are also trying to manage the site in an eco-friendly way which means that some areas with older, generally untended, graves are left as managed meadow for only occasional mowing, and this helps spread the cost of maintenance through the year. We cannot currently afford to maintain the churchyard as we would wish, and even this more limited regime is likely to prove beyond our finances this year.

To put this in perspective, even to mow in this limited way costs about £300 a time, whilst tending to the other areas in order to manage it properly could cost up to £900 each time it is attended to. Last year, maintaining the churchyard cost us over £3000 which is unsustainable in the present circumstances.

So St Luke’s is short of two resources: volunteers and money to ensure it remains part of village life.

What can you do?

- attend Sunday worship at 11am and see what we have to offer. We're a friendly bunch!

- consider becoming a churchwarden. You have to be a confirmed member of the Church of England to hold this office.

- consider becoming our treasurer. This role is not limited to confirmed Anglicans,

- consider joining our Parochial Church Council. We meet at 2.30pm on a weekday four times per year, plus an AGM after a Sunday service in May.

- volunteer to help with churchyard maintenance

- strim your own family graves more regularly if our regime is not giving aresult you are happy with (but please do not strim other areas yourself without talking to us first)

- volunteer to help with site management and practical care of the building

- volunteer to clean the church seasonally

- consider making a regular, monthly, financial gift to support the church

If you are interested in being involved in any of these ways and would like to help secure the future of Clifford's oldest church community, please email our priest in charge The Reverend Nick Morgan [email protected]