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From left, the Bishop of London Richard John Carew Chartres, Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson, Father Nicholas Wheeler and English Heritage chief executive Simon Thurley |
‘Underclass need church to survive’
A PRIEST believes his church has become a last refuge for a desperate underclass of people who are being ignored by both the council and the government.
Father Nicholas Wheeler said that while many see his neighbourhood as a symbol of ‘Cool Britannia’, large groups of people are being marginalised.
He said his church, St Michael’s in Camden Road, is a sanctuary which offers a vital community service for people such as the homeless, pensioners and refugees.
“We quickly realised the church’s gift to the community, in the midst of a place where you frequently struggle to breathe, is the space,” said Father Nicholas.
He proudly celebrated the fact that St Michael’s was one of the only places left in Camden Town not to be covered by the watchful eye of CCTV.
And Father Nicholas criticised the council and the government for not doing more to financially support churches struggling to keep their doors open in the face of mounting repair bills for their crumbling buildings.
He said this amounted to government neglect of the needs of the underprivileged in society.
Father Nicholas added: “Despite its ‘Cool Britannia’ reputation, Camden Town is awash with some of society’s most acute problems and, although the government does its best to sweep them out of sight, the social challenges of Camden Town remain as real today as they always have.”
Father Nicholas was speaking to an audience of MPs and peers – including Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson – who visited St Michael’s on Tuesday as part of a whistlestop tour of three churches in the borough. The tour was organised by the buildings conservation body English Heritage, who launched a campaign this week for greater investment from the government in churches.
But Father Nicholas used the opportunity to appeal for a change in attitudes towards the relevance of churches in a modern, inner-city setting.
He said: “This local authority (Camden) struggles to understand faith communities and and how to include a space like this in a strategic plan for a particular area.”
He criticised the council for “hindering” fundraising attempts, and said the lengths he had resorted to in the drive to bolster church coffers were questionable.
Last year Father Nicholas’s deputy, Father Malcolm Hunter, spent 10 days in a rooftop vigil.
Father Nicholas said: “It’s heroic and funny but is that really what priests ought to be doing to raise money for buildings like this?
“This is not the home of the blue-rinse brigade. This is not the kind of community where cake stalls will raise money for the kind of tasks we face. We need to raise an estimated £4 million.”
St Michael’s was nearly converted into luxury flats before Father Nicholas arrived 11 years ago. Plans to sell it to Sainsbury’s – where it would have been transformed into the supermarket’s entrance – were also mulled over by church leaders, he revealed.
Following Father Malcolm’s roof-top stunt, which raised £100,000, English Heritage offered the church another £0.5 million. Repair work to the crumbling roof started in January. |
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