Historic Grade II listed St Mary’s Church at Charleton is under threat of closure.

The church comes under the Start Bay group of churches which consists of nine rural communities within the South Hams under the Priest-in-Charge the Reverend Mark Neave who explained:

‘’Looking after nine churches is a full-time occupation – and a major change from previous generations where each individual parish would have had its own parish priest or vicar.

‘’This is the way that the Church of England is moving, because of reducing numbers attending our churches, and fewer priests being available.

‘’It inevitably means that my time is stretched across those various communities, giving me less time to deal with the specific needs of each individual parish, or maintain the level of visibility that I would like to have.’’

The Reverend Mark went on to say: ‘’We have now really reached the crunch point, as without some injection of regular funding the church will not be sustainable, and will effectively go bankrupt!

‘’The current difficulties do, in some respects, go back to the lock-down of churches at the beginning of Covid, from which St Mary’s has never really recovered, but in truth, the problems go back much further than that, with the parish service registers showing a small and ageing congregation for several years prior to Covid.’’

The Reverend Mark believes the answer is to transform the way that St Mary’s is used:

‘’Many small rural churches are in a similar position – and often the solution lies in greater involvement of the community – not simply getting the community to support the church financially, but to make the church buildings much more of a shared community space, available for other community uses in addition to its core role as a place of worship.

This is what we want to achieve at St Mary’s.’’

The Reverend Mark believes there is room for optimism:

‘’When we have held special services (such as the recent carol service just before Christmas) and other events (such as coffee mornings) these have been well supported, and many people have expressed their desire for the church to remain open.

‘’The church is still used for occasional weddings, baptisms and funerals, meeting the very real needs of the local community at key points in people’s lives.

‘’And there is also a strong link between the church and the primary school in the village (which is a Church of England Academy), with the school; pupils, staff and parents) coming up to the church for special services at Easter, Christmas and harvest, and also for their end-of-year leaver’s service.

‘’So there is much that would be lost if the church were forced to close.

Church Treasurer Tony Westlake says: ‘’I like the fact that you have got one of the greatest views here of any church.

‘’I think, what were the men that built this like?

‘’You can see right down the Estuary and they believed this was as close to heaven as you could get.”

If you would like to help to save the church, the inaugural meeting of The Friends of St Mary’s is being held on Monday January 29 at The Charleton Inn in West Charleton.

More details from Tony on 01548 531562.