Redundant Churches Fund

HC Deb 04 March 1991 vol 187 c14

31. Mr. John Marshall

To ask the right hon. Member for Selby, representing the Church Commissioners, what is the budget of the redundant churches fund.

Mr. Alison

The maximum budget for the five years beginning on 1 April 1989 is £12.4 million.

Mr. Marshall

Does my right hon. Friend agree that the number of redundant and half-empty churches underlines the need for a more positive message to come from the Church in the 1990s than we heard in the 1980s?

Mr. Alison

I hope that the leadership of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the decade of evangelism, and the striking growth in independent, charismatic, Pentecostal and Afro-Asian churches will register a significant growth in the next 10 years.