§ THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY rose to move to resolve, That in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the New Housing Areas (Church Buildings) Measure, 1954, be presented to Her Majesty for the Royal Assent. The most reverend Primate said: My Lords, this Measure, again, deals with one quite clear and simple point. The primary purpose and trust of the Church Commissioners is defined as to make additional provision for the cure of souls in parishes where such assistance is most required. Assistance is nowhere more urgently required than in the great new towns that are springing up and in countless new housing areas where there is no provision for any spiritual services. The Church must be there as soon as the people begin to arrive there, so that from the start they may build up a true community spirit round the Church and round the Christian faith. And the Church, being there, must have a priest there, and a plant. By "plant" I mean some place where he can gather his people together both for worship and for social life. The Church meets this need generally by erecting what is called a dual purpose building, one which can be used for worship and also for all the social activities which gather round the church.
§ I need not argue the importance of this ministration to these vast new towns and communities. Some dioceses, especially those receiving the overspill from London itself—St.Albans, Chelmsford and others—are faced with an almost overwhelming problem. The Church Commissioners could well claim that grants for building in such areas were just as much "provision for the cure of souls" as grants for living agents. In the main, however, throughout their history, the Church Commissioners have confined their grants to living agents instead of spending on bricks and mortar, and when they have wanted to depart from that principle have sought special authorisation for the providing of plant. It was for that reason 30 that it was the express desire of the Church Assembly that action should be taken in this matter. The Measure enables the Church Commissioners to make a loan or grant for church buildings of any sort and for acquiring sites where, since the war, or in the three years before the war began, a new population of considerable size has come into existence, with no provision for any Church ministrations. That is the whole purpose of the Bill. It settles that, in using their money for this purpose, the Church Commissioners are not going beyond their trust to use it for the cure of souls. The Ecclesiastical Committee approves. I beg to move.
§ Moved to resolve, That in accordance with the Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act, 1919, this House do direct that the new Housing Areas (Church Buildings) Measure, 1954, be presented to Her Majesty for the Royal Assent.—(The Lord Archbishop of Canterbury.)
§ 4.0 p.m.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHMy Lords, I am grateful to the most reverend Primate for the clear exposition he has given not only of the previous Measure but also of the one now before us. I have one or two things to say about it which art not in any sense Party comment. They do not necessarily represent the views of the Opposition, but are merely comments which I myself would make as an individual Member of your Lordships' House. There can be no doubt that the action which the Church is taking in this matter is necessary, but one is bound to take the only opportunity offered on such an occasion as this of drawing attention to one or two dangers.
As your Lordships know, I have been interested in one particular reorganisation area, in which I found myself in disagreement with the measures proposed, and followed it through up to the point of giving evidence before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. I am only asking the most reverend Primate that the Church Commissioners, in dealing with the administration of this Measure, should keep in mind what is going on in other places, and should spend money economically. In the particular issue at Bristol, after the reorganisation area had been formed, and steps proposed for the disposal of the premises—largely, of coarse, it: the interest of 31 ensuring that the proper cure of souls was provided for in new and growing areas—one has found that all the plans upon which work has been done have been largely amended or changed under the local authority's planning arrangements: the population is to be kept much more apart from the reorganisation area than was originally proposed.
You may be in danger of having gone to the point of destroying churches—I will not say the parish organisation, because that is usually provided for in some other way, but the actual premises and facilities—only to find that the area is now to be treated differently, possibly by the erection of nine-, ten- or fifteen-storey flats, or that the transfer of population from the reorganisation area to the new church area is very much delayed by the measures proposed (the merits of which I do not discuss) of keeping houses in repair by means of Government grants. Therefore, whilst I want the most reverend Primate to know that I am not in any way against the principle of this Measure, from actual experience in watching cases through the reorganisation areas which have been set up I think it may be creating a new problem, unless these points are carefully observed.
THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURYMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Viscount, Lord Alexander of Hillsborough, for speaking, but I am not quite sure whether he is speaking on this Measure or the one I am coming to in a minute, the Reorganisation Areas Measure.
§ VISCOUNT ALEXANDER OF HILLSBOROUGHIf the most reverend Primate pleases, it is both.
THE LORD ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURYI rather thought so, because, in the Measure with which I am now dealing, the kind of complication mentioned by the noble Viscount does not arise. We are dealing here with a straight case, where a population of 50,000 is being provided for and built for. Stevenage is one example—there are many others. We want to put up these buildings. The noble Viscount is anxious about whether the money will be spent wisely. I need only add that, in administering this money, the Church Commissioners ask that 50 per cent. of the cost 32 shall come from the diocese. They first have to find a diocese ready to spend 50 per cent. before a grant is made, and that ensures their watching carefully what they are doing.
§ On Question, Motion agreed to, and ordered accordingly.