No Sunday Mass for 3 years

Sorry, but if you are a member of the Parish of St Winefride in Aberystwyth, Welsh gateway to the North, it looks as if you will just have to go without a Sunday Mass until some time in 2016, or possibly, 2015 if providence smiles on you.

The Bishop of Menevia, Thomas Burns, has closed the parish church deeming it unsafe and unsound.

As far as I can ascertain, from speaking to a leading parishioner, no information has been imparted to them other than the fact that the church is closed as of last Sunday.

No more Masses and, apparently, no Diocesan contingency plan.

No pastoral guidance to parishioners as to how and where they may fulfil their Sunday obligation and attend Holy Mass.
Nothing. Zilch. Dim.

The poor parish priest has been confined to barracks in Swansea some 70 or so miles distant and he is only allowed to be in Aber on Sundays, but no one knows if there will be a Mass in a hall, a community centre or under a hedge somewhere.

With the best will in the world that appears to me as being pretty dismal leadership.

Bluster and threat and asking parishioners to tell those opposing the new church to politely back down smacks of insecurity and incompetency.

Certainly, it is not Christ like behaviour.

Say a prayer please for the Bishop and his priests and the outcast parishioners of St Winefride's.

That time of year thou may'st in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold;
Bare ruin'd choirs where late the sweet birds sang.

Paris comes to Aberystwyth

In a move reminiscent of Paris in the 90s when traditional French Catholics 'took over' a well known church to stage a six week sit in, parishioners of St Winefride's have occupied their parish church in an attempt to block the Bishop from proceeding with plans to demolish and rebuild.

This protest is only designed to last until the Feast of All Souls but, according to BBC reports, the protestors are also considering taking their cause direct to Rome.

Bishop Burns, meanwhile, has appealed for prayer in an attempt to resolve this issue.
Trouble is, it looks very much as if someone has been a shade terminologically inexact and that these plans to demolish and rebuild out of town, have been on the agenda for a long time and, if that is true, then any subsequent process of consultation with parishioners has been a sham and a cynical exercise.

Battle of Aberystwyth round three

     This note is from those who oppose the Bishop's plans to demolish, develop and re-build                        

                        WHY SHOULD WE SAVE ST WINEFRIDES?


If planning consent is given to demolish St Winefride’s and property development goes ahead on the Queen’s Road site, the parish will have lost a historic and valuable asset. The love and sacrifice lavished by generations past on St Winefride’s will be gone and lost for ever to future generations.

Arguments against demolition and relocation of Catholic community to an out of town site:

 Plans for a church, presbytery and hall can be realised on the Queen’s Rd site. The church was registered at the Land Registry on 29 April, 2005, preparing it for sale a long time before any ‘consultation’ with the parish had been undertaken. This is proof that the diocese of Menevia has, from the beginning, pursued one option only and have never entered into a meaningful dialogue with parishioners. Ref. to parish priest’s letter of resignation.

 An independent survey shows a feasible, affordable option to refurbish the Church at the Queen’s Road site, for far less than the £2.6 million quoted on the plan sent to the parish by Menevia diocese..On the application to Ceredigion Planning, October 2012, the cost is quoted as ‘cost likely to exceed £2 million’ also ‘project (of new build) likely to be neutral . This vague representation of costs does not inspire confidence.

 Parishioners have not seen a report by insurers, nor is there evidence that the building has been surveyed by the insurance company. In September 2012, Ceredigion Council Buildings Officer confirmed that the church poses no health and safety risks Why does the amended application state that St Winefride’s church will remain open for 18 months if planning permission is granted?

 Location, location…Irrespective of how new a building, nor how modern the design, it will inevitably become a white elephant if not accessible to the community. The church location on the Queen’s Road site is central to the community, convenient for public transport links, relatively near to the University and the hospital, and easy for visitors to Aberystwyth to find. It is also a short and convenient walk for parishioners to the town from the church. St Winefride’s is not just a building it is central to the Catholic community in Aberystwyth.

 Development for the 21st century would include environmental arguments against demolition. Demolition of old buildings is hugely environmentally damaging, as well as costly. Demolition would create a situation whereby people are dependent on cars or minibuses to attend church mass; the diocesan plans take no account of the cost to the environment and rising fuel-costs. Furthermore, plans to lay on a mini-bus are not practical as those parishioners who are elderly and disabled will still need to get to the pick-up point.

 Space behind the Queen’s Road site is earmarked by the Council for parking. A local business has also approached the diocese to help solve the parking issue by offering to develop a parking area.

Write to oppose the demolition of St Winefride’s and redevelopment of the Queen’s Road site . Letters should arrive before 2 November, 2012.
Planning Application A120276
Mr Owain Davies, Planning Officer,
Neuadd Cyngor Ceredigion, Penmorfa, Aberaeron SA46 OPA

At present I am not able to receive comments in my combox, they are being forwarded to me as emails.
I hope to resolve this issue shortly but feel, in the interests of fairplay that, as I have received the following comment I should publish it:

Those who are  infirm are unable to get into this church as there is no disabled access, and as this is a mainly rural parish ( Aberystwyth parish encompasses many villages ).The vast majority of the rest of us drive to church, giving lifts to those who need it, so the position of the church buildings is hardly crucial ! The church gets bitterly cold in the Winter - not good for old or infirm - and there are no toilets either. Vast sums of money have kept the church open thus far - starting when the building was only 50 years old, and we just can't afford it any more. 

Sue Smith

And another comment from one (Dixit Dominus) who is for the status quo:-

One crucial point that seems to be overlooked is that if / when the church moves to Penparcau it will spell the end for daily Mass and informal visits to worship the Blessed Sacrament.  It will not be possible to leave the church open during the day because of the certainty of vandalism in this most run down part of Aberystwyth. Also the church is so far away from the university , offices and everything else that people will not be able to pop in for 5 minutes during their busy days as they do now.  Many of the people who are in favour of this project are 'Sunday Catholics' ; we never see them any other time so maybe this isn't important to them compared to better heating and toilets.

A Priest stands up to his Bishop

More on the Aberystwyth Church of St Winefride, the one that the Bishop of Menevia, Thomas Burns, is keen to demolish so that the land may be sold for big money.
To be fair to the Bishop, he plans to spend £2.6 million on providing a new church, trouble is, it's well out of town and that does not appear to be so sensible.

But, the newly appointed Parish Priest, Fr Neil Evans, is having none of it.

He has resigned from his post on the Bishop's board of trustees.

Here is how The Cambrian News reported the matter:-




A CATHOLIC priest has resigned from the diocese board of trustees just days after taking command at St Winefride’s Church in Aberystwyth, writes Antony Gedge.
Father Neil Evans stood down as a Diocese of Menevia trustee because he opposes controversial plans to demolish the church, replace it with a housing development and build a new church in Penparcau.
It was also revealed this week that Father Neil has been homeless since taking over at St Winefride’s because the presbytery used by outgoing priest Father Ross Patterson has now been closed on health and safety grounds.
Church bosses say insurers won’t allow it to be occupied. And it is feared that the church will close at the end of the month for the same reason.
Church bosses say the buildings are too costly to repair but objectors have produced a surveyor’s report which suggests they can be easily repaired.In a letter sent to Bishop Tom Burns and copied for parishioners, Father Neil launched a scathing criticism of how the church authority has dismissed the possibility of renovating the church.
He said: “As you know, I have been unhappy about the failure of the trustees to adequately address, with conviction and resolution, other possible solutions to the problems facing us in Aberystwyth. Unfortunately the perception exists that the trustees have from the beginning pursued with conviction and resolution only the last option.
“Of course, it may well be that, in the end, this last option proves to be the only option left to us (even if not the best option), and so there will be no choice but to knock down the present church and presbytery and build new in Penparcau.

Fr Neil is a humble and holy man and also, obviously, a brave one. It takes real courage to face up to Bishop Burns. Please remember him (and the Bishop) in your prayers.

NB The full text of Fr Neil's letter will be posted tomorrow, Saturday 20th October.....here!

St Winefride's closure - the fight goes on

It's not often that you will see me featuring extracts from reportage in The T****t on this blog but they have commented on the struggle between Bishop Burns of Menevia and parishioners of St Winefride's Church in Aberystwyth.

In short, Bishop wishes to sell off this rather traditional church to property developers and build a new one some 1.5 miles out of town. I am told that only 8 or so parishioners are in favour of this plan, the rest, are firmly opposed.

Here is The Tablet's take on things:-

The Bishop of Menevia has hit back at complaints that a diocesan decision to demolish a parish church in Aberystwyth will injure the town's Catholic population.

Parishioners have lobbied Aberystwyth Town Council to oppose the demolition of Our Lady of the Angels and St Winefride's Church and have written to the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols.

But Bishop Tom Burns has told The Tablet that the building, which is still in use, is in such a state of disrepair that it is a danger to churchgoers and that the estimated cost of repair work would leave the parish with a debt in excess of £1m. The bishop said that the sale of the existing site would completely finance the construction of a new church, presbytery and hall on a different site in a neighbouring town.

Pithy, wouldn't you say?

The Victorian Society (I imagine gents in spats and toppers with heavy beards) is a little more wordy and it is interesting that they see something in this consecrated building that many others have overlooked:-

"The Victorian Society is concerned to hear that an application has been made for planning permission to demolish the Roman Catholic church of Our Lady of the Angels and St Winefride in Aberystwyth.

The church of Our Lady and St Winefride is handsome without ostentation, solidly built in local stone with a polychromatic slate roof. It is picturesquely matched to the next-door church house, the two buildings together making a dignified and high-quality contribution to the streetscape. Inside, the church features fine fixtures: a carved stone reredos by Boulton of Cheltenham, a stone pulpit and a drum font, in addition to stained glass.

Quite apart from its aesthetic merits, this church is of historical significance as (we understand) the first Catholic church built in Ceredigion since the Reformation. It also represents an important phase in the development of Aberystwyth, built as part of the town’s expansion as a seaside resort in the late nineteenth century. Its demolition would be a sad blow to Aberystwyth’s Victorian heritage.

That the church has not been accepted for listing by CADW is not an argument for its demolition. The criteria for listing are rigorous, intended to sift the very best examples of particular building types, and applied especially strictly to buildings erected after 1840. We would not try to claim that this church is one of the very finest in Wales; nevertheless, we have no hesitation in declaring it to be one of the finer buildings in Aberystwyth. It was built with a craftsmanship, and of materials, that one would be unlikely to meet with today; we find it difficult to believe that the housing development proposed to replace it will be of comparable quality. A new use can and should be found for this fine building. The application to demolish it should be refused".

I think that the Victorians put it rather well, don't you? As to the bit about "a new use" well, it could become a match for New Brighton in neighbouring Shrewsbury Diocese....but, I wouldn't count on it.

Would you destroy this church?

                  Not a bad looking church, some remedial work needed

Photo: The Laitytude Blog

Bishop Burns of Menevia is at the centre of yet another controversy (see links at end of post).

He wishes to sell off an old church in the seaside town of Aberystwyth and build a sparkly new one.

So what? Good for Bishop Burns you might say, others....well.

You see, the new church will be built (if the good Bishop has his way) at a place called Penparcau and that, my dear friends is further than you can throw a druid, from the town centre. Quite a bit further, some 1.5 miles further in fact.

So what, one might ask, will happen to the old and the infirm, the elderly and the lame?

The Bishop says they can get a bus as he will organise services around the bus timetables but, as anyone with any knowledge of Wales knows only too well, rural buses on a Sunday are as rare as an EF Mass - and that means, pretty rare!

Again, Bishop Burns flags up the Health and Safety aspect of continuing to use the old church, plus the fact that it will cost £2.6 million to do it up.

Really?.......run that past me again my Lord.......2.6 million pounds? my builder Mike would do the job for a couple of thousand and, (I state this with no knowledge of the building other than reports received from those who should know and from observing the pics plus a little knowledge of renovation costs) a larger building company would, I am pretty certain, do a complete renovation for circa 200k.

What is it? A new roof, yes, a bit of structural reinforcing? yes, re-wiring and a new heating system? OK and then a coat of paint - job done!

Of course, there is the issue of the site of the present church, St Winefride's, being a high value bit of real estate....but don't let's go there....yet.

An overriding sadness regarding this issue is that there seems to be a split between those who want to stay and those who wish to go. I have no knowledge of how many there are in either faction; in a way, it doesn't matter.
The main issue is, to ensure that the old and the infirm etc., are still able to attend Sunday Mass as normal.

But the Bishop is reported by the BBC as stating that those who are for the move should get the others to pack it in. That would seem to be more than a tad divisive.

Here is how the Beeb reported on the matter - it's transcript so please bear with the format:


In a pastoral message, Bishop Burns, who is based in Swansea, said the church was not fit for purpose and could be closed on health and safety grounds.
Plans are to demolish St Winefride's and sell the land for housing.

"Tell the protesters politely to back off. Speak to them, or write to them”

 Quoted Bishop Thomas Burns.

In a message to parishioners Bishop Burns said a small number of objectors had already contributed to the project's heavy costs of £100,000.

He said: "My dear people, the above tactics that the protesters have used, including petitions and submissions to their local councillors, have brought us to a serious moment.
"Throughout these last few years, the structure of St Winefride's church has continued to weaken. It is in such a bad state that our insurers can no longer provide suitable cover for the deteriorating walls and roof if they should collapse.
"I am increasingly concerned about health and safety matters. Masonry and other bits and pieces have been coming down. I may soon have to make a decision about closing the church, to prevent risks to life and limb."
The church site in Queen's Road, which includes a dilapidated parish hall and presbytery, would cost the diocese more than £2.6m renovate, added the bishop.

But objectors claimed they had been shown no evidence the church was structurally unsound.
Appealing to his parishioners, Bishop Burns added: "Tell the protesters politely to back off. Speak to them, or write to them.
"You know who they are, and you also know that they do not represent your parish. They have contributed to the heavy costs that have already been incurred, amounting to over £100,000.
"Please tell them that enough is enough. They risk leaving Aberystwyth with no Catholic parish church at all."

Objectors said moving the church out of the town centre to Penparcau would make it difficult for older members of the congregation to attend services.

But the bishop said church services would be tailored to bus schedules, where possible.
An objector to plans for St Winefride's, who wished to remain anonymous, said: "The old church (St Winefride's), which has been there since the 1870s, is planned to be demolished because they say it's not fit for purpose. Some parishioners go along with this and others do not.
"We don't want the church to move out of the town centre."
The objector also questioned whether the church was structurally unsound although agreed it was in need of repair.


I don't think that saying "Tell them to politely back off, is a very good thing to say in the circumstances.

And to follow it through with a threat to the effect that the whole issue might end in no parish church whatsoever for Aberystwyth is just plain nonsense.

Aberystwyth is a fine seaside town with a resident population of c. 13,500 souls, a number that dramatically swells with the University students that live in the town, to around 21,500.

If you estimate the Catholic population (based very roughly on the information available online) as being a 5% average for England and Wales, that leaves Aberystwyth with some 1075 Catholics, not a bad sized parish for a Welsh rural town.

So, to talk of leaving them stranded without a church.....well, what do you think?

And, as far as arranging Mass times around the bus schedules I leave you with an extract from an online guide to the town:


Buses in Aberystwyth are a shambles: local operators change routes and times every few months with little or no notice. Even basic passenger information is lacking at bus stops. Taxi, walking or private car is usually less troublesome.

So, the best of British with that one, Bishop.



Links of interest:

* Traditionalists linked to paedophilia HERE
* British Government fails to provide for the troops HERE