The fire that erupted in the Church of the Holy Name in Greenisland, Co. Antrim last Sunday not only ignited the cherished building, but a whole plethora of narratives about the future of parish churches and their Christian communities in a dangerously uncertain world.

The fire, which mainly razed the parish centre adjoining the Church of Ireland building, started in a bin just hours after the congregation had packed up and gone home after a joyous event celebrating the church’s 70^th anniversary. The inferno, which is being treated as arson, destroyed the parish hall and the back roof of the church. Internally the building is heavily water damaged, but was saved from ruin by the quick actions of local firefighters. Thankfully no-one was hurt in the incident.

Investigations in Greenisland are still at a very early stage, but social media commentators were quick to suggest that Sunday’s fire might be just the latest example of an increasing number of ideologically-motivated arson attacks on Christian churches globally. Speculation is also being driven by the dramatic destruction on Monday of the magnificent neo-Gothic Church of the Immaculate Conception in Saint-Omer, northern France. Social media channels were heavy this week with dramatic video footage showing the steeple and tower of the renowned 19^th century church being engulfed in flames and then collapsing.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin expressed his solidarity with the Catholic community and confirmed that an investigation has been launched to determine the cause of the fire, which it is believed by started by in the sacristy where “traces of a break-in” were found. A 39 year old suspect with “a long history” of similar arson offences has been arrested.

Whilst there is no disputing that fires and other attacks against churches have been on the increase across Europe, and in France in particular, there is little serious evidence to suggest that this is part of any co-ordinated or focussed campaign against Christian edifices and in particular there’s no justification for the widespread social media speculation that anti-Christian hatred is the underlying cause of the problem. In fact in most cases, burglary seems to have been the main motive, and the target was a church simply because it represented a low-security, unoccupied premises.

Given that we are moving through very uncertain and divisive times, it’s extremely foolhardy of social media commentators to promulgate a narrative of Christian churches being under attack from religious extremists, especially when most have been critically important places of refuge and dialogue for those who have been marginalised or excluded from mainstream society.

Whilst the loss of any church building, especially one that has a significant history, is an irreplaceable loss, it’s worth pointing out that parishes are far more than bricks and mortar. As the Church of Ireland Bishop of Connor, the Rev George Davison, said after Sunday’s Co. Antrim fire: “The Church of the Holy Name is not a damaged building, it is the amazing group of people that I met there this afternoon and who stood together this evening and cried and hugged each other and resolved to keep on worshipping and serving Jesus in Greenisland.”

Within hours of the news of the effects of the fire becoming known, neighbouring faith communities began fundraising and offering support to the devastated parishioners and there is hope that the Greenisland church can be repaired, and a new parish centre built on the ashes of the old. A GoFundMe page had already raised about half of its target within just the first half-day of it being set up, garnering roughly £4,500, with an ultimate target of £10,000.

No doubt this determined group of people will get their church restored and once again enjoy a community space where companionship and wider outreach can take place, but a key discussion with architects, pastoral planners and the Church establishment will undoubtedly be about what the parish is likely to need to function and evangelise in the years ahead. In particular this will need to be mapped out carefully and innovatively in a world that is changing rapidly, and not necessarily for the better as far as those of us of faith are concerned.

When one looks at the broader picture of the state of UK churches generally, this is a challenging debate that is going to fall on most parishes sooner or later, quite apart from random events of arson and desecration. If one takes just Church of England buildings, many are now at serious structural risk and it is estimated that more than £1billion will need to be found over the next five years to fund repairs to its 16,000 parish churches and this has to be funded directly by the congregations themselves, with no support from central church authorities.

Of course it is not just the challenge of maintaining the historic, physical fabric of church buildings that is presenting an unprecedented challenge to parishes of all denominations across England & Wales; in this new world of global climate concerns there are significant additional costs in driving buildings towards divestment from fossil fuels and Net Zero 2030.

This is particularly challenging for historic church buildings as environmental and energy use considerations were far from the minds of the Gothic architects who strove for imposing cavernous spaces and seamlessly open plan meeting areas. It’s a salutary reality that, apart from modernising heating systems and applying specialist glazing, there really is very little you can do to make many older churches comply with modern eco-demands, especially when they are buildings mostly only in occasional use.

Understandably many dioceses are now looking with a far more critical eye at the church buildings in their care. Whilst the loss of a cherished church and parish centre can have traumatic and long-lasting consequences, this has to be balanced with the stark reality that in many cases the sum of weekly income does not cover weekly running costs, let alone the capital cost of often substantive repairs.

It may be a retort that falls uncomfortably on the ears of parishioners but – put simply – if the generosity of our forefathers built a church, then the generosity of their descendants will be needed to maintain it. Sadly, the general low level of weekly church collections across the country aren’t giving any particular indication that this message has got through, and this needs to happen urgently if we are to save some of our most important and historic – and especially more parochial – churches.

In contrast to this doom and gloom, it’s also vitally important to underscore the importance of the role that churches play in contributing to the common good of society. On 12th September 2023, Andrew Selous MP, representing the Church Commissioners and quoting a 2021 National Churches Trust report, pointed out to parliament that “the annual social and economic value of church buildings to the UK is worth around £55 billion. This sum, calculated using the latest HM Treasury Green Book guidance, includes the contribution churches make to wellbeing and to local economies.”

The House of God report also demonstrated that the total economic and social value that church buildings generate in the UK is at least £12.4 billion per year which averages around £300,000 per church.

“That is roughly equal to the total NHS spending on mental health in England in 2018,” said the report.

The reference to mental health was pointed, flagging up that our churches not only act as places of worship and community for their parishioners, but they have a far greater purpose in terms of their wider outreach as focal and meeting points for many different community organisations and groups, including youth clubs, food banks, school care and credit unions, drug and alcohol support groups and mental health and counselling services.

There are currently more than 900 churches of all denominations on Historic England’s ‘Heritage at Risk Register’, with many more in a perilous state across Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. And that’s before you include those churches that may be structurally sound, but are ‘at risk’ because they have ceased to be economically sustainable. In all cases church authorities do their best to garner grants and support from sympathetic agencies such as the National Lottery Heritage Fund and other benevolent charities with a church support provision but without core, regular financial input from parishioners a very significant number of Christian church buildings across the UK are sadly now living on very borrowed time. As a consequence, so too are the diverse comminities of people who gather in them, and rely on them for support and wellbieng.

If we can’t remedy this disparity soon, the damage to the Christian – and far wider – landscape of the UK may be much more significant and permanent than anything that is being attempted by the current spate of random arsonists and occasional anti-Christian idealogues.

Joseph Kelly is a Catholic writer and theologian

Photo: courtesy Church of Ireland Church of the Holy Name, Greenisland, Co. Antrim