Church reordering

The impressive Lincoln College Library in Oxford (formerly the city's baroque church of All Saints), the spacious OAP's Day Centre contained within the shell of York's Church of St Sampson, and the world-famous music performance space at St John's, Smith Square in Westminster, are all English exemplars which pre-date the reordering movement.

In 1977, London's Victoria and Albert Museum mounted a major exhibition entitled 'Change or Decay', curated by its then Director Sir Roy Strong.

An accompanying book, by Marcus Binney (co-founder of the conservation pressure group Save Britain's Heritage) and the architect Peter Burnham, illustrated the plight of many of these threatened church buildings, in an era when attrition was severe.

In general, the Roman Catholic hierarchy is opposed to 'mixed-use' conversions, preferring to see its under-used consecrated buildings closed rather than becoming involved with non-worship activities.

[4] Richard Giles' Re-pitching the tent is now widely regarded as the definitive guide to reordering, while the American historian Katherine French's study of community life in medieval England (The People of the Parish) reveals that activities other than conventional worship would frequently be encountered in many town churches.

One of the most successful church reordering schemes in England is the award-winning conversion of All Saints in the West Midlands cathedral city of Hereford, completed in 1999 and designed by local architect Rod Robinson.

An indication of the success of this radical reordering scheme, which cost £1.7M, is that around 2,000 people pass through Café @ All Saints every week, and church worship attendances have quadrupled.

A dedicated team within the Diocese Office has overseen or advised on 40 church reordering exercises, several of which have won national architectural awards.