What does the future hold for churches in England? Oxford alone has more than 550 churches, and most are in rural villages where congregations are smaller, older and needier for resources to keep their buildings fit for purpose. The upkeep must already cost millions of pounds.  Adapting them for the future will cost more. If we allowed the churches to crumble into ruins what would we lose?
Some say the damage would be very little because churches are so “yesterday”. But maybe that’s precisely part of their importance because these buildings provide links to our past as we race into the future in such a rapidly changing world. As well as a heritage centre, they are also a community asset and obviously a place of worship.
Basil Eastwood, chairman of the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust, says: “Use it for church or community or lose it. What would your village be like without a church? I love to go ‘church crawling’ as John Betjeman described it, and explore how churches fit into the local history; and I have a feeling of shared disgrace when I see a church in a state of dilapidation.”
He and the Bishop of Dorchester, Colin Fletcher, are spending tomorrow on bicycles ‘Striding and Riding’ for six hours visiting churches around Wantage and Uffington to raise sponsorship funds for grants to improve the churches. The money is needed because according to Bishop Colin: “We are currently seeing the greatest alterations to our churches since the late nineteenth century.”
What kind of changes? Well take St Mary the Virgin in Kirtlington. The dark Victorian pews were of poor quality, uncomfortable and riddled with woodworm. The red and black floor tiles were crumbling and worms had colonised them. 
The church was not connected to the mains and water for coffee had to be carried in by hand.
In 1994 a parishioner left a legacy of £60,000 suggesting it be spent on a toilet. Who could be opposed to a toilet? This ‘revamp’ escalated to building a large two story extension to the Grade 11 listed church with a kitchen and other facilities. After years of debate the Parochial Church Council agreed to the plans by a knife-edge vote. Two members immediately resigned and within a week a petition against the extension had 200 signatures. The Archdeacon said the scheme was divisive and vetoed it ensuring the £8,000 spent on the plans went down the drain. There are no politics like church politics.
Ten years later a new sub-committee was instructed to reconsider the changes at a time when the old boiler was acting up.
Margaret Forey, then church warden, caught the tenor of the times. “If we’d been a factory, we wouldn’t have been allowed to operate in those conditions. The flower arrangers used to work for an hour or so and then, seriously frozen, would have to go home and get hot drinks and huddle by fires just to warm up.”
The church is now bright and beautiful with toilets, a kitchen and removable chairs instead of pews after a project costing £305,088 that included an extra £5,000 for an archaeologist because digging work disturbed 36 complete skeletons.
The gamble paid off opening up a more comfortable, accessible and welcoming building for wider community use including Pilates classes and helped the church and the village become better partners.
Through determination and vision and attention to detail the benefits expanded. Local musicians were asked to give advice on the number and location of power points for future concerts. So double sockets were installed by all four pillars at the same time the underfloor heating was installed. 
This ‘reordering’ of Oxfordshire churches is going on all over the county.
The transformation of one village church was captured by the treasurer of St John the Evangelist in Fernham, Neil Sutherland, “It has been given a new life. Prior to the conversion it was half a story as it was just a church with the ability to run one or two minor village events; now it has developed to become a focus of the community.”
St Peter and St Paul in Deddington has put in a broadband connection and opened up an internet café, a WiFi hot spot, a home work club for the primary school and the facility to broadcast to the audio and video streams live from the church. This has created a virtual congregation with an unexpected benefit.
In November 2012 a regular Somerset visitor to Deddington tuned in on the web to watch the All Souls Day evening service when several votive candles were lit.
He noticed that unfortunately this whole array of votive candles caught fire and rang the Deddington Fire and Rescue Service who came to the rescue.
The church has also installed a retractable screen and projectors to enhance worship, so a film club and lectures happen in the church space.
In January 2012 they installed a 25 kilowatt photovoltaic system hidden behind the parapets. The panels are completely unobservable from the ground. This is a ‘green’ church in a few ways. The successful and award winning farmers’ market in Deddington on the fourth Saturday of every month has expanded into the church.
The uses of Oxfordshire churches is growing. Some host alcoholics anonymous and narcotics anonymous and work with Thames Valley police in restorative justice sessions when victims and offenders meet to examine the emotional, psychological and physical effects of a crime.
All this is happening in our churches. Whoever suggested dividing villagers into the believers and the non-believers got one thing wrong – we’re all in this together.