St. Paul's Church, Truro is now closed -

Press Release - July 2007

"Two years ago a visionary plan to redevelop the crypt for Church and community use at St. Paul's Church, Truro was scuppered.

What started out as an exciting and vibrant project ended with the revelation that the tower and east of the church was in a dangerous, precarious and dilapidated state. The tower, constructed of poor quality Polyphant stone, was deemed to be in such a dangerous condition that access to the underlying crypt was immediately restricted as was access to the whole exterior east end of the church. The quinquennial report revealed a plethora of other structural problems relating to the whole east end of the building of such magnitude that they were considered then to be insurmountable.

Since then the church community have been working closely with English Heritage to explore ways in which the worshipping community might engage with, and address these enormously costly problems in the longer term. English Heritage have recently offered a generous grant towards investigative work on the stonework of the tower which required the Church Council to make a substantial financial contribution. St. Paul's Church in Truro, like all Anglican churches, relies entirely on the generous giving of the regular worshipping community to sustain the work of mission and ministry. Following much heart searching and consideration by the members of the PCC it was deemed to be highly immoral, irresponsible and inappropriate to expend considerable sums of money, generously given for the work of the Church, on the fabric of a building that was clearly irreparable. Estimates for major works on the tower and east end have ranged from £500,000 to £1m. Whatever the figure, it is way beyond the means of the Church and wider community. For almost two years we have been wrestling with the implications o f these problems

A critical phase has now been reached whereby the overriding consideration of the PCC is the health and safety of worshippers, visitors and passers by. Such is the extent of erosion and deterioration of the stonework of the tower that the insurers, following a recent inspection, have deemed that it a could pose very real danger to the public. In assessing the risk the insurers have indicated that if no further work is scheduled to address the structural defects, Public Liability Insurance cover will have to be withdrawn. Potentially, therefore, St. Paul's Church may close for public worship within a period of less than six months.

This is obviously a very distressing time for all who are associated with St. Paul's especially those who have worshipped there for a long period of time. In the immediate short term the Christian community at St. Paul's Church will be considering all possible options available including alternative places to worship. There will therefore, be a period of consultation particularly regarding what those options might be."

Since the Press Release was issued it has been determined that we shall have to close the church building for health and safety reasons and our last Sunday Mass will take place on 11th November, 2007 at 10.30am. This will be a celebration Mass with the Bishop. Details of our alternative place of worship will be announced shorty and published on our web site.

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For a detailed history of the church click here.

The Guides, Brownies and Rainbows are affiliated to St. Paul's Church. For details of when they meet click here