Church in quaint Yorkshire village to consider its future after congregation drops to just three people

The Archdeacon of the East Riding, Andy Broom, has convened the meeting at Barmston Church on April 4.

The Rev Richard Hare said the congregation of about nine members had fallen to just three.

Rev Hare, who covers the parish along with Rev Rich Townend, said: “We have enough clergy to cover the church – the problem is getting people to sit on the pews for services.

“We are more than happy to go out to Barmston to deliver services. We want people to be the body of Christ in the village.

“There’s always been a small congregation at Barmston of around nine people but since Covid the figure has reduced to three regulars. People who are on the frail side have just not come back and don’t feel confident.

“We felt that the sensible move was to hold a public meeting on Monday, April 4 at 2pm in the church. The Archdeacon of the East Riding Andy Broom has called the meeting. Andy and a couple of other people from the diocese will come along and hold a discussion on what the future should be.

“The lovely people from Emmanuel Church in Bridlington, our churchwardens, our treasurer and safeguarding officer are kindly fulfilling those roles for Barmston as well.

“We are happy to run services for three people but it does beg the question ‘what is the future for the church?’ We are inviting all interested parties to the meeting and nothing has been decided.

“The options would be to close it and hand the keys over to a conservation charity, struggle on, or do a compromise where we hold Easter and Christmas services.

“There may be other options that come out of the meeting, we don’t know yet. One lady started a ‘Bums on Seats’ campaign which led to 13 people attending a recent family service.

“Unfortunately, the following service saw us back to three people, so it is a little up and down.”