In February this year we had the results of the shameful sham of a consultation. Since then, the leadership of St Peter’s Bredhurst has - far from learning any lessons as it promised - become increasingly zealous in its determination to cut deeper into open wounds of mourners.
This letter reveals how St Peter’s Church is failing parishioners and putting them at unknown risk given its purchase and operation of cameras by a company that is linked to human rights against the Uighurs in China.
The Church of England announced this week plans for a significant increase in funding for the next three years to support God’s mission and ministry across the country, supporting local parishes and growing many more new worshipping communities to serve the whole nation. £3.6 billion over nine years, where did they suddenly get such a large sum of money whilst continually appealing to the public for funds? Down the back of a very large sofa perhaps?
I find it interesting when I hear what people say about me.
As I walk around the burial ground I see the signs of spring, I hear the birds singing and when the sun is shining it really appears to be a lovely quiet place to be where my thoughts turn to distant memories, they dance in front of my minds eye as if in a dream. Then the mist clears and all you are left with is a picture. I now walk in a cold, stark place of death, loss and spite. Where has the peace gone? Where has the warmth gone? When you walk around the graveyard what do you notice? It is empty.
The results of the consultation presented in the manner it was, yet again showed a lack of social awareness. Why invite everyone, including those who it acknowledged had suffered emotional harm and stress over the past 5 years or so, to an event to announce no change?
We’re all familiar with the cliche “rules are rules.” The vast majority of us agree that the civilised world depends on the structure they provide, otherwise we would live in a state of anarchy. Most of us would also agree that this adage sets a standard by which we the majority live our lives as we strive for a society that lives in peace and order, for a state in which we can live our lives and raise our families in safety and harmony.
The graveyard opposite St Peter’s Church used to be a welcoming place, resonating with warmth and colour. Until 2016, for over thirty years people laid flowers – both real and artificial – on the graves of their loved ones. Children’s resting places were decorated with small mementoes, such as tiny ornamental booties or angels. The result was a solemn but beautiful landscape adorned with tokens of remembrance – a fitting tribute to our setting where mourners socialised and supported each other through the memory of loss. It was a garden of grief lightened by visible tokens of care: an ethos reflected in a succession of the Parish’s vicars who would regularly join and comfort families visiting to pay their respects, just as shepherds tend to their flocks.
We have been asked many times about the name of our Forum, our Group. Why Bredhurst? Why Bereavement? Why Community? The answers are very simple.
I was very interested to see that the Parish of South Gillingham, and those who manage St Peters Church in Bredhurst, are keen to discuss the environmental issues within the closed graveyard around the church and the new burial ground, which is on the opposite side of the road from the church.
