Fragile rural church

The marks of a fragile rural church are all around in this part of Somerset. There are lots of picturesque hamstone churches, in small scattered villages, looked after by a shrinking group of people. Congregations are small in size and made up of elderly people; the clergyperson in charge has responsibility for several parishes spread over a wide area - our local priest, for example, has a benefice of seven parishes. I went to the village annual church meeting last night. The membership roll was reported as being just over twenty, whereas a year ago it was just over thirty. The reason for the sharp decline in 12 months is apparently due to the number of deaths which have occurred since the last annual meeting. So the picture of fragile rural church is one of a shrinking membership, trying to do more than it can cope with, under resourced, under financed, and consequently struggling. Elderly church members can feel nostalgic and saddened by the changes taking place, while serving clergy can be disheartened and sometimes disillusioned in trying to maintain their morale and that of their congregations. I guess it's easier to observe these things in retirement and in a different environment. I sometimes wonder if we'd be better to let the present system gracefully fall away without nostalgia or bitterness, and look towards a yet unknown future, in which a Resurrection future can start to reveal itself.

RLE1, CPH & digital mapping

I have been getting my head round the complicated world of CPH numbers for land holding and updating new land rental with RLE1 applications, using digital mapping coordinates. I'm only a hobbyist wanting to move some pet goats onto an acre of land: I can just about imagine what it is like for farmers trying to make a living, in rural areas where broadband speeds are too slow to allow online registration or where the farmers themselves are starved of time to get onto their computers to do the online stuff necessary - and that won't include those whose computer skills are not sufficient for the task. The big players in farming run their own offices and employ administration staff but small scale farming families will be handling all of this by themselves. (A local farmer said to me, glumly, that the big farms in the south west are growing larger, while the small ones are getting smaller.) And the regulations are complicated to process, especially after Brexit.