THE lady who wrote about St John's in the Review has my deepest sympathy. As a previous resident of St. John's Street,  Coleford. It must have been heartbreaking to fight so hard for your parish church, and find the support wasn't there from the community.

The question is why the Diocese didn't help St John's, for example, with the cost of installing a lavatory given the fact a member of the congregation had already given a generous donation towards its installation, and that this could have made all the difference to the future of St Johns?

It would have at least been treating the man who contributed £700 towards the toilet facilities with respect, rather than just keeping the money and not honouring the bequest, and it would have made future fundraising events possible.

But I wonder how the community of Coleford could have shown its support, fundraising, for example in a church with no toilet facilities, where there was no relief for the volunteers, who might have had to be there for some time, if caught short?

How can you have a coffee morning or table top sale event etc in a church with no basic facilities?

Any fundraising activity that went on for more than and hour in the church would surely have been difficult for the strongest individual, let alone the most elderly community volunteer.

Furthermore the congregation has been asked to contribute to the church in the form of weekly collections practically every week for 130 years (you do the maths). That's a lot of investment in St John's.

However enthusiastic the church has been to accept this money, it failed to even acknowledge the contribution the community has made towards the upkeep of the church, when I believe that acknowledging this regular contribution would have mattered, and might have secured the future of the church. What are we supposed to think about this?

Who knows what a thriving community resource St John's might have been had this help been offered and provided by the Diocese.

What was missing here was courtesy, fairness and respect towards the congregation and the community.

– Bemused, Littledean.