I WOULD agree with Rev Bromfield that it is sad that people do not attend church as they used to. In the case of St John's in Coleford, however, I would suggest that there is more to the issue of low attendance than Rev Bromfield suggests in his letter.

The Archdeacon has confirmed that ten years ago a donation in excess of £700 was given by a member of the congregation of St John's, for the purpose of building a toilet for the elderly attenders who were struggling to continue to attend church without one (it is not healthy for a 20-year-old to go without a lavatory for any length of time, let alone an elderly person). Ten years ago £700 was not an inconsiderable amount of money, and, as the cost of installing a lavatory would have been correspondingly smaller, not much more than was donated would have been required to install one.

However, it appears this donation disappeared very promptly into the coffers of the Gloucester diocese, without the consideration of proper consultation with the congregation of St John's about building the toilet. The congregation, had they been given a chance, could have raised enough extra money through coffee mornings or other fundraising activities, if there had been a shortfall, which there might well not have been. In that case, we might have had a thriving parish church which could have been opened for other events, rather than the present sad situation.

The hard-pushed community of Coleford have recently had to come to terms with the fact that the Diocese of Gloucester, who apparently could not afford to do repairs (some of which, by all reports, were longstanding and which should have been attended to many years ago) to the existing St John's, ARE prepared to consider spending considerably more on building a new church, having knocked down the building currently in place on the preferred site.

Is it any wonder people stop going to church?

– Name and address supplied.