The planned Consultation with Parishioners took place over the weekend of 23/24 October and the period allowed for comments was extended until 6/7 November to allow people who were away during half-term week to make their comments. We sincerely thank everybody who responded to the consultation.

86 comments had been received — 50 written and 34 verbal. (There were 2 duplicates). 61 comments were from Hailsham. Parishioners, 22 from Polegate and 3 were anonymous.

The sub-committee met on 16 November and sorted the comments into 4 piles:

1. Those in favour of the project.               - 24

2. Those in favour but had reservations. – 17

3. Those against the proposed project.   -  33

4. Other comments.      – 10

Father Rory arranged a Panel, including Fr Barry Anderson (Dean and Parish Priest of Christ The King, Langney) and Fr Raglan Hay-Will (Parish Priest of Our Lady of Ransom), to look at the Project and the comments received, and it met on Saturday 20 November. Some parishioners were also invited. Fr Rory arranged for the meeting to be videotaped and this is available for viewing by interested parishioners

As well as hearing summaries of the comments, the Panel heard that:

1. The Project was approved by the Parish in February 2009.

2. The sub-committee had discovered that the architect had underestimated the costs. The Parish needed to raise about £400,000 over the next 7 years but we thought we could only raise about £200,000.

3. The approved Plan was for the presbytery to be sold and for the Parish Priest to live in the Polegate Presbytery. However, some people from both communities were unhappy about this.

4. Fr Barry Anderson said that when the Church alterations were planned for Langney, the Diocese would only give approval when all the funding was in place.

5. The size of the proposed new church had been questioned. Fr Barry said that congregations in his parish were hardly affected by the huge development at Sovereign Harbour, despite it being very close to the church.

Although there were a lot of Parishioners in favour of the agreed project, it was thought that the Diocese would not let us proceed unless we had obtained some sort of guarantee that we could obtain donations, gifts, grants or legacies to meet the extra £200,000. It was felt that, unless people come forward now with specific cash pledges, it would be very difficult to show that we could raise the extra money and in the meantime building costs could increase.

Consequently a new Project Committee is being set up to look at various alternatives to the present plans for a new church. These will include the alternatives outlined in several of the comments received from parishioners.

Fr Rory has invited the members of the existing sub-committee to join the new committee and has, so far, also invited David Law, Annette Wake and Bill O’Rourke to serve on the new committee. The new Project Committee will meet in the New Year.

The new committee will need plenty of prayer support so please continue to pray for a successful outcome.

Latest: The new Committee meets on 18th January ,2011.