Bridlington churches ‘will not close due to new boundary proposals’, Diocese of York confirms

It also said that every church would still have a vicar as it addressed concerns of residents who were worried about closures as the organisation looks at proposals to redraw boundaries across the region.

Members of the St John’s Sewerby and Holy Trinity congregations had contacted the Free Press, concerned about the future of their churches.

However, a spokesman for the Diocese said there are no plans to close any church across the region due to the boundary proposals. He said: “There are no proposals to close any churches in the Bridlington area or leave any churches without a vicar.

“We are in the middle of a Diocese-wide review of parish boundaries under the banner of ‘Living Christ Story’ which is like a mission statement by our Archbishop, Stephen Cottrell.

“As part of this scheme we are looking at the way we serve the territory from the A1 to the Yorkshire Coast and the Humber, covering around 580 parish churches.

“All this is being looked at deanery by deanery. They are going through a period of consultation on how the future is going to look regarding boundaries and how to staff them.

“Bridlington is one of 21 deaneries that make up the Diocese of York and its Synod team is going through this process as part of the wider programme.

“Amongst the possibilities in the area is making Holy Trinity Church part of the Priory group, or not.

“There is also the proposal of attaching St John’s Church in Sewerby to the Headlands Parishes (the Flamborough Group).

“These decisions have not been made yet. We hope by the end of the year there will be a firm plan in place.

“As part of this, the Bridlington Deanery Synod will have had a look at the plans before passing them on.

“People will then get the chance to comment on the proposals through a thorough consultation process before anything will be agreed.

“Any action coming out of these proposals is unlikely to take place until 2024.”