THE Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, has commended public vigilance after he was mistaken for a “suspicious youth” — and the police were called — while he dedicated solar panels on the roof of St Peter Mancroft, on Sunday morning.
The Bishop, accompanied by the Vicar, Canon Edward Carter, the verger, and a BBC reporter, had scaled the medieval spiral staircase to take a closer look at the new solar panels which had recently been installed in the Grade I listed building alongside new air source heat pumps, batteries, and LED lighting.
A passer-by had presumed that the group were up to no good, and had called Norfolk Police. During the harvest eucharist at the church later that morning, which celebrated this net-zero work, Bishop Usher told the congregation: “It’s been great to be up on the roof to be able to see your new installation. I understand the police were called. . . It’s great to be called a youth.”
In an interview with Jeremy Vine on Radio 2 on Monday, Bishop Usher, who is the Church’s lead bishop for the environment, said that he had to see for himself “the excellent work” at St Peter Mancroft towards achieving net zero.
“I probably looked totally shifty just in my coat. I didn’t have my mitre on, or a cope or anything — you don’t tend to wear that stuff up dusty spiral staircases.
“It is incredible that a member of the public was concerned, because we have seen a huge spate in this country of lead theft from the roofs of our churches, and the contents of these churches, treasure troves of memory for the community, that have been ransacked by thieves; so I really want to encourage people . . . if they see something suspicious going on . . . in any place of worship to contact the police.
‘We caught them stealing lead off the church roof. They all claim to be bishops’
“I would much prefer the story ended as happily as it did, rather than lead being stripped off in plain sight.”
St Peter Mancroft is a Demonstrator Church under the Church’s Net Zero Programme, which is funded by the Church Commissioners. It received a grant of £50,000, plus co-funding of £36,000 from the Benefact Trust, to support the work (News, 5 July), for which a faculty was granted earlier this year (News, 2 February). The changes are predicted to reduce emissions by 84 per cent, saving 52.26 tonnes of CO2 each year.
Asked whether there had been any objection to the solar panels, Bishop Usher said that there were always some concerns about changes to the fabric of church buildings, but that, “if you look at any medieval building, each generation has added their latest technology to it, adapted and shaped the buildings, and this is our task in our generation.”