A SHOWER-DODGING walk in the Meon Valley last week took me to three ancient churches marking the missionary journey of St Wilfred to the pagan Meonwara at the end of the seventh century. All three churches were open, and their interiors were welcoming, well ordered, and well maintained.

I don’t know whether any of them have needed to call on the Listed Places of Worship (LPW) Grant Scheme, which was established in 2001 and is due to expire at the end of March (News, 20 September). This is the provision that enables VAT on repairs or alterations above £1000 to be reclaimed. In the run-up to the Budget, the Government will inevitably be scrutinising all public expenditure, and it has been suggested that this lifeline to church buildings could be cut back or ended altogether.

Our European neighbours are proactive in preserving their religious heritage. Secular France, for example, manages the fabric of cathedrals and parish churches efficiently and professionally. In Germany, the church tax levied on everyone helps with such costs. The price of establishment for the C of E, ironically, seems to be a more hands-off approach from government, not helped by the view of some vocal Anglicans that “the church is the people not the building”: a statement that implies a lofty indifference to the part that places of worship might play in the mission of the Church.

You only have to visit a country church, a cathedral, or a town or suburban parish church to recognise how much the buildings contribute to the texture of place, signalling community, shelter, sanctuary, and welcome: the gospel itself in stone and wood and glass. Christianity becomes distorted if it becomes an exclusively “spiritual” experience; the earthiness involved in clearing drains, repairing stonework and windows, preserving towers and spires, and replacing pews and boilers is all part of our cultural witness and enriches the fabric of life for everyone.

When I visit a Muslim country, I expect to see domes and minarets punctuating the landscape. In the same way, the towers and spires of churches and cathedrals link us to the earliest Christian missions, and to our oldest surviving spiritual resources. They surely deserve active maintenance.

The LPW Grant Scheme preserves these wonderful buildings not only for those who gather in them Sunday by Sunday, but for everybody. When I was a Vicar of St Bene’t’s, Cambridge, I was struck by how many people walked past the church on their way to work. As part of a parish-based mission action plan, I asked some of them what the building meant to them and was astonished at their positive replies, regardless of whether they ever entered. They knew what it meant. They were glad that it was there. To scrap the VAT lifeline would be no less than cultural vandalism.