TV vicar in bid to rescue church

By David Miller
BBC News in Barnsley

James McCaskill wants to try out different forms of services

The Church of England is hoping an American priest and a television show will boost congregations at a church in a former South Yorkshire mining area.

Father James McCaskill, 32, has left Pittsburgh to be vicar at St Mary Magdalene at Lundwood in Barnsley.

In Pittsburgh, 350 worshippers attended his church. Last Sunday in Lundwood there were just 33.

His attempts to boost the church in Lundwood are being filmed for a Channel 4 programme to be shown in the autumn.

It was originally proposed to call the programme Priest Idol but the working title is now God Help Us.

No sign

There are many glorious churches in Britain with an ancient history. But St Mary Magdalene is not one of them.

A 1930s red brick building almost next to a Netto on a busy road, there is not even a sign outside to announce its presence.

"Shell shocked" was Father James's reaction when he first visited Lundwood and its church in September 2004.

Details of the project to revive the Lundwood church had already been agreed between a television production company and the Diocese of Wakefield.

Father James spent part of his training at a theological college in Mirfield, West Yorkshire and had already left Pittsburgh to return to the UK to look for a job.

As a whole I think America is a far more spiritual place than England James McCaskill

"It was a project I was very interested in on paper but when I actually saw the place I had to do some soul searching.

"Do I really need to come all this way for this sort of experience when I could have gone to a dying ex-mill town outside of Pittsburgh?

"But it's not about the building, it's not about romanticism, it's about the gospel, about serving people and this is a place of great need."

Before the vicar's arrival, 18 would have been a good Sunday morning congregation.

Now that number has nearly doubled and three weddings are already booked for this summer, the first there have been at the church since 2002.

Spiritual apathy

Father James says part of this growth is because there is a priest living in the village again for the first time for many years and partly because of links he has made with local organisations.

"The challenge is to build on those relationships and turn them into something greater."

But he sees differences between how the British and Americans view religion.

"As a whole I think America is a far more spiritual place than England.

"I have found here there is a spiritual apathy. People aren't bothered one way or the other. It's not on the radar."

Congregations at Lundwood have fallen below 20 in the past

Father James thinks the British church may be out of touch with some potential worshippers over the times and formats of traditional services.

A Sunday morning service is not likely to attract young people who are still recovering from the night before, he thinks.

"I'm looking at ways of having a worship service that offers a transcendent worship, that offers an experience of God but perhaps using forms more familiar to the younger population and that may mean electronic music or a sound and light show on a Saturday or Sunday night.

"I shall probably keep a traditional service on a Sunday morning but I know that it is going to be difficult to get the young people in Lundwood to use traditional services as their first step into the church."

Another idea being explored is starting a film club to bring people into the church.

Feeling for Yorkshire

Before the project started, Lundwood shared a vicar with nearby Cudworth.

The Bishop of Wakefield, Stephen Platten, explained that when it came to appointing a priest for Lundwood, the diocese had been looking for someone who was young, in keeping with the Anglo-Catholic tradition of the parish and had a feeling for this part of Yorkshire.

"It is already clear that the community is benefiting from having someone on whom they can call," the bishop added.

"James is a good person and I'm sure his transparent goodness will show through."