The Christmas services at St Olave’s church, York, will be the last services held in the church before it closes – for fourteen weeks. St Olave’s church on Marygate will close for fourteen weeks from 1st January for major roof repairs following lead thefts.
Parishioners and visitors are invited to celebrate Christmas at the Christmas Eve Carol Service at 6pm, Midnight Mass at 11.30pm, or at 10am on Christmas Day. From 1st January, the congregation of St Olave’s will be joining Holy Trinity Micklegate for the 11am Sunday services and Sunday School. Early Sunday morning services of Holy Communion will be held at St Lawrence’s at 9am or All Saints’ Pavement at 9am. There will be joint service for York City Centre Churches at Holy Trinity Micklegate on Sunday 27th December at 11am.
The Revd Jane Nattrass, Priest-in-Charge of seven churches in York City Centre including St Olave’s, said, “I’d like to invite everyone in York to join us for our Christmas services this year – come and raise the roof with carol singing before we start to dismantle that roof! The lead thefts from the roof of St Olave’s have hit us very hard. When we started work to restore the roof, we discovered rotting roof plates and beam ends, damage to the masonry of a wall parapet, and rotting boards above the ceiling. The rotting boards had been exacerbated by water retention in a layer of horsehair insulation introduced into the roof many years ago.
“The timber damage is old but it means that a lot of extra work is required to ensure that a new roof can be put on and that the parapet is made safe. We are closing the church to keep our congregation and visitors safe, and so we can construct internal scaffolding and boards to ensure that the roofers can work safely. By closing the church, we will also be helping to progress the work as quickly as possible.
“St Olave’s is one of the city’s most beautiful historic churches, and we need the help of the people of Yorkshire to restore its roof. The original cost of restoring the roof was £145,000, and we had received a generous grant of £78,000 from the Government’s Listed Places of Worship Roof Repair Fund towards the cost. However, the damage to the timbers means we now need to raise an extra £200,000.”
You can donate towards the cost of the work by sending a cheque made payable to St Olave’s PCC to The Vicarage, 52 Bootham, York YO30 7BZ, or via a BACs to sort code 40 52 40, account number 00007806, payable to St Olave’s PCC.