Update on our parish and parish projects
August 2026
We are entering an important period in the life of our parish, and this update sets out how the forthcoming deanery reorganisation connects with the major projects now underway to secure the future of St Birinus.
Archbishop Longley's Visitation to the Deanery of South Oxfordshire will take place in the early autumn. The likely outcome is the amalgamation of the six parishes in the deanery into a single Parish of St Birinus, with Canon Fitzpatrick most likely to become its first parish priest. Fr John will remain at our presbytery, as previously agreed.
Our parish will also need representation on a new parish committee covering all the former parishes, and the transition is likely to bring additional administrative demands at a time when resources are already stretched. Mass will continue at St Birinus as before, although the full scope of the changes ahead is not yet clear. What is clear is that we must be ready not only to respond to change, but to help lead it.
This pattern of parochial reorganisation has already been trialled elsewhere, including in the Diocese of Portsmouth, and reflects the changed circumstances facing Catholic communities today. The challenges before us are substantial, perhaps greater than any we have faced since Catholic emancipation. Yet our history, and the example of the Davey family, remind us that the patrimony of St Birinus can not only endure in uncertain times, but flourish.
With this in mind, we set out earlier this year a series of bold proposals to help secure our future. Some may have seemed, at first, like impossible dreams. They remain ambitious and demanding projects, but we can now report that we have made a promising start.
Over the next few weeks, we will report on three closely linked areas: the car park, the Stables and related projects, and the St Birinus Festival. Taken together, these projects are about more than buildings, land or events. They will help place us in a stronger position to shape the future of the new parish, protect our church and its patrimony, and hand on a living spiritual inheritance to the next generation of Catholics.
In the next two weeks, we will share two reports on our progress. Please read them, engage with them, and above all pray for them and for those working to bring them to fruition. It can be tempting to think, “this is not really for me” or “I have nothing to offer.” Be assured: your prayers and your active support are essential to the success of this endeavour.
The Parish Finance Committee
1. The Car Park
Thanks to your remarkable generosity, we secured most of the £25,000 originally earmarked for the car park works, based on an initial quote we had received. As the whole parish demesne is listed property, however, the process is more complex than first expected. The car park falls under the Historic Church Committee, administered through the Archdiocese of Birmingham, and we have had to complete several preliminary steps, including the Quinquennial Report and a review of the protected trees.
We must now provide a full specification for the proposed works, which may require formal consent, and obtain separate approval from the Birmingham Finance Department. Because works over £10,000 require at least three quotes, and groundworks over that level require an independent survey, we have completed and paid for the necessary preliminary work. The survey identified issues not initially apparent, meaning the likely cost is now £40,000–£45,000, although we may now be able to secure a 10-year guarantee were we to proceed.
We are arranging further meetings. We are also exploring whether some improvement works might proceed without the need for new listed-building permissions. Our objective would be to proceed in two phases, so the initial improvements would provide the foundations for a more sustainable long-term solution. That latter part would then require all the permissions.
We must also be aware, once we seek a longer-term solution, that both SODC and the Historic Church Committee may involve the Environment Agency. There will also be a wider uncertainty because of the proposed local government reorganisation. Currently, the preferred option would replace the County Council and District Councils (in our case SODC) with new authorities, and our planning authority in Dorchester is likely to become the Greater Oxford authority, although this will not be confirmed for several months.
We will report back before the end of September, when parishioners will be asked to advise on whether we should proceed and seek to raise the additional funds required.
2. The Cottage, Stables, Garden Office and Davey Room
We have also been able to move these projects forward. A planning application has now been submitted for the proposed refurbishment of the Stables and the creation of a Garden Office.
We have drafted an application to the National Lottery Heritage Fund and begun seeking supporting funds to strengthen it. The second phase of car park refurbishment and flood defences will be included in the wider proposal. We are now gathering provisional costings for the whole project, including the interior works needed for the office and archive space, as well as the parish and rehearsal space. We will update parishioners once the funding application has been submitted.
The cottage is now almost fully refurbished. We have improved the interior specification and installed a new bathroom suite, both essential if it is to operate successfully as a holiday let. The 200 Club is contributing towards these works. The next phase will be to decide how changeovers are managed and to set appropriate rental rates. It may take a couple of years to achieve good occupancy, but the income should be lower risk than a permanent tenancy.
We have also addressed the question of energy supply by bringing a gas main into the parish demesne. This will allow us to replace the existing oil-fired boiler with a cheaper and more efficient gas system, and should also improve heating in the main house and Davey Room. In time, it may support the Stables and other buildings too. We had previously been advised that heat pumps were not viable because of the buildings' location near the Thame and its variable water table.
Once the new heating system has been installed, we hope to consider converting the current garden shed into a Garden Room. This would provide office space for the parish, the Davey Consort and the St Birinus Festival, as well as a home for our music archive. We could then move to convert the Davey Room into a second holiday let, generating further income for the parish.
3. St Birinus Festival and the future
This year's festival has been a remarkable success, with around 1,200 attending its various ticketed events. We have also enjoyed generous support from sponsors. Encouraged by this, we hope to take the festival forward even more ambitiously next year. It is not simply a programme of events, but an expression of the charitable objects of the Davey Consort, whose work is educational as well as liturgical.
This autumn, two singers will join our choir. We hope they will be the first fruits of almost a decade of endeavour and commitment. By making St Birinus a centre of liturgical excellence, the festival showcases Catholic sacred culture in two contrasting spaces: a great medieval abbey and one of the smallest parish churches. It also connects parish life with the wider spiritual yearning evident in the growing number of Catholic converts in recent years.
The festival is also marked by the presence of many young families and is designed for a wider public: those interested in sacred music, those drawn to the choral tradition, and those who are simply curious. Through sacred worship and music, it offers a glimpse of the divine even in the humblest of settings. For Catholics, it deepens the spiritual life of the faithful; for those who come from the highways and byways, it offers an invitation to find their place at the sacred banquet.
Perhaps we have almost come to take for granted the part music plays in our parish life. Yet how extraordinary it is that Sunday by Sunday and through the sacred seasons, sacred music of rare quality stands at the heart of Holy Mass. We owe Ryan, Sophie, Francis and Dominic — supported by Gabriel Damiani and Andrew Hansford — an immense debt of gratitude. Andrew brings similar skill to Sunday Mass in Berinsfield that the Davey Consort brings to St Birinus and, together, their work reminds us that this patrimony is not ours simply to admire, but to share.
Popes have repeatedly called the faithful to embrace their heritage of sacred music, and Pope Leo XIV has just recently reiterated that invocation. Here at St Birinus, Dorchester, we answer that call.
Finally, to help our parish and Catholic community play the most active part possible in this enterprise, we are considering establishing a Confraternity of St Birinus, which might meet at Benediction every other month. Its focus would be regular prayer, but its practical role would be to assist with planning and the general preparations for the festival; to foster skills for the curation of linens, vestments and sacred vessels used in the Holy Mass; to provide a corps of trained servers for the liturgies at the festival itself; and to seek to enhance parochial engagement with the litanies and other prayers which form part of the Church's liturgical year.