Concern over convent's fate (From Stroud News and Journal)

Concern over convent's fate

CONCERN is growing among residents at Brownshill about the future of land following the closure of a small Catholic church.

An exodus of Roman Catholic nuns and priests has forced the closure of St Mary of the Angels leaving villagers wondering about the future of the site.

Resident John Hemming said: "None of us know what is going on even though we're born here. We wonder what is going to happen. The possibility is something like an old people's home or a hotel. It would be too big for a normal house."

And John Swettenham, Brownshill ward councillor on Chalford Parish Council, said: " I would be worried that there's a lot of land there that could be built on."

The seven-strong Congregation of Mary Mother of the Church at St Raphael's Convent is to leave the Five Valleys for Warwickshire within months.

Priests from the neighbouring Servants of the Paraclete who ran a treatment centre for "troubled" priests on the hill for nearly 50 years, have always led services at the church. But they have shut the centre and returned to America forcing the church, built in the 1930s, to close and the nuns to relocate.

Congregation mother general Sister Elizabeth told the SNJ: "We're packed up all ready to move. The Paraclete fathers are leaving so we wouldn't have any services which is not good for us as a religious order."

"They are an American congregation and they have other houses to look after," she said. "They are extremely good, very dedicated men." But the congregation will be sad to leave.

"We're very sorry to leave Brownshill because it is very beautiful and we have been very happy here," she said.

She would not reveal the fate of the site after the nuns move to Southam in March or April, 21 years after arriving on the hill.

"I can't tell you anything about that at the moment," she said. "You will probably see things appearing in the near future. I really can't say anymore."