Statement of Need
High Legh enjoys a strong community focus with the Parish Council, the Community Association and the church supporting each other and working together, for example on the celebration for the Coronation and the 80th anniversary of D-Day and VE day remembrance events.
The war memorial is just outside the church curtilage and is a simple plaque on a boulder. This is where the act of remembrance takes place on Remembrance Sunday and also took place there for the 80th anniversary of VJ day service on 15 August 2025. The union flag that we are proposing mounting in church is carried by a member of the congregation to the war memorial. The flag is therefore normally only used once a year
50% of our worshipping community is over 70 and 21% (2021 Census) of our village community. In the absence of any uniformed organisations in the parish, it is this age group for whom remembrance takes on a particular significance. People who would not normally come to church come to remembrance acts at the war memorial. There were 54 people at the Remembrance Service in 2024 and 39 at the 80th Anniversary of VJ Day on 15 August 2025 compared to a usual Sunday attendance of 31.
The flag, for the rest of the year, has previously lived at the front of church leant against the wall in the corner behind the northern choir stalls. It is visible from most places in the church and for everyone coming up to receive communion or a blessing.
This proposal removes the flag from the eyeline of worshippers. There is strong feeling among the older members of the congregation that the flag should be in church, so housing it in the vestry is not seen as acceptable.
The flag is a decommissioned British Legion Parade flag which has been in church for at least 40 years. (The person who acquired it an brought it into church said he did so sometime in the ‘70s or 80s’.) [Correction to information received after this was submitted - since the 1990s]
The proposal to mount it at the back of the church and moving the Roll of Honour next to it connects the two and gives them a dignity connected to patriotism and symbols of national and local pride and remembrance. The primary reason to move the flag is to remove it from the chancel, to remove it from the line of sight when looking at the altar or coming up for communion and therefore to break the link between it and worship. A secondary reason is that where the flag was it connected faith and patriotism in a way which could be perceived by younger people, not as patriotic but as a symbol of far-right political movements who promote hate and division.
High Legh enjoys a strong community focus with the Parish Council, the Community Association and the church supporting each other and working together, for example on the celebration for the Coronation and the 80th anniversary of D-Day and VE day remembrance events.
The war memorial is just outside the church curtilage and is a simple plaque on a boulder. This is where the act of remembrance takes place on Remembrance Sunday and also took place there for the 80th anniversary of VJ day service on 15 August 2025. The union flag that we are proposing mounting in church is carried by a member of the congregation to the war memorial. The flag is therefore normally only used once a year
50% of our worshipping community is over 70 and 21% (2021 Census) of our village community. In the absence of any uniformed organisations in the parish, it is this age group for whom remembrance takes on a particular significance. People who would not normally come to church come to remembrance acts at the war memorial. There were 54 people at the Remembrance Service in 2024 and 39 at the 80th Anniversary of VJ Day on 15 August 2025 compared to a usual Sunday attendance of 31.
The flag, for the rest of the year, has previously lived at the front of church leant against the wall in the corner behind the northern choir stalls. It is visible from most places in the church and for everyone coming up to receive communion or a blessing.
This proposal removes the flag from the eyeline of worshippers. There is strong feeling among the older members of the congregation that the flag should be in church, so housing it in the vestry is not seen as acceptable.
The flag is a decommissioned British Legion Parade flag which has been in church for at least 40 years. (The person who acquired it an brought it into church said he did so sometime in the ‘70s or 80s’.) [Correction to information received after this was submitted - since the 1990s]
The proposal to mount it at the back of the church and moving the Roll of Honour next to it connects the two and gives them a dignity connected to patriotism and symbols of national and local pride and remembrance. The primary reason to move the flag is to remove it from the chancel, to remove it from the line of sight when looking at the altar or coming up for communion and therefore to break the link between it and worship. A secondary reason is that where the flag was it connected faith and patriotism in a way which could be perceived by younger people, not as patriotic but as a symbol of far-right political movements who promote hate and division.