A controversial ‘church without religion’ has been marrying couples for 10 years. Its owner told reporter MICHAEL PURTON he expects many more years of weddings.
DODE Church began hosting wedding ceremonies in 1999 and, despite opposition from the Church of England and an MP, is still going strong.
Standing on a hill off Wrangling Lane in Luddesdown, in the north Kent countryside, it is a hugely popular venue, with demand high for the 42 civil wedding ceremonies it is licensed to perform each year.
But the popularity of the church, which has no congregation and has not been affiliated to any religion since chartered surveyor Doug Chapman bought and began restoring it in 1992, has led to criticism.
The Church of England has called for Dode’s marriage licence to be revoked, opposing civil ceremonies taking place in religious settings.
Also, Gravesham MP Adam Holloway and a number of local residents have criticised the amount of traffic generated by wedding parties going to and from the church.
However, Mr Chapman, who bought the church for £67,000 and has spent around £200,000 restoring it, says he has no plans to stop the weddings.
The Christian from Maidstone said: “I held a meeting last month, which was attended by 12 local residents, to say we are planning to keep having weddings at the church and to ask what concerns they have.
“There were complaints about the traffic, however no resident mentioned wanting to close the ceremonies at the church down.”
One couple pleased the 64-year-old has not bowed to pressure to halt the weddings are Ian and Joanne Skinner, of The Sandpipers, Gravesend, who were married at the church on October 3.
Mr Skinner, 57, says he and his 43-year-old wife knew it was the right place to get married as soon as they took a look around.
He said: “It has a warmth, it feels like it is cuddling you when you walk in. It has an interesting history and is a special place.”
And the church certainly does have a tempestuous past.
Built around 1100, it was abandoned 650 years ago when the bubonic plague wiped out its entire congregation.
For centuries the church lay empty and fell into ruin, but at the beginning of last century a local archaeologist bought it and restored its walls and roof.
However, when the archaeologist died Dode was abandoned once more, although it remained nominally owned by the Catholic church.
In 1992 Mr Chapman bought the decrepit, vandalised church and, although many local people assumed he would convert it into a weekend home, he set about restoring it to its original glory.
When asked why he took on such a mammoth task, he says: “It was always meant to be a spiritual place.
“If I didn’t restore it as a church, a developer could have come along and knocked it down and turned it into a housing development.
“It is a church without religion because many people feel religion judges them, and I don’t want people to feel judged here.”
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