Brighton's threatened St Peter's Church is discussing plans to attract "commuter worshippers" to save it from closure.

London church Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) is offering to help rebuild St Peter's congregation through a scheme known as 'church planting', where a struggling church is boosted by scores of worshippers who commit to move from HTB to the new church for at least a year.

HTB has used church planting to revive the fortunes of eight London churches over the past two decades.

As well as worshippers, the church also supplies a priest to lead the congregation and recruit new members using the Alpha course.

Although it is unlikely worshppers will travel from London to the Brighton church, it is hoped they could visit from nearby areas.

HTB is the home of the Alpha course, an introductory guide to Christianity used by churches all over the world.

Spokesman Mark Elsdon-Dew said HTB has written to the church commissioners, the Church of England body which must approve the closure of St Peter's, to make an offer of help.

He said: "We have had a meeting with the Archdeacon of Chichester, Douglas McKittrick, and hope to meet the Bishop of Chichester soon."

Worshippers at St Peter's have welcomed the idea and have invited HTB to meet them.

Jean Calder, the convenor of the Friends of St Peter's Church, said the offer had to be explored urgently, before the commissioners meet to decide the church's fate in May.

She said: "This could be the life line St Peter's needs.

"Holy Trinity Brompton has a track record of directly assisting other churches in London and has had great success in this.

"It would be a new departure to help a church outside London, but they seem keen to do so.

"The Alpha courses they have pioneered have been very effective, both in Britain and abroad, in drawing people into churches and developing congregations."

A spokesman for the diocese said it was looking forward to hearing more about HTB's proposals but could not comment further while the matter was still under consideration.

The Diocesan Pastoral Committee, the body in charge of churches in the Diocese of Chichester, recommended St Peter's should be made 'redundant' in February 2007.

It had been earmarked for closure in a Church of England review written two years earlier. The report said the landmark church, known as Brighton's cathedral had a declining congregation and was too expensive to run.

The Commissioners are due to decide the issue at a public meeting in London on May 7.

Paul Lewis, the Church of England's pastoral and redundant churches secretary, said: "It's possible, if the committee thought HTB's proposals should be explored further, they might refer the matter back to the bishop.

"It is one of the considerations they will look at."

The first church "planted" by HTB was St Barnabas Church in Kensington.

The 19th century church had a congregation of just 20 and was on the verge of being made redundant when HTB sent a clergyman and 100 new members.

Today the church has 400 regular worshippers, who have raised £1 million towards improvement work.

The next planting was St Mark's in Battersea Rise, which had just 20 worshippers and had fallen into a state of disrepair. It now has more than 600 members, 13 full-time staff and has been completely renovated.

With each planting, the church building and its staff remains the responsibility of the diocese.

However by the second year most congregations are self-sustaining, earning enough cash through donations and fundraising to pay not only for the priest but the running of the building and repairs.

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