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Gutted: The Rev Richard Chand at the fire-damaged Temple Cowley United Reformed Church

OFFICIALS of an Oxford church damaged in an arson attack on Christmas Day are continuing to count the cost of the blaze.

Temple Cowley United Reformed Church, in Oxford Road, Cowley, was damaged when arsonists broke into the building at 10.40am on Christmas Day and started a fire.

It damaged two rooms, but did not cause any major structural damage.

A Christmas Day service for the Asian Christian Living Fellowship, a Punjabi-speaking congregation, due to be held at the church, was moved to the Holy Family Church, in Blackbird Leys.

Meanwhile, Sunday's services for both congregations had to be held at the church hall next door.

Buildings officer Jim Hansford said: "Apart from the usual office stuff, we did have some old records in there but we deliberately didn't touch them until we could see what it was like.

"Some of the minute books are definitely damaged but the extent of that we do not know. Everything is either burned or smoke-damaged or disintegrated."

The two rooms affected were the vestry lounge, which contained tables and chairs, and the minister's vestry, where paperwork was kept, although Mr Hansford said the majority of it had been backed up electronically.

The marriage registers, which there had been some concern about, did survive in their fireproof box.

Mr Hansford said: "We have a legal responsibility for looking after them. It's something we have to do to keep them secure from theft and from fire and we have succeeded in doing so.

"We have mopped up and done the essentials but we shall have to wait until we can get other engineers in to sort out the electrics and so on before we can have services in there again."

The exact cost of what was destroyed is not yet known - but United Reformed Church minister the Rev Dick Wolff said the real cost to the church would be in rising insurance premiums, with the church's charge already having gone up 17 per cent last year.

The Rev Richard Chand, minister for the Asian Christian Living Fellowship, said: "People have been understanding about the whole situation.

"But it took a while on the phone to explain what had happened and why somebody had done that on such a day."

7:05am Sunday 6th January 2008

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