IN the year when Christians celebrate the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Jesus, high ranking clergymen are to close two community churches.

The Bishop of Edmonton, the Rt Rev Peter Wheatley, has decided to shut down the Good Shepherd Church in Berwick Road, Wood Green, and halt building work at St Gabriel's in Bounds Green Road, Bounds Green, from this weekend.

The move, which has shocked parishioners, comes, according to Rt Rev Wheatley, as a result of 'present and future constraints of finance and staffing'.

John Waller, secretary of St Gabriel's District Church Council, told the Independent: 'The whole community of Bounds Green will have no church at all.

'The congregation are the victims of the situation. Up to now all the bishop has given us is lip service and assumptions.'

In a pastoral letter, the bishop revealed that he accepted the Edmonton Area Council's recommendations to abandon the rebuilding of St Gabriel's and also withdraw the Bishop's Licence for worship at the Good Shepherd.

He said that the sites of both the Good Shepherd and St Gabriel's were not financially viable.

The bishop added: 'There should be imaginative thinking about how to integrate members of St Gabriel's and the Good Shepherd into the existing worshipping communities.'

The congregations are expected to relocate to either St Michael's, Wood Green, or St Michael-at-Bowes, where St Gabriel's parishioners have been worshipping since 1997.

But Mr Waller is angry that this could spell the end of St Gabriel's and a religious community that has worshipped at the church since 1905.

He said: 'We are not seeking to attack the Church of England, we are supporting what we perceive Jesus would want us to do.

'We are trying to protect the integrity of the church and do the right thing.

'It is not as if they are trying to build a cathedral. It seems to be a sad state affairs and contrary to the wishes of both congregations.

'This will continue to go on until they put their house in order.'

Mr Waller believes that the two churches should not suffer because of financial constraints. The Church of England made a reported £700 million last year by shrewd investments in dot-com companies.

He is also concerned that the closures could trigger a national trend.

The area council report said that although there was support for rebuilding St Gabriel's, a seating capacity of 90 would be too small and that it would create access and parking difficulties.

It added that there was the 'intractable problem of funding, given the improbability of recovering any money from the developer'.

A full investigation of the financial and legal situation involving the site is to be carried out.