A service of “closure” takes place at St Peter’s Church in Halfway – but volunteers insist it won’t be shutting for good.

According to warden Brenda Smith, tomorrow's (Sunday) gathering is to mark the suspension of meetings at the Queenborough Road venue.

After the weekend, she said the church would be locked until further notice, adding: “It will remain a consecrated building and services may start up again later this year.

"People have got the wrong idea; it’s not being closed, it’s suspended until we’ve had a series of talks in March with ministers from the Canterbury Diocese.”

St Peter’s, which opened in 1973, has endured a turbulent few months. Regular Sunday services haven’t been held there for about a year following an ‘issue’ with spiritualism.

Speaking in June, Rev Tim Hall, vicar of the Benefice of West Sheppey, said it was “unacceptable” a Christian church was being used to contact the dead, but the overriding reason for locking its doors was due to poor attendance.

During its suspension, the church organ has been relocated to All Saints in Eastchurch and there are no chairs.

One regular member of the congregation, Valerie Everingham, from Elmley, said she was “disgusted” with the current state of affairs at St Peter’s.

She said Mr Hall had failed to respond to her requests about its future, adding: “There have been a valiant few who have written to the archdeacon to protest about this, but to no avail.

“It would appear Mr Hall doesn’t want people to know of this closure as it’s not been mentioned in the parish magazine. It’s as though he wants St Peter’s to be quietly forgotten.”

The Times Guardian contacted Mr Hall but by the time of going to press, he hadn’t responded.

Speculation that the church was to be leased to KCC during its suspension was denied by the Diocese and West Sheppey Benefice.

A spokesman said: “The PCC has decided to suspend services to enable a process of planning for the future of the church.

“It will include reviewing services, events and mission opportunities across the West Sheppey Benefice, understanding the needs of the community and exploring existing and potential community use of the building of St Peter’s.”

Tomorrow's service called Letting Go and Moving On takes place at 4pm and is led by Rev Mark Borley.