The Diocese says yes
After what has seemed like a long wait, but has involved a lot of behind the scenes activity, the Diocese has now granted a Faculty to permit the statues of St John the Baptist and Virgin and Child to be restored to the niches in the Parish church tower.
The Diocese said : “The statues are striking and convey a clear, universal Christian message. They break from and do not conform to the artistic convention of still and motionless figures of the Middle Ages. Instead, thanks to the selected medium, they would be capable of expressing motion and dynamics; something difficult to replicate in stone, and perhaps announcing a departure from the traditional way of communicating the Christian message in a contemporary manner.”
So the process of building the full size models to be used to create the moulds for casting will commence in October. Rodney Munday, the sculptor, has been in lockdown in France since March, but is returning to England (and quarantine) to start the process. He will be providing regular updates of how things are going on his website and these will also be posted on the Project Black Jack website.
The maquettes are on show at the entrance to the Trinity Chapel, along with some information boards about the project.