Best way forward
Fully support the effort to keep this wonderful chapel open, have signed the petition and circulated it to friends.
But we must not let outrage overtop the need for clear thinking. If MOD fail to close the chapel in 2016, they will try again in 2017, and again the following year, and so on. It is the way they work. It is their job. So the real question is therefore whether MOD is the right guardian/owner of the chapel in perpetuity. I was interested, for example, in the reported views of Bromley Council, which seemed positive, about talking to other stakeholders.
I would like to see English Heritage (EH) and/or the National Trust (NT) approached to consider taking responsibility for the chapel. Both run properties nearby - EH run Charles Darwin's house Down House just across the airfield, and of course NT run Chartwell a few miles south. Both would bring professional management, investment and repair where needed, and well run volunteer schemes to man the property if needed. And probably an increase in visitors - not too many at present.
Perfectly proper to be cross with MOD, but I don't think they represent the future for the chapel