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CHURCH DEVELOPMENT

PCC CHURCH DEVELOPMENT GROUP

Charles Clapham, Simon Brooke, Fiona Hay, Jemma Daffarn,

Magnus Grimond, Caroline Langton, Tony Matthews,

As many of you know, our faithful Virger, Steve Haude, who died so suddenly in 2021, bequeathed the majority of his estate to our church. St Peter’s and its people meant everything to Steve for many years and the legacy was typical of his generous love and devotion to this place.

Steve’s gift, together with several other smaller bequests received in 2023, stands at more than £300k. Last year the PCC nominated a small number of us to form a church development group in order to focus on the best ways to use this money wisely.  We have met a number of times, taken advice, and refined our ‘blue sky thinking’ to what we see as a number of practical and appropriate projects – ones we think Steve would have approved of.

We need to replace the heating throughout the church. This has become our first priority.

We will then focus on overhauling the parish rooms to restore them to their original purpose as an attractive place for people to meet, both for business and for pleasure. In doing so, we hope to create more opportunities to increase our income from events, clubs, concerts and other activities, while allowing us to better engage with the community beyond the congregation. The intention is that the Beanstalk Nursery should continue to operate in the parish rooms on weekdays during term time.

The aims of the project are –

  • To install a compliant and cost-effective heating system throughout the building
  • to remodel the main parish rooms, doors and lighting, upgrade the lavatories and create a new kitchen and serving area
  • to improve the entrance vestibule and install draughtproofing
  • to provide effective external storage units for chairs and tables etc
  • to create more space at the top of the nave to allow a mobile staging area for concerts and recitals.

 

We don’t yet know how much of this list will be possible or affordable, but we are committed to honouring Steve’s gift and getting the best value throughout. We hope that the community will also feel encouraged to contribute where necessary.

So…before we instruct our architect to draw up potential plans, we want to hear the views and ideas of as many people as possible. If you would like to spend some time thinking of suggestions that might further the project, we would love to hear from you.

  1. Do you agree with the outline projects?
  2. Have we forgotten anything? Any other suggestions for the building? Any other user groups that we should consider?
  3. What other features might we consider that would improve the facilities for all users?

Please come and talk to any of us after church, or jot down your thoughts and leave them in the box in the entrance, or email the Church Development Group at  office@stpetersw6.org