From 14th September refurbishment work is starting on St Thomas’ Church, and all the services that take place there (8:00am, 9:30am, Teatime Praise, and Prayers and Bears) will be moving to St Stephen’s while the work is done.

We will be holding a special service on 13th September to say farewell for a while to the old building and look forward to a warm and well-lit building with new chairs and coffee area, as well as a new room for Sunday school and community use.

We are aiming for the majority of the work to be completed by 20th December in time for the carol service. This is an incredibly tight timetable so please do pray for the workmen!

The autumn will mean that there are some changes that could trip us up. There will be some great benefits: the single coffee time will mean that we can get to know each other better. Others, as we share one building, will be more like the grit that an oyster turns into a pearl: a chance for us to learn how to cope when things aren’t quite as we like it.

All this reinforces that we are one church with two buildings, with a common love of God and a single purpose and mission. It will be a wonderfully exciting time as we see St Thomas’ transformed and we learn that church is not just a building, and we grow into an even more beautiful church—the people of God!

Please PRAY!

• The Diocesan Chancellor has said he is broadly in favour, but we haven’t yet had the final “yes” to our faculty application (the C of E’s alternative to the planning process).
• For the architect and his team as he finishes the detailed design work, the lighting, the sound systems and all that.
• For the tight time table, that we can be back in for Christmas.
• For finances: we are still £100,000 short of our target for this first phase. A team are researching funding bodies, and we will be asking for sponsorship of the new chairs.
• That Sunday mornings will be joyous times as we share in the same building.