Author: Laura Thomas

Heart of the Community Gift Day Update

Posted on by Laura Thomas

Updated 3 July

There has been an amazing response to Gift Day so far with an amazing £330k pledged, thank you! This will enable the work in St Michael’s Centre on the corridor to be completed and the kitchen to be installed, which is wonderful news!

Following a meeting of the trustees on Monday 29 June we will be giving away £33,000 (10%) and we have now instructed to the builder to complete the kitchen as well as the arches.

If you haven’t yet pledged, please do so if you can.  We still need to repay loans of over £1 million and would like to encourage regular giving via standing order, even a few pounds given every month will make a difference.

To set up a standing order, please use the following bank details:
Sort Code: 30-62-32 
A/C No: 348005560
Payee: St. Michael’s Church Centre Ltd HOTC
Reference: Surname

2 Corinthians 9:11: “You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”  

Of all the financial gifts made to the project, we’ve committed 10% to support our mission and outreach partners elsewhere in the UK and around the world, you can read more on the latest tithe donations made here.

Stories of Hope

Posted on by Laura Thomas

A message from Tom Benyon

Greetings from St Michael’s Church! I trust that you are well under these strange circumstances.

We all love a good story, don’t we? I read my sons a bedtime story every night before they go to bed, and it’s often one of the highlights of the day. Stories are part and parcel of our lives: we tell, read, and watch stories all day long, and some of us even dream in stories as well. Someone once said that we tell stories to help us make sense of the world, and I’m sure they were right.

You will have seen the disturbing stories of racial injustice and heartache in the news and it has been hard to make sense of it all.  With this and the pandemic as a backdrop it is easy to lose sight of God’s goodness. But we mustn’t.  As Christians we are part of a wider story of hope where, through Christ, God is making all things new. This means we can see stories of hope even in the hardest of situations. I wonder whether you have stories like this to draw on? I hope so.  

Recently we have encouraged church family members to send in brief videos of them telling some of these stories, moments of hope and encouragement where they have seen God at work. We have called these ‘Ten Second Testimonies’, and yes, they only have 10 seconds in which to communicate it! It has been a good exercise for us all.  Not only has it been encouraging to hear these little moments of hope from folk across the church family, but it has also been good to spot those occasions in our own day where we notice God at work. This may be the small act of kindness from a neighbour, the ‘accidental’ meeting of someone on the way to the shops or the simple pleasure of seeing sunshine dappled through the trees. Each story, however insignificant, is a gentle reminder that He is at work, making all things new.

My prayer is that you will be able to see these moments for what they are, small stories of hope, and ones you may want to tell someone about them. But don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be in just 10 seconds!

I am so looking forward to the time when we can see each other again face to face but in the meantime do take care and please let us know if there is anything we can do to help.

Thanks to the Arches Volunteers

Posted on by Laura Thomas

On a very warm Thursday the staff team was supplemented by a great bunch of volunteers to clear the arches in St Michael’s Centre (Thanks to Phil, David, Andy, Freddie, Johnny, Jacob and Dan). 

We are now ready for the builders!  The foyer is now filled with items for re-storing in the new room configuration.

The ground floor Arches Corridor (beyond the Resources and Seminar Room), is the last remaining construction phase of  St Michael’s Centre.  

Finishing this work will bring five more rooms into use, plus a kitchen. This will meet the demand from our own ministry areas , as well as from external hirers. 

At their meeting on Monday 17 February 2020, the St Michael’s Centre Trustees agreed to award the contract to Stone BCI Ltd, the company that worked with us to complete the balcony and the offices.  Work was due to start in April, however this has been postponed due to Covid-19. We hope to make a start on it on 15 June.