Thank you so much for playing your part in the life of St Michael’s. So far the total gifts (including Gift Aid) totalled £42,119 for 2014. This is a marvellous result and will go some way to enabling us to achieve what God is calling us to do as a church in 2014. The Gift Day form is still available in church, so you don’t need to miss out! Please fill the form in and bring it back over the next week or drop it into the church office.
Author: Laura Thomas
Heart of the Community project updates
Project finance
The shell of the new church and community centre, which is due to be completed in mid-July is expected to cost £2.5m, which combined with an estimated £2.1m to fit out the new building, takes the total cost to £4.6m.
The project Steering Group has been considering various options of securing non-commercial loans to cover an immediate shortfall of £300k and the cost (approximately £700k) of installing mechanical and electrical fittings. This would avoid the substantial costs associated with the contractors leaving the site between phases and enable us to use the additional space as soon as possible.
Any such loans would be secured with very favourable repayment terms and/or rates of interest, and represent a low risk. The DCC (church council) econsidered this issue at their meeting on 10th March and agreed unanimously (subject to auditors’ review and legal advice) that loans costing up to £1.6m (including cost of interest and repayments) be sought. This represents the maximum amount that can realistically and feasibly be repaid over 10-15 years. As well as covering the M&Es, it will contribute to the cost of fit out, but will not enable full completion of the building.
Further funding
The DCC also approved a recommendation from the Heart of the Community Steering Group to seek grant funding from four extra sources, “Grants for Places of Worship”, “Our Heritage”, “Awards for All” and “Reaching Communities”, through the National Lottery. The DCC has had to recognise that this is the means by which the Government now funds many cultural, community and heritage projects and that funding from non-congregational sources has been less than anticipated.
The House of Bishops Policy states: “Sometimes the Church resists proposed changes in our society, but when the decision is made we have to live with it. In this instance we recognise that the Government has made it clear that the Lottery is the way it will increasingly fund heritage and charitable and other matters. The decision whether or not to apply for such help is a matter for the responsible body in each case.”
During discussions at DCC it was acknowledged that: “ i) all money is God’s money; ii) God can redeem all things, including money some of us might see as tainted; iii) we would rather National Lottery money be used for projects which have the explicit aim of advancing the Kingdom. We believe that the good that can be done with the funding outweighs the potential negative elements.”
Heart of the Community applications would focus on grants from the Heritage Fund to repair and refurbish the existing church building. The DCC and Heart of the Community steering group were agreed that this is a “fall back” option should there be no miraculous intervention for funding needed. Even if “reaching communities” funding is granted, the funds allocated do not have to be accepted if the funding has come from else- where in the meantime. The recommendation was approved by a majority vote (15 for; 1 against; 1 abstention).
Heart of the Community project updates
Church and community centre construction news
Work on rebuilding the north wall is progressing well, and is due to complete on 16th March. In addition, the steel frame work is pretty much completed now, and construction of some internal block walls and conservation arches are underway. Work on the brickwork and external stonework is due to start shortly. Although there is still some delay to the programme, the professional teams are working hard to reduce this.
Prayer
Thank you to those who continue to pray for the project. At this time please pray in particular that the funds needed to meet the imminent shortfall will be made available at the right time. We thank God that He promises His spring-time ‘rain’ of blessing. “Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime; it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms. He gives showers of rain to all people, and plants of the field to everyone.” (Zechariah 10:1)
Buy a Brick
This term St Michael’s Primary School are getting behind Buy a Brick and will be supporting the project by asking pupils and parents to get involved by buying bricks and helping to raise funds. The new main auditorium of the church and community centre will be a wonderful resource for the school, providing space for the whole school community to meet together, and to host events for all parents and families.
Planning permission prayers answered
The development of the new church and community centre took an important and well timed step forward this week. Planning permission was granted to dismantle and rebuild the ½ metre thick wall running parallel to North Road. This will give the most visible face of the site a much greater sense of uniformity. Stone from the existing wall will be cleaned, cut and reused using an exact match of the original mortar. Work on this has already started and will take around six weeks to complete. Thank you to everyone who prayed for the best outcome of this planning process.
The new church and community centre is one of the audacious ambitions of our Heart of the Community project – along with the refurbishing of our historic church building, the upgrading of our Old School Rooms facilities and the support of outreach projects and fighting poverty in the UK and around the world.