Church is forgetting people to invest in a building
-
Posts
-
Who on earth has dreamt up an idea to have another church 100 yards away from the iconic St Giles- is the Diocese going to close St Giles in favour of a happy clappy building? No doubt Cadw will be having an application soon to take the building out of church ownership and make it a museum
How can they think that another church building will bring more people – surely any church or faith group is about people not buildings- spending a vast sum of money on a project to create a building that others will ‘identify’ as it will be ‘different’ is just plain crazy.
People bring people – buildings don’t bring people to join congregations.
£2 million to spend on developing a ‘new type of church’ why not invest in the others in the town St James, St. Margaret’s, St. Anne’s, All Saints what about them- do they get a share?
It has been said it is to attract young students from Glyndwr- the Diocese has certainly not done its homework about students in Wrexham – 50% are mature and of the younger ones 50% commute daily from within an hour of Wrexham.
There is no mention of anything to carry on the 13 weeks of emergency night shelter for the roofless in local churches which has now just ended — why not include a proper Night/Day shelter?
The proposed cafe will just be another competitor to the almost saturated market of cafe/coffee shops with charities competing against each other on most street corners.
If this is such a good idea with a well thought out business plan why has it not been shared, either with the public or congregations from all the other churches and faith groups in the area?
What has happened about partnership working and ecumenical activity to break down faith barriers – this is being established as a church within a church with no knowledge (or a preference to turn a blind eye) to existing good work that many churches already do in the town.Interesting that no one from the church authorities has responded to this thread- perhaps they dont want to engage with the people of Wrexham but sit in St Asaph directing projects – if they arted asking peole in our faith community what they think of their idea they may find there is not a very Chrstian welcome mat waiting for them.
What makes you think anyone from the church authorities would bother to read this stuff or even respond to it ?
You could buy quite a few homes and food parcels for the homeless with that amount of money. Wonder if they’ve forgotten the words of ‘The sheep and the goats.’
Perhaps the Chiurch jave forgotten one of their key ways to support society-
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.”
Matthew 25 – 35-36More of this sort of thing..
2 Kings 2:23-24
From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!”
He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord.
Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.As a no doubt welcome aside, Deuteronomy 23:1 was the first documented example of what we in the trade know as, a knob gag.
Thank you for your interest in the plans for Hope Street. I wanted to respond to the issues you raise.
There are no plans and there never have been any plans to take St Giles out of church ownership. St Giles, the clergy and congregation, and the other churches you name, faithfully serve many people in Wrexham doing fabulous work and this will continue. We fully recognise the excellent work going on by all churches in Wrexham. As you say, the church is about people and we are working with people across Wrexham to develop Hope Street. The Archdeacon of Wrexham has met with ecumenical partners, outline information on plans was included in the Wrexham churches magazine at Christmas and discussions are taking place with Wrexham Council, so this project isn’t happening in isolation.
Please have a look at the information released so far – you can see it on our website at https://dioceseofstasaph.org.uk/church-confirms-purchase-wrexhams-former-burtons-store/ and there’s an article in our diocesan magazine that provides a bit more information on the partnerships being developed. The magazine is freely available in our churches and you can read it online at https://dioceseofstasaph.org.uk/category/teulu-asaph/.
You’ll see in the Teulu Asaph article that plans are taking shape to use the building as a base to support people who sleep rough, as we did over the winter with the Church and Community Cold Weather Shelter Project, to support children and families who struggle without the provision of free school meals during school holidays and offer youth work. Other ideas are being developed too.
1 Hope Street is a three-storey building offering lots of opportunities. There are no plans for a café/coffee shop for exactly the reasons you say – we don’t want to compete with local businesses.
We’re already in discussion with Glyndŵr University and are fully aware of the untypical nature of its student population. Hope Street isn’t just about students though – it’s about all young people, families and people from any background.
You’ll notice in both the press release and the Teulu Asaph article, the plans for Hope Street are subject to a £2m grant from the Representative Body of the Church in Wales. We’re in the process of applying for that money and when that is secured, we will be able to confirm the plans and more forward with the proposal.
As ever with new ideas and developments, mis-information, rumours and gossip circulate very quickly. We’re keen that doesn’t happen, so if you have other questions or have heard rumours that you’d like checked, please don’t hesitate to contact me: [email protected]
If you have a suggestion for the use of the building or feel there’s a group or groups who have something to offer but haven’t been approached, please let me know.
Thank you for taking an interest in this project.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
