How We Developed the New Vision

Following a widespread consultation involving both church members and the local community, a Parish Vision Day was held on Saturday 10th November 2007 to help determine the direction for St George's over the next 3 to 5 years.

Out of that process came 6 groups to take our Vision forward - Worship & Liturgy, Nurture, Outreach, Communications, Centre Management and Church Facilities & Finance.

One Way that we are Putting the Vision into Action

Ideas for the Church Plant

The Church plant was a recurring element in the feedback to the vision process last year - it was seen as both a problem & a potential.

The Problems

• Damp
• Poor heating
  • Old inefficient boilers
  • Inefficient, dirty method of heat transfer
  • Heat escapes through roof causing mould
  • No draught proofing and single glaze windows
  • Presently high financial & environmental costs
• Entrance that is dark, cold and unwelcoming

These issues are unavoidable and must be tackled. The Heating is on its last legs and we must find better environmentally sensitive options. Furthermore our vision calls us to offer worship that is "open and accessible to all" - not only worship that is relevant, open and accessible, but also, a physical space that is open, accessible, warm and welcoming.

Into this mix, I'd like to throw 4 other brief points

• The Church open all week but used 5% of time
• We presently have to heat whole church for the sake of a short mid-week service with just a few people attending
• The Centre is oversubscribed & Falkland School also at times use the Church space
• Research has shown that anxiety levels are higher for people attending a church for the first time than for a hospital appointment!

The Potential - ...if we...

• repair plant & make it much more welcoming
• open to community usage when not used for worship - gets community across threshold and this allows us much greater fundraising potential from a wider range of charitable trusts
• Heating sections rather than whole space is cheaper and more environmentally friendly
  • Glassing off one or both transepts?
  • Glassing off nave?
  • Mezzanine floor extending from choir loft and glassing off for the nave?
• Refurbishment of main north entrance, cloister / part of cloister and lobby?

We can either fix the problems and maintain status quo or, fixing problems & thinking creatively about relationship of physical space to the Wash Common community.

This project must not dominate or swamp our various other responses to the Vision Statement. I am sharing this with you at its starting point, nothing has been decided now, but please think, discuss & pray about it.

There have been many developments since the creation of this page. Have a look here to see where we've got to!

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