"The Church That Grew After The Building Closed"

Yesterday I read something very encouraging. One of the churches my hubby is the Vicar of in the Diocese of Durham had been mentioned at General Synod. A friend Rev'd David Tolhurst posted the following:

"St Laurence Church Middleton St George Darlington was mentioned tonight in General Synod by the Church Commissioners - the church that 'outgrew its building'

St Laurence Church, Middleton St George - mentioned in Synod tonight, the church that grew after the building closed. The final question of business was about church closures - the Church Commissioners responded that perhaps there should be more - as there are new ways of being church"

It is very sad when a church has to close, the village church in Middleton St George has serious structural damage.  The insurer's whose initial decision it was not to insure the building anylonger went on to say that the structural damage to this particular church building was the second worst they had come across in twenty years.  So structurally St Laurence Church was in a very bad state.  The insurer's came out to see the building on a Thursday and by the end of that day we were told that the site had to be cleared within 48 hours.  The church family were not even allowed to have a final service in their beloved village church.  The church family were wonderful, not one person complained to Paul over this decision which had nothing to do with him.

Paul went to see our local village school Head Teacher Mrs Janine Gleeson,  and spoke to her about the situation, the church had no where to worship. Janine immediately offered the school as a new place of worship for the village church congregation.  So three days later we held our first Sunday morning service in the school hall.  The school was a new build, so the facilities were wonderful.  Big bright classrooms for the children's church, a lovely space for the creche, great kitchen facilities for tea/coffee after every service.  The school was perfect in everyway for the church congregation's needs.

Before the church was closed and before we knew fully the serious extent of the damage to the church we were planning on building and extending the church.  The facilities were very inadaquate and the space in the choir vestry for children's church was grim to say the least.  At that time I was working for the Durham Diocese as Auckland Archdeaconary Children's Ministry Advisor, there were three advisor's at that time working on a project called "Sowing The Seeds", one person in each Archdeaconery.  I was going into many churches advising on many areas of children's ministry including health & safety, then I would come back to my own church and I actually felt sorry for the children's workers and the children learning about Jesus in such an inadaqute space.  

Moving into the school was the best thing that could have happened,  it solved a lot of problems, health & safety issues and space issues.  Before the church family had moved into the school the church had been growing in numbers gradually for the previous 4 years. Since moving into the school 4 years ago the congregation has continued to increase in faith & numbers.  One particular young mam and her children came and joined the church just as it was opened in school.  She talked about how she had been trying to pluck up the courage for six weeks to come through the church doors,  as she hadn't been to church before apart from weddings, christenings & funerals.  However, when the church moved into school she came and joined us straight away saying it was so easy to come into school as it was a familiar place for her. Quite a few people have said that since then.

There are extra practical areas of work that need to be attended to before each service such as putting all the chairs out and setting up the IT & sound system and then at the end of the service putting all these things away so school can resume as normal every Monday morning.  Baby baptism/christenings  take place in the school and three years ago the first wedding took place in the school, that is a day that we will all remember as Paul & Jeni were married in school.  The hall was decorated so beautifully it didn't look like a school hall, it was a wonderful occasion.  

So the school hall is a fully functioning church.  A mid week communion service is also held in the school.  The church & school links are very strong, weekly collective worship services are held in school and at times parents & grandparents etc are invited to come along to certain collective worship services and many parents attend these main festival collective worship services with the whole school in attendance and church members.  The chair of governers is one of our church members as are some of the governing body.  Church members also volunteer to read with the children in school.  All of these different aspects create stronger links between the church & school which is very much encouraged and worked towards across the Diocese.

St Laurence Church did outgrow the church building,  no one would ever have imagined that the church would close and that new growth would take place within the walls of the village school.  The church congregation grew after the church building closed, and continues to grow.  A well loved quote my hubby Rev'd Paul Neville reminded us of  "The great treasures of the church are not the buildings or possessions, but the people" Bishop Mark replied to that comment with these words "The very words of St Lawrence the Deacon"

Vivienne Neville

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