This is a really exciting time for St Margaret’s, if a slightly scary one, as we take a leap into the unknown.
From next Sunday, 28th April, the building will be closed for a few months as the renovation work begins, starting with the new heating system which will involve, amongst other things, ripping up much of the wooden floor to lay underfloor heating.
What does that mean for regular activities?
Well, I guess the biggest thing is the Sunday 10:30 services. Starting on the 28th April, we will be worshipping in the school hall at Phil and Jim’s. It will still be the same time, 10:30am. It will look and feel a little different in some ways, but it will still be our same community coming together to worship God. The 28th itself is especially exciting because that will be the Sunday that we celebrate Ss Philip and James, and by extension our relationship with our parish school, so we are hoping that some of our friends from Phil & Jim’s will join us.
When we arrive, we’ll not enter through the main reception doors, but through the doors that go straight into the school hall from the road. If you’re not sure where that is, just walk towards the school and there will be someone there to welcome you.
We’ll be worshipping there until the 21st July, when we’ll be worshipping over the summer holidays with our friends at St Giles’ – which should be a nice change for both churches which are usually quieter at that tie of year.
However, there’ll also be a couple of other times before then that we’ll be worshipping at St Giles’ – firstly, for our big joint benefice Pentecost celebration on 19th May, and then as we celebrate Siân’s first Eucharist on 30th June. We’ll have more on those closer to the time.
Our Sunday evening BCP Evening Prayer services will pause while we are closed, but all are warmly invited to St Giles’ Evensong services on Sunday evenings, using exactly the same liturgy but starting at the slightly later time of 6:30pm.
For most activities during the week that you attend, you will probably already know the arrangements, but just in case you don’t:
- Choir practice on Friday evenings will continue in the church’s lower vestry in the first part of the project, as that area won’t be affected at first;
- Toddlers on Friday mornings will be meeting in the Vicarage at the same time;
- Morning Prayer on weekdays at 8:30am will be taking place in St Giles’ Church, in the Lady Chapel there;
- The monthly Games Nights and Teens Film Nights will be taking place at the St Margaret’s Institute
Once the work gets underway we’ll keep everyone updated via our website and social media channels.