Church linked to the Newfrontiers family of churches, holding Sunday services each week and mid-week activities for adults. Providing activities for young people and children. Seeking to outreach into the local community.
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Our story is that after many years renting space from the Civic Centre in Whitchurch for our Church meetings, the Beacon Church – a main stream Christian church affiliated to the “Newfrontiers” group of churches, finally bought the Watergate Centre building in December 2020. This is in an absolutely ideal location - it is the old “Argos/Store 21” building - originally built as a Tesco’s with 6000 square metres on each it its two floors.
Although the location is perfect, and the building is solid, very large and adaptable, it does however need considerable money to renovate it. We have managed to raise £ 330,000 so far (including our £210 k mortgage) but we estimate that it will cost a further £ 300,000 or so to complete the work. To this end we have launched the “Watergate Appeal”.
Since December we have made tremendous progress with the building - with the help of the electricians, plumbers, and those with building skills in the congregation, and we are now able to meet there regularly as a church and offer the building to others in the community:
"Men in sheds" have moved into the Mezzanine floor, and we have been able to offer a home to the Afghan refugees project, Caldecott Arts festival, U3A, and the WI & other local organisations are ‘waiting in the wings’!
Our challenge now is that we are now going to need professional contractors to do such work as putting in lifts, stairs, fire retardant areas, windows, facade, heating and air conditioning etc, so we are going to need some serious funds to come in for this.
We have four areas we are hoping to serve related to:
Deprivation:
· A "Food bank plus" – debt and budgeting advice
· Clothes/furniture -at the moment with refugees in mind.
· Repair centre (the Men in sheds are now in and adapting their space, and will be working with Mental health services)
· Job training enterprise - including training for those with disabilities in catering and hospitality skills at a proposed "Watergate Coffee House"
Adults in need
· With special needs
· Prison rehabilitation
· Asylum seekers (we have already met with Afghan residents and have invited Donations to be left at the building through the Shropshire Supports Refugees Facebook site)
· Elderly and lonely
Medical Help
Alcohol and drugs counselling and rehabilitation
Social prescribing in conjunction with the local GP’s·
Bereavement counselling
Children and Youth: :
· Mum’s and Toddler groups
· An after School club
· Youth club - including teaching Computer skills
A large part of our vision for the building is for it to be used as a resource for the Youth. The first floor of the building (6000 sq m) lends itself to a Youth area which could be equipped with snooker, table tennis and even a Cinema, with an ancillary room turned into a recording studio.
In summary
Our ethos is that of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who said "There comes a point where we need to just stop pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they are falling in."
A proactive approach to helping and equipping people early will prevent social, financial, mental, physical and emotional breakdown further down the line.
I have attached a copy of our Watergate appeal video which I hope you will take the time to watch!
Many thanks for your time and attention. We hope you agree any money give to towards this building will be an investment in our town and especially in our youth.
Dave Glyn Jamie Ken (Leadership team)