|
A LEICESTER church is now sporting a new bell tower and extended facilities thanks to local building company Westleigh Developments. The extension means the church is now in a position to appoint a new family worker to provide much-needed services within the community. St Hugh's Church at Eyres Monsell had been operating from a building which was initially intended to be temporary, since it was first built in 1957. Lack of funding meant a new church was never built and the existing building, scheduled to become a church hall, remained the place of worship. However, the church recently sold off land at the side of the building for a project headed by Westleigh and Nottingham Community Housing. This consisted of six bungalows and one house being built for people with disabilities, all of which have now been allocated for rental. Not only did this free up funding for the church, but Westleigh also agreed to build the church extension. The project has been hindered by bad weather and the discovery of asbestos in part of the original building, but Westleigh rose to the occasion, and the extension was officially opened with a blessing ceremony by Father Derek Brown on Thursday 7th July 2005. Amongst those present were Westleigh's Quantity Surveyor Richard Harris and Production Manager Mark Stuart, Architect Richard Wood, the Rev Richard Eastman of the United Reformed Church, Sister Justine of St John Bosco Roman Catholic Church, Youth Worker Graham Lloyd and a number of parishioners from St John's. Whilst blessing each of the rooms, Father Derek told those present he had felt a service of thanks was needed for all the hard work that had gone into the church extension. "I was in the former Leningrad in 1972 and I recall that each of the buildings there had the names of every man or woman who had worked on the buildings on them," he said. "It struck me that we had so many working here who had not received proper recognition in the eyes of the church and we wanted to thank them properly. We felt it would be nice to have a blessing ceremony, thanking God for their protection during the construction."
He said the appointment of a Church Family Worker is a major part of the church's future plans and this would not have been possible without Westleigh's help. The new extension houses an office for the CFW and a £70,000 grant application has been submitted to Children In Need to fund the worker for the next three years. "We are extremely grateful to Westleigh for all that they have done," said Father Derek. "If it wasn't for them, we wouldn't now be in a position to apply for this role. The new Church Family Worker will provide a number of vital services for this area, including educational and leisure activities for children, as well as support for families, particularly single-parent households." The new extension at the front of the church consists of:
* A large community hall with a sizeable kitchen attached
* A meeting room which can also be hired out to community groups
* Three WCs, including disabled facilities
* A new bell tower The church also has a new vestry built onto the back of the building. Youth worker Graham Lloyd, who works from his home at Glen Parva, has been working alongside St Hugh's Church to secure funding for the new Church Family Worker. He said the new worker would play a key part in improving the future aspirations of families within the community "There will be after school type provision, parenting skills, opportunities throughout the summer for parents to go on visits with their children, as well as a drive to encourage young parents to help support other young parents," he said. "The Church would also like to see some of the older generations supporting young mothers and trying to prevent the cycle that leads to teenage pregnancies by helping give their children higher aspirations to develop qualifications and careers and increase their personal sense of esteem." He said a vital part of the new Church Family Worker's role would be to ensure that young single men were also educated and supported.
"We are very conscious that young men need to take joint responsibility in bringing up their children. Too often projects just concentrate on the young mothers, whereas we need to concentrate on both genders. If there is a calling for it, we will also run a support group for young fathers." |
