Author: Peter

Lumen Project Day 22 – The build has started.

We are now three weeks in to the Project and most of the demolition has been completed. No need for air conditioning the wind can get right through the building. A very fresh start on these mornings.

On the positive side the bricklayers have been in and the dwarf walls in each of the sanctuary Windows are now in place. They are just what was wanted.

We wait to see what developed over the next week. I have been  told that the window manufactures will soon be in to get the final measurements.

We are moving forward

 

 

Lumen Project Day 16 – 25 September 2018

If you go down to St. Mary’s tonight be prepared for a BIG surprise.

Gill Sakakini our minister has been in consultation with our builders and look what they have come up with.  It has been said that you would have an impact on our church but we did not expect this.

WELL DONE!

Lumen Project  Day 15 – 24 September 2018

Here we are on Day 15 two weeks since the start of the Lumen Project and the work of removing the offending Mullions continues.   The removal work on the South Window is complete and the dressing of the masonry for the dwarf wall and the window frames is underway, The North window has nearly all the old mullions removed; only a little remains at ground level.

We have now had several services in the hall and are getting used to our new surroundings. Midweek service on Wednesday at 10:30 then we get a week off as we have our Benefice Service at St. Paul’s  on the 30^th September  the 5^th Sunday of the Month. This Service is at 10am so for us an early start.

You will be kept informed as to the progress on Project Lumen and we continue to to Look in, Look up and Look out from St. Mary’s.

Lumen Project   – Day 7

Our first Sunday in the hall! This is a new experience for us. Gill and her workers have done a great job on making the hall look more like a worship centre than a brick faced utility hall. Mary has dusted off the piano and is now getting to terms with the upright.

Congregation arrived and seem very pleased with the way things look. Perhaps the chairs are not the most comfortable, but no one fell asleep during Gills inspiring sermon.

A few teething issues, not problems but those will be ironed out in the weeks to come.

We seem happy here for the time being but I am sure that we all look forward to when we can get back into the main building.  If you would like to come and join us at one of our services they are every Sunday and Wednesday at 10:30 am while we are in the hall.

We are Looking In , Looking Up and Looking Out with this new Project.

     

The end of the first week of work and we can certainly see signs of the work in progress.  The demolition of the old mullions is underway. It was a good job that the Organ was covered and sealed in polythene, as there is a lot of dust, and we have only started on knocking down the old.

We look forward to our First Sunday Service in the hall. We will let you know what it was like later.

Not only us Looking In, now all can see.

 

Today we had our first service in the church hall.

Gill our minister has pulled all the work together to create these peaceful and reflective screens and temporary alter.

This turns our plain hall into our worship centre for the next couple of months, quite a dramatic transformation. Something different to make us think of why we worship and leading us to focus on

Looking In, Looking Up and Looking Out

The first of the offending mullions has been chipped away and the rusting metalwork exposed. we can now see the construction and the work ahead.  To see this we certainly have to Look up to the old windows, I am not so sure that this is the meaning of our tag line.

Looking In, Looking Up and Looking Out

 

All the preparation years of planning and fund raising at long last the day has arrived and we hand our church building over to the builders.  The Scaffolding arrives and is erected and we are now out of the building for the next 10 to 12 weeks.

Still we have a new experience and challenge to look forward too,  Services in our hall  a new adventure while we await the completion.

Before the builders could come in to the church we had to remove all the items that could be damaged by the dust created by the window removal. We did not have long as we had our Battle of Britain Service which also celebrated 100 years of the RAF. A large service for us.  This finished at Lunch time.   With the help of the Air Training Corps in moving the pews after the service the congregation were able to come in later to do the rest of the work. This was finished in double quick time, thanks to ALL the helpers that turned up. Below is a view of what went on.