Update on Royston Parish Church
Since our last update work has continued apace on the final phase of the restoration/refurbishment of the building.
Although there has been much progress recently with groundworks being prepared in anticipation of laying the new floor, including underfloor heating, the creation of a new concrete ceiling to the boiler-room which has now been fitted out, as well as the installation of steelwork and construction of the floor of the ringing chamber in the tower, the programme for the completion of the work has had to be extended. The reasons for this have been associated with delays during the excavation works to the floor and unforeseen archaeology as various vaults were discovered and had to be strengthened.
Whilst this further delay comes as a great disappointment to us, we need to keep in mind the vision of how beautiful our church will be when it reopens: equipped for the 21st century with modern underfloor heating, flexible seating layout, improved disabled access, new toilets and kitchen, a new organ, a new audio-visual system and restored bells ringing out the good news across the town. The delay also gives us more time to raise the funds that we need to complete all the work.
As we have previously reported the cost of the refurbishment, which is in addition to the restoration costs covered by insurers, will be significant and we will be holding fundraising events in the coming months with a target of achieving the sum of £50,000. Amongst other things, there will be a Quiz and a Gift Day. The Gift Day will take place on Saturday the 26th March when all are invited to come to the church at any time between 10am and 3pm to support the appeal. A Prayer Day will be held the week before. The “Sponsor a Chair Scheme” continues to grow and we are still in receipt of generous donations. It is extremely pleasing to note that since our last update we have received a further generous grant of £30,000 from The Brian Racher Trust for which we are most grateful.
Once the church is handed back to us, we are planning a series of events as a “Festival of Re-opening” in which we will invite everyone in the town and all our generous donors and supporters to come and see the beautiful new space and to celebrate the church building as a hub for many exciting activities. The exact date for this is to be confirmed but is anticipated to be late summer after we have had a few weeks to settle in. Watch this space!
On the worship front, we continue to offer two services on a Sunday with a said Eucharist at 9am followed by a sung Eucharist at 10.15am. These take place at Icknield Walk First School with both services proving popular and despite the increase in the number able to attend it remains necessary to continue with a booking system, the details of which are on our website. We also continue to live stream the 10.15am service on our Youtube channel.
We have re-introduced the popular Tea Time Praise service on the first Sunday of the month at 3.30pm which also takes place at Icknield Walk First School.
All of these details will be found on our website together with information on how to support the church through donation as well as progress on the building works.
