Faith in the Community: Refurbished space helps us provide better welcome

ONE of the ways in which our churches serve the local community is by providing space where people can meet, socialise and hold activities.

That’s especially true in places where there are few other large community centres or spaces that people can use. Our two churches in Fareham – Holy Trinity in West Street and St Columba in Hillson Drive – host all sorts of activities, including toddler groups, choirs, community groups, dementia support groups and uniformed organisations.

It’s based on our commitment to care for those who live in our community. It doesn’t matter whether they happen to have a Christian faith, a different faith, or no faith at all – we are here for everyone, whatever their background or beliefs.

However, our old church hall at St Columba was showing its age. It wasn’t a great place for groups to meet and we recognised we should provide better facilities – for our church and community activities.

We demolished that hall and have made it easier to host groups in the main church building itself. We already have chairs that are portable, so there is space to reorganise them for the Hillson Tots group, as well as Rainbows, Guides, Rangers and other groups.

Now we’ve also refurbished the back of that main worship area to provide storage area, new toilets and a kitchen, so any groups that meet there can offer tea, coffee, and refreshments.

It makes providing refreshments so much easier, as the kitchen unit opens out right into the main area of the building.

We actually host a congregation from another denomination there – St Mary’s Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church – and they meet there all day on alternate Saturdays. They are very grateful for the upgrade of our facilities, although their thriving congregation is growing so large that they might need to find an even bigger space. So are the Hillson Tots, who meet on Thursday mornings, as it’s not always easy to serve refreshments to toddlers and their parents!

We do have some plans for developing St Columba even further, which you can actually see if you visit St Columba’s Church itself. See what you think, and feel free to make some suggestions of your own. We’d love the building to be an even more thriving centre for the local community who live in this area of Fareham.

ST COLUMBA CHURCH, Hillson Drive, Fareham, PO15 6PFwww.htscf.org.uk