Bishop's Stortford Methodist Church wants to be home to as many community-focused groups as possible and support local charities

Administrator Lynn Graseman looks ahead to the completion of building works at the Bishop's Stortford Methodist Church in South Street as it aims to have as many community groups making use of its facilities as possible...

Anyone who has passed by the Bishop's Stortford Methodist Church in South Street lately cannot have failed to notice there are major building works occurring.

This is to make it accessible to all by being all on one level, and will include a Changing Places facility to enable carers of disabled adults to access toilets and changing facilities that are not available in our end of the town.

We are hoping to have the whole of the church ready to use in early spring when there will be opening events for the community to enjoy. Meanwhile, we are busy planning to fulfil our mission of having community events on in the church Monday to Saturday, 10am to 4pm, when the building work completes.

Pre-Covid and the start of building works, our church was in regular use by groups such as Bishop's Stortford Food Bank, jobseekers' support service Kickstart, Bishop's Stortford Chess Club, the NHS, Herts Hearing, National Trust, U3A and the Bulgarian Fellowship Church, many of which have resumed their activities at the church.

Concerts by Bishop's Stortford Choral Society, Bishop's Stortford Sinfonia, Bishop's Stortford Band, Salvation Army Band(s) and the British Georgian Music Society have taken place in the church. Other charities have also held coffee mornings in the church as fundraisers.

The church is also used as a polling station, both for our elections and the Bulgarian elections for the local Bulgarian community.

The church is currently open for Sunday services at 10am and an afternoon dementia-friendly Songs of Praise service on the third Sunday of each month at 4pm, with tea and cake.

The food bank has continued to use our premises throughout the pandemic and other church groups, such as Knit and Natter, are beginning to resume activities too, but we now wish to gather information from the community as to who else would be interested in meeting in the church halls.

We would particularly like to help any community-focused groups – especially start-ups – by providing a favourable hire rate whilst they get established.

These groups could include, for example, baby signing, first aid for parents, activities to combat loneliness, and may just be a meeting place for a coffee and a chat, or could incorporate other activities such as board games, dominoes, and arts and crafts which we also hope to provide at other times.

We would also like to welcome local charities who may wish to run a coffee morning/afternoon as a fundraising project.

Our vision is that the church will be somewhere that is open as much as possible for people to drop in between 10am and 4pm, Monday to Saturday, for a coffee and a sit down in the new lounge area, as a quiet space perhaps for reflection in the church, or simply as somewhere to eat your lunch.

We envisage a place where families can relax and babies can be fed in a safe and warm environment.

If you have an idea, feel there is a particular need in the town or are looking for a place for your community group to meet during the day, then please do get in touch by emailing manager.bsmc@gmail.com.