St Paul's Chichester

Sanctuary - Hospitality - Spiritual Encounter

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Building Consultation Document 

Building a legacy for our community 

The consultation has now closed 

1 Project summary

• The Church Project is the name given to the refurbishment of the church including installing new lightings, acoustics and improving disability access.
  
• The Parish Centre Project is the name given to the refurbishment/modernisation of the parish centre with a view to addressing it’s current challenges.
  

2 Background

St Paul’s church was built in 1836. It is one of several Anglican churches in Chichester, and is situated near the Festival Theatre, just to the north of the city centre. The church and parish centre is open every day.

The church and parish centre is thriving, under the leadership of the Rector, the Revd Canon Simon Holland. There are over 300 adults on the electoral roll, a range of fully subscribed children and youth groups - such as boys and girls brigade and messy church.

The parish centre is very much used for community events and is often fully booked. We would like to make a commitment to extensively refurbish the facilities for the benefit of our community.

3 Scope of Consultation

We hope to consult widely with the church community, our local community and our current and prospective users.

4 Case for Consultation

We want the church & parish centre to continue to be a welcoming and accessible community space for a wide variety of purposes, musical and other cultural events, activities that will continue to bring more children and families into the main church space during the week and at weekends. Currently, our Parent and Toddler group, which uses the parish centre, is at full capacity and unable to expand due to lack of space. Our parish centre receives more bookings than it is able to cater for and some require more space and better kitchen facilities. These activities/events will also enable us to generate new funds to grow our church mission activity in Chichester and further afield.

We intend to make the church and parish centre more accessible for those with a variety of disabilities. The acoustics are poor and make it difficult for those with hearing difficulties (and often those without) to hear words and music clearly. Good audio-visual facilities would add a new dimension to the ways in which we can bring the Good News to people, as well as enhancing other events. These are a few of our ideas and we are open to further suggestions.

We believe that these refurbishments will benefit both the church community and the Chichester community. It will also help to continue to provide a valuable amenity for local schools, children and youth groups. These changes will help us to create a space where we, and future generations, can encounter God in a 21st century setting.

4 Here are some of the groups\events who currently benefit from the Church & Parish Centre, or have benefited from it in the past:

We would welcome your input if we are to build a legacy for our community. Please fill in the questionnaire and return it to the office or to a church volunteer.