A CHURCH has warmly welcomed a donation which will help restore heating to the building in time for winter – after almost a year without.
The congregation of St Peter and St John’s Church endured a cold winter after the boiler suddenly broke down last September.
But a grant of over £26,300 from the Asda foundation will go towards bringing heating back to the Clifton Road church and its community hall.
Rev Sheila Bridge said the church community rallied around to arrange temporary heating last winter to keep all community groups functioning – “but we were very cold!
“Over the last few years this church and its church hall has become an increasingly important hub for the local community, hosting social groups, craft groups and a mother and toddler group.
“It is also the venue for the local Scout Group which uses the hall four times a week. In addition to this the church regularly hosts music concerts.”
Since its launch in 2015, the church’s Project Welcome campaign has reopened its original front door, which has been blocked up since 1984, made internal rearrangements, and added new paths around the outside of the building to improve disabled access – with the overall aim of re-configuring the building as a community resource.
Rev Bridge added: “This is the only community building in this part of Rugby. We have a great community space that we know people would like to make better use of.
“It is absolutely wonderful news that our application to Asda Foundation has been successful and we look forward to being able to expand the benefit of this building to our local community.”
