St Edmund’s church is a well-loved landmark building in the heart of our community. It has served the town as a sacred place of prayer and worship since the early fourteenth century but, as you may have heard, the building is now in need of significant renovation.
We have recently replaced our boiler and the power wiring, through the generous giving of our church members, but at the moment we have only a temporary certificate for our 50 year old lighting wiring. This certificate expires before the end of the year and our church insurance will not be renewed without a new one. Failure to obtain a safety certificate will mean our Church will be closed by the end of the year.
The design of a church lighting scheme has been undertaken by Anthony J Smith, a Gloucester firm who are competitive on price and their design is sympathetic to the building. They have recently completed a successful lighting project in Brecon Cathedral. The design will improve our lighting system as it is currently well below recommended levels and does little to enhance the architectural quality of this historic building. We will install low-energy lighting and achieve safer maintenance arrangements. We have also appointed a local architect, Stefan Horowskyj as our project manager. He has worked previously for the church and has just completed a quinquennial inspection of the fabric.
We need £60,000 to complete this work and the church cannot commit itself to expenditure when there is no certainty that the bills can be covered. At present, we have no budget or reserves to cover this substantial cost. Due to the time-limited nature of the project, it is extremely unlikely that we will be able to raise a major proportion of the costs from grant-making bodies or from the Church in Wales. Church members are taking responsibility for the care of the church building, but we are aware that some of our friends in the community have already expressed a desire to help us in this venture – although we are not directly approaching anyone, we would, of course, appreciate any financial support.
This project is part of a longer term plan for the ongoing development of the Church, making it suitable for a wider range of uses. Further phases of the Development Plan over the next few years could provide the church with improvements, such as at the west porch. We are also hoping to take on a Families Worker to develop our support for younger people in the town.
We look forward to discussing our ideas with local people and the business community, providing an opportunity for everyone to contribute to the ongoing work. Our intention is that there will be a greatly increased appreciation of the wonderful building which has been passed into our care by previous generations of local people.