RAISE THE ROOF

WE NEED TO RAISE NEARLY £300,000 FOR OUR CHURCH ROOF AND OTHER ESSENTIAL REPAIRS.

Our church, St Barnabas in Sutton (Greater London), is a Grade II listed red brick building which was built in 1884 to serve the people living to the east of Sutton Town Centre. Apart from worship services every Sunday and on major midweek Christian festivals, the church is opened to the community outside of service times on two days each week providing a warm space for people to either sit quietly, admire the beauty of the church, chat with others or take part in a number of activities (e.g. knitting) as well as having light refreshments. The adjacent church halls, managed and maintained by volunteers from the congregation, is used seven days a week by, among others, a pre-school, community groups and for children’s parties. There are no other comparable facilities in the parish.

Thirteen years ago, the church congregation raised £200,000 for major repairs then needed for the Spire, the North Valley Gutter and roof over the North Aisle as well as masonry repairs to the Western wall. The South Valley Gutter and roof over the South Aisle as well as its associated masonry is now also in urgent need of repair. Although temporary repairs have been and are undertaken, they do not tend to last over winter periods and there is a risk to structural damage whenever there is substantial rainfall.

To date, the church congregation has raised £234,347 (82%) towards) the current target of £283,570 required to undertake all the work needed. It is still holding fund raising events and seeking grants from further organisations but it is likely that this will not be enough to reach the target.

ARE YOU ABLE TO HELP US ‘GET OVER THE LINE’? YOUR DONATION, HOWEVER SMALL, WOULD MEAN SO MUCH TO THE CHURCH AND THE COMMUNITY AS THE FULL WORKS, ONCE COMPLETED WILL MEAN THAT THE CHURCH WILL BE FIT FOR LONG INTO THE 21ST CENTURY AND THIS WILL ALSO ENABLE THE COMMUNITY TO CONTINUE TO USE THE CHURCH HALLS.

The church itself is on a trajectory to increase church opening times and grow its community outreach but, at the moment, fundraising for the vital repairs is taking everyone's energy and there is little scope for focusing on further growth until the repairs have been undertaken which, subject to sufficient funding, it is hoped will be before the end of the Summer of 2025.

More about our church and its community can be found at www.stbarnabassutton.uk and www.achurchnearyou.com/church/832/ where our latest Parish Magazine can also be read as well a short history in the form of a tour of the church and the story of the life of the parish during the First World War.