Shire Baptist Church makes old wine in new wineskins a win(e)ner ! (sorry..)

Beautifully spacious and light main church

Usually, there is much furore when it comes to modernising a church. I've seen some rows in my time... But the superb, and seven-year-long rennovation of Shire Baptist church, ( not so much a 'rennovation' as an entire re-vitalising re-birth) was an unremitting success story. The church opened its doors to locals on Saturday and we celebrated an extraordinary achievement.

This is actually a CAKE!

 The whole church had be redesigned, and refurbished from its slightly dark, low-roofed, claustraphobic former life (which was set out beautifully in displays of wall photos).

But perhaps the most amazing thing was that the whole renovation had been done by pensioners! Designed, built, - I spoke to one lady who told me how she had been 15ft up on scaffolding wielding a roller ( and not the type you put in your hair!)

The church was magnificent testament to generations all joining together to keep the spirit of Shire Baptist church alive and kicking into a new era in a beautiful new building - airy, light, comfortable.... and I have NEVER seen such lovely ladies loos....   Ladies, you've got to give them a try! (and I'm told the Gents are pretty swanky as well, chaps...)

New Life at Shire Baptist Church

Rovers gives a boost to Henbury Streetz Project

We've come a long way. From an idea I had after seeing a street dance performance at a charity dinner, to getting a new street dance group started at Emmanuel Chapel in Henbury!

The crew at Emmanuel Chapel have been superb in really making it happen, my mum has got involved to raise funds and now we have enough money for street dance every Friday, with beat-box on the cards for the future.

Our new group of talented street dancers and the team all went to the Rovers stadium to collect money. Sporting our new "Henbury Streetz Project" T-Shirts, we raised several hundred pounds on one day, and great fun was had by all. Many thanks to everyone who dug deep: And there was a Rovers victory as well! Thanks to Rovers and our intrepid team of fundraisers and dancers!

Southmead's Bethany Church arts and crafts exhibition

...On Wednesday, I fought through the rain to Bethany's art and craft exhibition in Southmead; it featured the work of local artists and cards were on sale, personalised while you wait.

Afterwards, the church put on a superbly organised sit-down-tea for just £1, with sandwiches and a huge selection of cakes. The hall was packed out, and the organisers worked incredibly hard to make sure we were all topped up with tea.

The exhibition was held to raise money for the children's hospice, and as well as providing an superb afternoon out, particularly for many elderly residents in the area, the afternoon also raised £150 for charity. An afternoon well spent!

Henleaze Fair success - and over £100 raised for new Youth Group

I don't often sit down to get my nails painted, but when all proceeds are going toward the new Henleaze Youth group, set up by Henleaze mum Liz Radford ( pictured in the white t-shirt) , and the nail painters were local young people, well, how could I refuse?

They were amongst the many groups, charities and local crafts-people who had a stall at St. Peter's Church community fair in Henleaze, which I opened at the weekend. The fair raised funds for the church and continuing activities in the community, as well as for a variety of local and third-world charities.

It was particluarly good to see young people taking the initiative and raising money for their own venture. There was a water-tattoo stall run by some very young helpers as well as the nail-painting. The stalls raised over £100 in a matter of hours, and provided many happy customers with some very exotic nails indeed.

Resurrection for Shire's Tithe Barn

It's become a familiar story: Despite local protest, historic sites of enormous local interest get sold off to become yet more blocks of flats. The property developers move in, and gone is a unique heart of a local community - forever.

So it really is a burst of fresh-air when an historic community facility gets bought - not by property developers, but by a community group who want to pump new life back into it, for the community.

That's exactly what's happened with Shire's Tithe Barn. It has been bought from Bristol Charities by the PCC of St.Mary's Church, Shirehampton.

The Barn was opened for the first time in ages, to hold an open day for local people to come in and have an input into how they would like to see The Tithe Barn renovated and put to use.

I escaped from some arduous pre-local election leaflet delivery to have a look round and to have a chat with the dynamic Rev. Canon Christine Froude, vicar of St. Mary's church. She is hoping that the barn will be used to host a variety of community outreach initiatives, including social events, clubs, advice services and counselling, as well as additional church services for the ever growing congregation of St.Mary's.

Good luck - It will be a refreshing to have new additional facilities coming into Shirehampton, instead of watching yet more get stripped away.

Emmanuel Chapel - aka Tardis

Emmanuel Chapel is a sort of cross between the Tardis ( small and not particularly noticeable on the outside - enormous and doing masses of stuff on the inside) and that story of the loaves and fishes. For anyone rusty on their Bible, it goes a bit like this:

Jesus has been teaching and everyone's been out on the mountain listening all day - 5000 odd have turned up. Sermon over, everyone realises they're a bit hungry, but not a bite to eat in sight. Except for one lad who's had the foresight to bring a picnic - not a lot, a couple of loaves and a few fishes. Jesus asks his disciples to collect up all the food there is amongst everyone and they come up with this paltry sum. Disciples are unimpressed and worried because everyone's really quite peckish now. " Don't worry" says Christ. "That'll be fine". He divides the loaves and fishes up, and hey-presto, everyone - all 5000 of them - have enough to eat. And there's even some left over.

With the limited source of funding that they appear to have, Emmanuel Chapel do a huge amount of work and manage to make it go a very long way. They are not only a church, but also a place for young people in the area to come in the evenings and meet friends, chat and get vital adult support and input in a relaxed environment. And, almost loaves and fishes like, they say they still manage to set aside some money to give to charities. Amazing. Just imagine what they could do with more...!


Photo shows Henbury Council Candidate, Chris Windows, me, and Nikky Furst who helps run Emmanuel Chapel.