Celebrating the "life" of St John the Divine Church

Liam and I went to St John the Divine Church on Holly Road on Thursday night to join them in a farewell celebration.

The church is in a parlous state physically, the steeple will have to be demolished as it is now extremely dangerous (part of the church is already roped off to prevent anyone having any rubble falling on them, both inside and out). The roof of the adjoining community centre has already exceeded its lifespan by some 7 years.

It is a terrible shame, nobody wants to have to move out of their church and centre, but if something truly cannot be saved, then needs must.

So the challenge now is for the Vicar and congregation to find a new place to worship and new venues to host their community activity. Most of this has now been resolved but they are still looking for somewhere with big ovens where they can cook the food for the luncheon club they run in conjunction with Age Concern.

I am making some enquiries on their behalf, I have thought of the Fairfield Centre on Sheil Road, Venture Housing on Boaler Street, the Sure Start on Quorn Street so far. I have written some emails to them today. Can you think of anywhere else which might have big enough ovens and a nice area for dining?

The party was absolutely packed with supporters, extremely well-attended, despite the atrocious weather, loads of lovely children and their parents, but also the older users of the community centre, congregation members and local residents. The PCSOs were there too and also the Community team from Kensington Regeneration.

Just while chatting to a few people I picked up four bits of casework.

What a shame to lose this resource, good luck to them all in finding new homes