As part of our Vision for Mission we wanted to transform our church for God's mission in the 21st century.

To equip our building for mission we needed to make some modifications. And so we put in place plans to update our church building. 

Flexible Worship Space
Back in 2005 St James' reviewed the worship services in light of our Vision for Mission. As part of that review we agreed the need to develop a flexible worship space. We embarked upon a project to 'reorder' the church to achieve this.
The first part of this was the removal of the existing pews and their replacement with comfortable chairs. This has created a flexible space which allows us to be more creative with our worship services, and also permits community groups to make more use of the building.
The reordering has also provided space for a kitchen area, disable-accessible toilets and a meeting room. We can now offer proper hospitality to both church members and visitors to the church.

Recovering Hidden Heritage
Part of the church building project included removing the pipe organ and replacing it with a digital organ. This action liberated a beautiful mediaeval room in the tower, which has become a prayer and quiet room. There are fantastic ceiling carvings and stained glass windows which were revealed for the first time in decades. 

Here are a series of comparitive "before and after" photos of the work done.