“Bath Methodist Church needs to solve the challenge of preserving its connections to the local communities whilst showing that it is willing to “think out of the box” and act against the injustice of the current housing system.”
Pete, Church Steward
Chapel Repurposing
Bath
meet ...
Pete, Gareth and Tricia
Our why
Here in Bath and elsewhere in the UK, churches provide spaces for community events owing to their size and free access, but as congregations decline, these spaces are being lost and the quality of life of communities is affected. Hence we feel a responsibility to find ways to continue to provide these spaces, with a new model of development and maintenance of our church sites; and to ensure they continue to be used by the community and not for private development.
Our idea
Bath Methodist Church believes in building wellbeing in the communities where we are based - supporting the vulnerable while also offering creative expression in music, art and the spoken word. By providing a combination of living accommodation and community space we can deliver a dramatically higher utilisation of our buildings, while generating revenues that allow them to be future proofed. We plan to “pool” ownership with partners who share our objectives – most likely a coalition of community groups and national organisations with the necessary capital.
Our intention is to create a ‘template’ that can be adopted by other churches across the country so the impact of this work might be multiplied many times.
With Footwork's support ...
About
Pete, Gareth, Tricia and the team will hone a business model that creates a sustainable, self-funding building which is able to deliver the community space and social justice accommodation units that are planned, and ready the blueprint for take off!
Bath Methodist Church
Bath Methodist Church has a wide range of established community connections which we intend to use to reach out and consult on the proposals and, we hope, generate excitement in our vision and build a “coalition of the willing” which will strengthen as we build and then deliver on our plan.