Sheffield Church wins £17,500 grant for urgent repairs

A £17,500 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant will help fund urgent repairs and new community facilities at Cemetery Road Baptist Church to enable it to continue its great work of service to local people.

The grant will support window repairs and the installation of slimline secondary glazing to windows in the attached hall. In addition, there will be work on a welcome area including the reordering of the toilets.

Mike Green, the church’s volunteer fundraiser, said the grant award was “an amazing answer to prayer.”

He said: “ With 65 per cent of the project’s £113k costs now secured, we are currently exploring how to be a catalyst to help re-connect communities and how to reduce our carbon emissions.

"Forty university psychology, architecture and business administration students are exploring local neighbourhood needs and how we can work with the wider community to serve those needs.

“Their findings will influence our building's future as a shared place of worship and local community hub.

“We warmly thank the National Churches Trust’s support staff, committee members and donors.”

Broadcaster and journalist Huw Edwards, Vice President of The National Churches Trust, said:

“I’m delighted that Cemetery Road Baptist church, Sheffield is being helped with a £17,500 National Churches Trust Cornerstone Grant. The grant will facilitate window repairs and additional work on a welcome area and toilets.”

“The grant will safeguard unique local heritage and help Cemetery Road Baptist church continue to support the local community as we begin to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic.”

A total of 67 churches and chapels in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will benefit from the latest grants from the National Churches Trust, the charity supporting church buildings of all Christian denominations across the UK.

The church founded in 1839 has been the largest Baptist church in Sheffield for decades, and now the church welcomes significant numbers of refugees and asylum seekers, fleeing persecution in the Middle East and Africa. During the Covid Pandemic the church has been very actively supporting the community around it.

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