Heart of the City Project

Introduction

Following a year of preparation, the PCC expressed its unanimous support on 19th September 2016 for an exciting but costly set of plans for our buildings, which we believe are necessary for the future of St Thomas’ Church. You can see the detailed plans here: Heart of the City plans. If this project is to happen, it will need the involvement and sacrificial generosity of the whole church. This year, we will be submitting our plans to the council, and hope that building work can commence at the beginning of next year. With this in mind, our 2018 focus is on fundraising in the community.

Heart of the City Project - our 2018 vision

At the start of 2018, Jon Scamman, our vicar, set out his vision for our Heart of the City Project.

As we get closer to submitting our plans to the council, for this exciting project, Jon is encouraging every member of the congregation to get involved in at least one fundraising initiative in 2018, and to put the "fun" back into "fundraising".

Read about his 2018 vision here: Heart of the City.

Presentation from our Architect, Dan Brown

On 14th March, Dan Brown and Jon Scamman shared the revised plans for the church centre, which have now been submitted for planning permission. To read that presentation, please click here.

A view from the top

Jon Scamman and Tim Parsons (project manager for Heart of the City) paid a visit to the top of the spire to admire the new cross, set in a beautiful stone, and the pointing work. It all looks amazing!

Fundraiser update - Vintage Tea Party

This fantastic event was a huge success with 140 afternoon teas served.

We raised over £1,500 (including some extra cake sales after the service on Sunday). Thank you to everyone who helped bake, serve, set up and clear up afterwards... and thank you to those of you who supported the event by bringing along your friends to enjoy the afternoon.

One of our fundraisers wrote such positive comments about helping with the event, we would encourage you to read "Reflections of a Vintage Tea Fundraiser".

Interested in starting your own fundraising initiative?

You can download several templates for your fun fundraising event including:

A poster to advertise your event
Invitation cards
"Money raised for" information cards
Sponsorship forms

Use these templates to advertise your event and to help raise funds.

Want to let your donors give money online?

We have set up a Heart of the City account on www.give.net. You can set up a personal giving page on www.give.net by following the instructions in this link: Instructions for setting up a giving page. Why not have a look at the Scamman family's give.net page, to see how your own page might look?

Stuck for Ideas?

Here are some of the creative ideas discussed at our Fundraising evening. With so many ideas to choose from we have decided to focus on a few key events to begin with, such as a themed cinema afternoon and a vintage tea party... but there is nothing to stop you from getting going straight away and organising your own small (or large) event in the community.

Please do share your ideas with us, and let us know if you are running an event and would like help advertising that. Have you checked out our Facebook page yet? This is where we will be sharing photos and write-ups of any fundraising events that have already taken place and we will also advertise future events here. You can also message us directly via the Facebook page if you have any questions about fund-raising.

"Fundraiser of the month"

Paddington

Our "fundrasier of the month" for March is the team who organised the first ever St. T's Community Cinema event in church. Around 150 adults, children and bears came along to watch a screening of Paddington 2.

They managed to raise a staggering £450 towards our Heart of the City Project! We had some really positive feedback... "What a fabulous afternoon at St. Thomas watching Paddington 2. Wonderful atmosphere, fab film and full of community spirit. And so popular - absolutely full of people! Please do another film afternoon - we had such a lovely time!"

A huge thank you to the team who organised this community event.

Please continue to pray for this project and give thanks for those who are giving their time and effort to fundraising in the community.

Progress updates for the Heart of the City Project

Newsletter - Heart of the City Update May 2018

Download the May update here

Newsletter - Heart of the City Update March 2018
Download the March update here

Headlines from the March update

Pledges: By 31st January we had raised £645,034 including Gift Aid payments, a fantastic base for us to build on as the fundraising campaign continues in 2018.

Spire: scaffolding will be erected from 12th March onwards and should hopefully be completed by end of June.

Building Project Open Evening: join us for an update on the latest building plans for our Heart of the City project, on Wednesday 14th March from 7.30 p.m.

Fundraising events: our next fundraising event will be on March 17th at 2.30 p.m. in church - St. T's Community Cinema will be showing Paddington 2.

Heart of the City Giving Pledges

Pledges are welcomed at any time throughout this project.

►To download a copy of the pledge form, click here

Thanks so much for your interest in our building plans, and we are grateful for your support and prayers.