Bishop Guli visits two Liverpool churches with a heart for housing

Christ Church Bootle and St Paul’s Litherland are serving their communities fruitfully but have major challenges with their buildings.

Christ Church has a growing and increasingly diverse congregation in their Victorian church, but the original vicarage that was used as a community centre needs major renovation, and the replacement 1970s vicarage is sliding off its foundations! The current vicar, Alex Peach, has led the congregation though a process of reimagining their buildings and their mission to serve their community. They hope that the two vicarages can be turned into affordable housing, and provide a capital sum to renovate their well-used church hall.

A few miles to the north, the small congregation at St Paul’s reluctantly moved out of their cavernous 1960s church a few years ago because it was too costly to heat and needed significant repairs. They have been worshiping in the church hall, which has become an essential community hub, hosting a growing number of local groups and organisations. Team vicar Ravi Sangra acknowledged that the 1960s church is dear to many local people, who used to attend services, or were married or christened their children there. But now he wants to explore with the congregation the idea of converting the old building into affordable flats - and serve the community in a new way, by providing decent, affordable housing for them.

Both these churches are working with Safe Regeneration, a local charity that supports communities to use their assets to provide housing and community facilities, and support job creation. Neither site is of interest to commercial developers, but in partnership with Safe Regeneration and with a grant from the Archbishops Council’s housing project, both churches can take the next step towards getting planning permission.

Bishop Guli commented, “It’s moving to see these churches have the faith and courage to turn challenges that might have overwhelmed them into opportunities for a new kind of mission and service to their communities. I’m delighted to see how the church, in partnership with local housing organisations, can start to provide housing in community for people in their parishes.”