St Martin's Church planned reordering

St Martin's Church in Liskeard is the second largest parish church in Cornwall. The building is a beautiful medieval listed building, with parts dating back to the early 1400s.

We are extremely blessed with our church hall complex, which is used by a host of local groups and clubs. However, it is now so well used that we are turning away people who would like to use it. Meanwhile, whilst open to the public, the church itself stands empty most of the week. The layout of the church, which is predominantly filled with pews, means there are limited opportunities for our community to make use of it.

In addition, our ancient heating system has finally died and needs replacing with a more eco-friendly system that will allow the building to be used throughout the week.

We have applied for and received all the necessary approval to reorder the church to make it much more flexible for community and church use. These changes will create one of the largest flexible spaces, and without doubt, the most atmospheric venue available in Liskeard.

As with all large projects like this we need to raise the necessary finances before the work can start. You can be a part of this exciting project by donating online.

We have chosen BT's MyDonate site for these donations, as all of your donations will come to the project, apart from a credit / debit card fee of just a few pence.

Click here to visit St Martin's Church "MyDonate" page and leave an online donation, and include any gift aid by checking the appropriate box.

No, if you prefer you can send a cheque payable to Liskeard PCC to St Martin's Church Centre, Church Street, Liskeard, PL14 3AQ and write "Church Reordering" on the back. If you are a taxpayer and making a donation by cheque, please download and complete the gift aid declaration.

The reordering project will involve several phases:

Phase 1

• Removing the majority of the pews to provide an open space that can be used for a wide range of community activities. The best pews are being retained and repositioned.
• Ensuring the building is kept at a constant comfortable temperature throughout the week through new eco-friendly underfloor heating. This will also help preserve the ancient fabric of the building.

Phase 2

• Improving the general facilities, by adding a kitchen, second toilet, and crèche area.

Phase 3

• Improving security with an upgraded CCTV system.

Phase 4

• Creating some more intimate spaces by adding etched glass screening.

• Installing the new seating and upgrading the audio visual systems.

• Refurbishing the Lewis organ.

The cost of the entire project will likely be about £555,000. St Martin's Church has already raised £505,000 from church funds, external grants and local fundraising. We are now in the final fundraising stage to raise the remaining £50,000.

This comprises £30,000 to 400 new chairs, and £20,000 for the new audio-visual. The new AV system will include a new screen that will come down at the press of a button; a new long-throw projector, permanently mounted on one of the pillars; Wi-Fi in the church; and a new sound desk and sound system, with new speakers and sub-woofers.

Our mission statement is "As disciples of Jesus, sharing God's kingdom through outreach and caring for others". For many years we have put this into action through a host of activities, providing a range of services for our local community.

Examples include:

• our ABC (Adults, Babies and Children) parent and pre-school children group which typically attracts 60 to 70 family members each week during term time.
• Open the Book, presenting bible stories to over 800 children in three primary schools each week.
• Friday club, bringing fun and games, craft and bible stories to 10 to 15 children in St Martin's Church of England school each week.
• Our weekly youth club during term time.
• The monthly Café Abundance, which uses food the supermarkets were about to throw away as past the sell-by date to feed people on a "pay as you feel" basis.
• A free monthly film club showing a family-friendly film. So far this year we have shown “Cars 3”, and the coming months will include “The Lego Ninjago Movie”, and “Paddington 2”.
• A free Wednesday lunch club for the older residents in the town, bringing them together for a cooked meal and fellowship.
• This Liskeard Community website, providing a host of local information for our residents and our visitors.

We have already had expressions of interest from groups looking to perform concerts and dance classes, and we expect the church to be used for art festivals, flower festivals, pop-up cafes and markets, and possible film shows. Through this increased community use we will also be bringing many more people into this beautiful ancient building.

On Sundays, the open spaces and additional facilities will also allow much more scope for new styles of worship services.

The church building will be closed, and church services will be held in the church halls. Control of the building will pass to the contractors, and there will be no public access. Assuming we can fund all of the phases at once, we expect the reordering to take approximately four months.

We will start as soon as we have all the funding in place, so please support us with a donation and help us to reach our targets as soon as possible!