WORSHIPPERS are preparing for the start of a new era as work on a church’s parish centre starts.

Residents raised most of the money needed to pay for the addition to St Barnabas Church in Emmer Green.

From a total budget of more than £350,000, only £37,450 is now needed to complete the building.

Work is expected to be completed by the end of May next year — just under four years after an appeal was launched.

The centre will have rooms for activities, a parish office, kitchen and lavatories and it will be open during the week.

The plans were drawn up by Maidenhead architects Daniel Lelliott Karuze and the building work will be done by Creative Construction and Design.

Robin Kent, a church warden and fund-raiser said: “We are very excited the building work has started. We still have some fund-raising to do but we are confident the remaining money will be raised in time to complete the project.”

The money was raised from donations from the public, fund-raising events and grants from charitable trusts, including £10,000 from the Garfield Weston Foundation and £3,000 from the Rank Foundation. Fund-raising events included concerts and a sponsored teddy bear parachute jump event in June last year in which the vicar, the Reverend Derek Chandler, threw bears from an elevated platform.

The church will be 80 years old next year and a joint celebration will be held to mark this and officially open the centre on St Barnabas Day on June 11. The Bishop of Oxford, the Right Reverend John Pritchard, has ben invited to cut the ribbon.

The next fund-raiser is a Christmas concert featuring the South Berks Concert Band on Saturday, December 13 in the church. For tickets (£10) call Douglas Rae on 0118 947 0195 or Alison Wood on 0118 946 2517.

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