Page 7 - Moravian Messenger Oct 2020

flooring boards could be laid, and then the dais was erected using some wood saved from the seats of the old pews. All this internal work was done by the brethren of the congregation. Br David, Carol and I travelled to Bath Weston to collect some wood chairs that they had promised to us. We borrowed a VW pickup one Saturday lunchtime and arrived back Sunday afternoon. Sr Carol Hudston's father made and donated to the Church the lectern ready for the opening. He also made the Baptismal Stand and the flower stand in the entrance sometime later.
As the work progressed we set ourselves a date for the opening of our new Church. We invited the Chairman of the Board to preach, Bishop John Foy, Br Bob Burd to represent PEC also the Chairman of the Mirfield Churches, Rev Ray Trezise, as well as friends from other Moravian congregations. On 19th September 1970 we assembled for the Opening Service led by Br David J. Hudston, without whom I have to say, we may not have had a building. As the congregation assembled in Church, the Church and Building Committee met in the vestry to process along with Bishop Foy down to the Church door, and after Bishop Foy had knocked for entry, very much like Black Rod knocking to enter Parliament, we were let in by Br Burd and we processed into Church. Following the service, as is the custom on such occasions, refreshments were served and fellowship was enjoyed. On the Sunday Morning Bishop Foy conducted a service of
Holy Communion.
Now that the new Church building was opened and we could once again meet together on the site of the old Church, we had to put our minds to repaying the loan from the Board.
As I said at the beginning, the building we started with was different to what we see today. The most significant changes to the building have been the addition of a store room which filled the gap between the Church and the manse. The next thing we realised was the difficulty on a Sunday of crossing the open space between the vestry and the Church, especially on a Communion Sunday: if it was windy the minister tried to hold down the doily on the paten so that the wafers didn't blow away. So we built a new meeting room which gave us a bit of extra space and gave us covered access to the Church from the vestry. A few years down the line, in the time of Br Hopcroft, it was decided to take the space between the toilets and the new room and build what we now call the side room to give us again a bit more space and having long windows it was easy to convert two windows into doors to give us the access to the room.
After working hard over the years to pay back the loan, we were in a position to repay the final £1,000 in 1973. It was decided to organise an evening and invite a member of the Board to come up to Wellhouse to receive the cheque. We decided that the brethren of the congregation would host the evening, prepare and serve the meal as a thank you to all the sisters who had worked so hard over the years to help raise the money. We decided to start with soup and a roll, then main course of meat, stand pie, salad, pickles, crisps, and as a sweet we would have apple pie and cream. At this point we turned once more to our sisters for their help with the apple pies. Tea or coffee with After Eight mints would just round off the meal. Afterwards, we presented the cheque to Br Edward Barker who represented the Board. At that first Men's Supper, we decided we needed to restrict the number we could comfortably seat to 120 - if we only had that problem today. And we made a loss of £2.61 on that evening.
I was treasurer at the time of the opening and the fundraising
got going in earnest. We had many fundraising events and the
old Building Fund account book shows: Buy a Brick, three
Sponsored Walks £685, Jumble Sales, Scrabble Tournament,
Diminishing Coffee Parties, Sales of Raspberry Jam, Garden
Parties, Dutch Auction, Silent Auctions, Coffee Evening with Bring
& Buy, 1p a Day Scheme £11, One Day's Wage Scheme £103,
Donations from Other Moravian Churches £256, Nearly New
Sales, Talent Scheme, Y.W. Fashion Show and Sponsored Slim
(which came first), Opening Service Collection £43.12s, Profit
on Teas £18.17s, and many more individual efforts and
donations. Wellhouse
In preparing this, it has been a time of remembrance and also a time of thanksgiving; thanksgiving for all that was achieved, for all those who have gone before us, for the example they left us to follow and for the heritage they have left us to enjoy.
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Br Kenneth Evans
© Br K Evans