Final Jubilee Hall update
We have finally opened our doors!
After what has seemed a very long wait, and at times very frustrating, the Jubilee Hall is now complete, and in use! And it is lovely, as you can hopefully see from these pictures.
The joys of planning applications, what must be done about trees and car parks and drains, needing to re-draw part of the plans midway, very mixed weather and the coronavirus have all contributed to the delay, but we have kept going.
We always believed in the vision God gave us of a space to help and to bless the community alongside our existing church building. We now have a much larger hall space than before, which can be subdivided into two, plus two smaller meeting rooms.
The building is self-contained, with its own kitchen and toilet facilities, so two activities can now run alongside each other in separate buildings. It's certainly warm with the underfloor heating and much better insulation. Those of you who remember the old Banbury hall will be especially grateful for this!
Although we have not been able to have a formal opening for the building due to the ongoing restrictions on sizes of gatherings, we have already started using it both for our own activities and for several community services and hirings.
Please do get in touch with us if you are interested in using any of our church spaces.
Obviously a massive thanks goes to Ed and his team of builders and contractors, to Mark Tutton as the architect, and to all in the church who helped in various ways with planning, fundraising and administration. We were able to make a small presentation to Ed and to Mark in a recent service to say thank you.
Most of all our thanks to God for giving us the vision in the first place, the determination to keep going, and for always providing for our needs, just as he promises to. May this hall be for His glory and for the blessing of everyone in our community of St. Julian's throughout the coming years.
New year update
Now the Hall is weather proof swift progress is being made on the interior.
Check out our
events page for how to get involved in the
Events Team for the Hall.
Update - new floor in time for Christmas!
With the roof on, focus has switched to the interior of the new hall with the floor being laid this week.
Update - the roof is on!
Despite the weather the builders have made great progress in getting the roof on this week.
Update - December 2019
You could be forgiven for wondering whether our new Jubilee Hall was going to get built after all! We have been saddened and frustrated by the long delay for six months, when the weather was ideal for building. Now our stoic builders are battling against winter weather, but are making really good progress.
During the summer it looked like things had come to a stand still. But a lot of work was going on under the surface.
The regrettable hold-up was due to work on diverting a drain which had been running under the old building but was not permitted to remain under the new build. However, after much liaising with Welsh Water and the necessary paperwork being completed we are delighted to see the building going up now at some speed. As we write we are looking forward to the stage when the roof can go on and the winter weather will have less impact on the progress that can be made.
We would like to thank everyone affected by the building project for your patience and hard work as we all try to continue serving the people of our community. Since the old hall came down, groups have been sharing a much smaller space and there has been the need for thoughtfulness and cooperation in greater bucket loads than before. And we must mention those who are moving the chairs around every Sunday before and after the services, so that the church sanctuary can be used by groups during the week—
thank you.
Perhaps this is a good time to remind ourselves of what the apostle Paul wrote in his letter to the believers in Rome:
Therefore since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of highest privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they are good for us—they help us learn to endure. And endurance develops strength of character in us, and character strengthens our confident expectation of salvation. And this expectation will not disappoint us. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. ’ (Romans 5 v 1-5 New Living Translation)
Update - September 2019
After what has seemed a long wait, the builders are back on site and progress is being made.
Building work update - May 2019
You may be wondering why there appears to be no activity on site in the last few weeks. The reason is that it became apparent
there is a large drain under the site. There has in fact been a lot of work going on by our builders in discussion with welsh water and the necessary paper work to make sure stringent guidelines are adhered to in the re routing of this drain.
Every effort is being made by all concerned to resume the building work as soon as possible.
Ground work has begun on the Church site, the entrance driveway is no longer accessible.
Please use other driveway to enter the Church site.
The replacement for the Banbury hall is about to start from Monday 4th March 2019.
We are unable to take bookings for parties during the duration of the building work.
Once all building work is finished, we will be open to take new bookings.
We will keep this page updated on future developments.