Willowfield Church "Comes Home"
Willowfield Church of Ireland Parish Church will be reopened at 11.30am on Sunday September 16 – and for many local people it will feel like Coming Home.
The redbrick Victorian building has been in the hands of builders for the last two years, and the Sunday Services have taken place in the Church Halls on the Woodstock Road.
Willowfield Church situated at the junction of the Woodstock Road and My Lady’s Road, has undergone major refurbishment and re-ordering over the past two years. The 135 year old building was badly in need of repair, with wet and dry rot found in both roof and floor timbers. In addition to very significant structural repairs the church has been totally refurbished, with new chairs and new décor.
The building has been renovated in such a way that people will be able to see and hear everything that’s going on. The project costs escalated from £400,000 to over £1 million with the discovery of extensive wet and dry rot in roofing and floor timbers, so that for a time the roof was held up by internal scaffolding. In fact if the renovation work hadn’t taken place the roof was likely to have fallen in within 10 years.
Willowfield Church is very much a local church for the people of the local community in East Belfast. The Rector, Canon David McClay and his staff team are committed to serving the local community – their slogan is “in the Community – for the Community, in the city for the city.”
Next to Willowfield Church is a brand new community centre – the Micah Centre – built and run by Willowfield Parish Community Association, with all sorts of programmes running each day for families, teens, children, elderly people, unemployed and those from ethnic communities.
There is a warm welcome for everyone to come and see the work that has been done to Willowfield Church. As well as special services on Sundays 23 and 30th September (9am, 10am, 11.30am, 5.30pm and 7pm) there will special events in the Church building over the two weeks following the re-opening. These include an Evening for Healing of Community Memories (Monday 17th), a Community Concert with Mourne Young Defenders Flute Band (Tuesday 18th), a Table Quiz (Wednesday 19th), USA-style Thanksgiving Dinner (Thursday 20th), International Food Event (Monday 24th), Service for those who have been bereaved (Tuesday 25th), Sports Personalities’ Evening (Wednesday 26th) Mid-September Murder Mystery Evening (Thursday 27th and Story Telling (Friday 28) - all at 8pm.
Guest speaker Pastor David Parker from the Desert Vineyard Church in California will be speaking at events 20-24 September. For further information about all these events please ring the church office on 90457654.