Exeter church's £800,000 revamp unveiled

AN £800,000 revamp of a city  church has been unveiled to the  public.

The Mint Methodist Church  in Fore Street now has an updated look with a new foyer,    kitchen,  toilets, including two  for disabled people, and baby  changing facilities.

It has also included the removal of the 1970s tower at the  front of the church.

The project has taken around  10 years to reach fruition and  will officially open with a special weekend of thanksgiving  and celebration on April 24 and  25. The guest speaker on the  Sunday evening will be Rev Dr  Leslie Griffiths, Superintendent Minister at Wesley's Chapel,  London.

 Rev Andrew Sails, who leads  the church, said: “What we had  before was a very unfriendly set  of rooms which were very difficult to access.

“What we now have is a welcoming community centre  which is open from 9.30am to  9.30pm, a place which anyone  can wander into and have a  friendly welcome — it is the sort  of place where the community  will find it easy to come and  go.”

Rev Sails added that the Mint  Methodist had always looked  out towards the community and  offered Christian worship as  well as being a place for serious  study and prayer.

The church has a regular congregation of about 200 on  Sundays and also plays host to a  number of other users, from  Brownies to exercise classes  and community groups.

It also runs Midnight Mint  when free tea and coffee is  provided for clubbers between  10.30pm and midnight on Fridays.

Congregation member Peter  Coleman ectwas chairman of the  redevelopment committee, and  said: “The original scheme  turned out to be too expensive.  We renewed our plans at the end  of 2006 and I think most people    believe that what we have now  has turned out to be better anyway.

“Now we have superior  premises to what we had before  and when people see what has  been done we should get a lot  more interest from groups wanting to use it.”

More than half the money  needed for the improvements  has been raised by donations  and fundraising by the congregation with the rest coming from  grants.

The aim of the new foyer is to  give the church a higher profile  on Fore Street and, with a linking corridor at the front of the  church, provides better and  easier access to the rest of the  building.

The foyer, which has taken up  space previously used as part of  the car park, is manned  throughout the day.

It also provides a main entrance into the building where  previously there were three  routes in.

The church also now has a  balcony, providing extra seating, and an industrial kitchen  so that the building can easily  be used for small conferences.