From choirs to story tents – the latest diocese grants

The latest round of Development Fund grants has dispersed £164K to seven different church projects ranging from the launch of a new community choir to church reordering schemes.

The fund was established in 2019 to divulge up to £1million a year for the growing needs of communities in Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Milton Keynes. The awards announced this month feature a mix of both Tier 1 (up to £2,500) and Tier 2 (over £2,500 or employing staff).

In Slough, a Story Tent project will be touring the local schools to bring people of all faiths together. The Development Fund grant has enabled the project to launch in July.

Father Scott Lamb said: “This is a pilot project that we hope will extend through the whole borough, bringing together different faith communities to build community cohesion and understanding among the children and young people. The development fund enabled us to provide the initial set up to set this up.”

St Mary’s in Chalgrove are planning to rejuvenate their youth choir, with a new junior choir development officer, funded by the Development Fund grant. 

Father Michael said: “The Development Fund grant gives us some financial security. We could do this on a shoestring but the grant means we don’t have to. Our previous families provision was well meaning but it wasn’t touching the sides. We had a family service with no families! Our hope is for this choir to become a church and community choir, not just there for church worship but also community events.”

The full list of awards is:

• Holy Trinity, Sibford – to improve access, fellowship and community engagement opportunities by reordering the church and installing a WC and servery.
• Holy Trinity, Cookham – to support an increase in community use of the church by installing an accessible WC and drainage as part of a reordering project.
• St John the Baptist, Cookham Dean – to support better community and school engagement and use of the church building by installing new AV equipment.
• Wycombe Deanery – to encourage young people and to support churches’ engagement with children and youth by running a deanery youth weekend away.
• Upton-cum-Chalvey – to grow engagement with local schools by running a pilot of the Story Tent project in St Mary’s Church, Slough.
• St Mary’s, Headington – to help expand capacity to serve the Barton community and grow outreach work by installing a kitchen and accessible WC.
• St Mary’s, Chalgrove – to develop mission with children and families, grow links with the local school and revive the church’s musical tradition by forming a church and community choir.

The next round of applications are due in 31 July. Visit our new-look webpages to find out how to apply and the kinds of projects which are supported.