This is a text-only version of an article first published on Thursday, 14 November 2013. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
AS the December edition of the Door was going to press, the newest church in the Diocese was being dedicated in High Wycombe. Christ the Servant King has been formed of St Birinus and St John's Churches.
The two churches merged in 2003.
Work began on the shiny new building in January 2012 and the doors opened to worshippers in May this year. Vicar, the Revd Stephen Whitmore, explained that around the year 2000 the High Wycombe team was considering its future.
The then Bishop of Buckingham, the Rt Revd Mike Hill joined the discussions about reducing the number of buildings and clergy.
St Birinus was in interregnum and while both churches were perfectly capable of working independently, they decided to merge.
"We spent a year in the process of coming together, creating a common vision and part of the vision was to create one church building instead of two," said Stephen. St John's was sold and St Birinus was redeveloped into the new building, which was given the name Christ the Servant King which replaces the grim, 1960s architecture of the St Birinus building.
"It had low ceilings and was quite dark.
We now have a more welcoming building.
We were driven by needing to have much more interaction in the local community," said Stephen. He spoke to the Door the morning after a local history group had held a meeting in the church's auditorium.
"There are playgroups meeting there and a community café, it's just that much better in terms of facilities really. "It's a great place to worship in and there is a lot of interest from the community with people dropping in wanting to look around.
We have had a lot of inquiries about parties and things being held here. "Stephen said that during the building work, the congregation met at a local school on Sundays.
"That was a good experience, not having a building for 16 months.
We learnt a lot about being more in the community.
The school were very good hosts. " He added: "The project has been a real success but of course we have spent 10 years getting to this point and we are engaging with a larger vision for what we are doing longer term. "