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This is a text-only version of an article first published on Wednesday, 19 August 2015. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
Posted on 19. 8. 2015WITH the summer holidays in full swing, plans for Christmas Day are likely to be a far cry from most people's thoughts for the next few weeks. But at St John the Baptist, Kingston Lisle, the congregation is hoping a re-opening celebration will coincide with the celebration of Christ's birth on December 25 th .
Angus Saer, the church warden, spoke as the scaffolding was being put up at the 12 th century church, which is currently on English Heritage's 'At Risk' register.
Work is about to start on a £315,000 restoration project including urgent repairs to the roof and walls and continue with the installation of new heating and lighting, redecorating, improving the seating and installing a new organ. Angus, a stockbroker by trade, has learnt a lot about charity fundraising since becoming church warden.
The campaign has seen Angus, along with the Rector, the Revd Leonora Hill and the PCC, work hard to secure a £165,000 Heritage Lottery Fund award as well as funding from the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust, the National Churches Trust and several other grant giving trusts.
A pub quiz, literary evening and concerts in the village raised £12,000 and the church received donations of £50,000 from local residents. Angus said: "The restoration work is not only to safeguard St John's for the future but to transform it for our congregation, which has quadrupled in size since 2009.
Andrew Townsend, an architect from Faringdon has done a brilliant job for us.
It's about making the church as welcoming as it can be.
It's making it somewhere accessible for school trips and for people interested in church history. "Angus and Leonora had previously been to a Leading Your Church into Growth event in Oxford, aimed at priests and church wardens.
"The message I took away with me was that people will pay to build God's house. Our village has been fantastically generous."