We are now settling into our temporary home at St Margarets Church as the work on our church renovation gets started. So just what are we doing to our church at Aberlour? Well here is a flavour of what is happening:

  1. Installing a new boiler and relocating it to an upstairs boiler room.
  2. Creating new male/female/disabled toilets in what used to be the vestry & toilet wing (this is also where the boiler will be)
  3. Removing the remaining pews (contrary to local press this has not been a controversial move – several of the pews were removed years ago and the intention then was that the rest would follow!)
  4. Creating a kitchen at the back of the church underneath the balcony.
  5. Creating a small meeting room underneath the balcony opposite the kitchen, this will have moveable partitian walls so it can left open and part of the church.
  6. New flooring
  7. Ceiling cracks repaired and ceiling repainted.
  8. Installing a new audio visual system (sound and projection)
  9. Reusing the wood from the pews to create panelling for the church side of the kitchen walls and doors for storage cupboards at the back and front of the church.
  10. Insulating the roof space and the two long exterior walls – this is perhaps the most controversial part of the renovation as it will result in stone walls being covered and painted.
  11. A new front door.
  12. Purchasing a further 100 chairs which are high quality folding chairs that will be stored in one of the new cupboards at the rear of the church and will be used when needed for weddings/large funerals, concerts etc.

So as you can see quite a bit of work is involved. We anticipate being able to return to the church in February. In the meantime we are very grateful to our friends at St Margarets for being such helpful hosts and neighbours.

But why are we doing all this work? Several reasons – some of it needs doing (heating, lighting, decoration); without a hall of our own we need a more flexible space; we have no kitchen facilities which makes catering even for simples teas after the service difficult; our heating bills are huge and we simply need to make the building more sustainable – our ‘green’ credential will be greatly increased! But more importantly the changes will make our church more inviting and usable. We have so many ideas of what we coud be doing but our building restricts this currently. Our vision is to be a church in the community and serving the community.

I am very excited about the changes and see so much potential in the building and the people who are part of the church – the years ahead will see this fulfilled, I am in no doubt about this.

See below for some ’before’ pictures.

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