Description

Bideford Centre of Light began as Bideford Spiritualist Church, in 1952. It was initially run from a members house for a short period of time, before re-locating to a very old building in Hart Street, Bideford. It was at this time that the church had a thriving Lyceum. After 2 locations in Hart Street and walls in disrepair, the church relocated to the Community Centre in Bideford for 3 years, where all the church services and healing were held. A generous member of the church used her workmen to rebuild the wall, enabling the church to move back to the present building. The committee at that time commissioned an architect to draw up plans to improve the interior of the building, but it was considered to be a project that was too expensive to bring it to fruition. It was around 2005, having done a lot of fund raising, the committee decided to extend and re-furbish the church. A couple of years later we employed an architect, who drew up the plans, and in consultation with our church members, we had an extension built which gave us the luxury of an office, separate kitchen, and toilet facilities for the dis-abled. We have a very comfortable room downstairs, with upholstered seating and plenty of tables, allowing us to use this room for occasional workshops, weekly circles, and weekly social chit chat after the week-end services, where we invite our congregation to join us for tea and coffee. We also have an extensive library open to all members. Upstairs, where we hold our services we have seating for up to 90 people. Through the generosity of our members and congregations and through the hard work of an excellent fund-raising committee, we were able to have a smaller mortgage from the SNU than we originally thought possible. One of our committee members and a team of volunteers worked extremely hard in the garden and we now have a beautiful space that is landscaped and can be used for relaxation, barbecues and other church events, such as our annual Open Day. The new build and re-furbishment took about 6 months to complete and it was on Wednesday November 18th, 2009, that we had a re-dedication service, taken by Minister Mrs Janet Gay.

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