Our church is on a busy corner, in Hungate, only minutes away from the Market Place, Champleys Mews and Pickering Beck. A blue iron gateway marks the entrance to the churchyard and a sloping path leads alongside the well tended garden.
        The main entrance to the church lies at the top of this path with the porch that is the staircase leading to a gallery. People passing the gateway in recent months will have noticed building work in this normally quiet place, and wondered what was happening.
        Our Georgian church was built in 1789, it was extended in 1814, and a further extension made in 1867. Then the front part of the church, adjoining the road was added. The entrance porch was added some time after 1890 but this was not recorded.
        During the last 100 years, however, the porch has been slowly sinking at the right hand end, taking with it the the overhead canopy and the window above. Cracks have also appeared in the surrounding walls.
Many experts were called in and they finally came to the conclusion the inadequate foundations at the time of building was the cause. The only way was demolished the porch and rebuild it. Easier said than done. At this point much time and energy had been spent by Brian Bunting, our church secretary and organist in moving the project forward. As the church is a grade two listed building, permission to do with the work had to be considered by nine seperate bodies. Consultations lasted for three years.
        However, the work is now completed and our thanks and compliments go to Simon Atkinson of Atkinson Builders Ltd and his team of craftsmen who tackled the sensitive task so well. Their restoration of the Georgian window and its moulding is exceptional. Many thanks go to Brian Bunting for all his hard work in bringing this project about. Above all our grateful thanks must go to a well loved former Minster of our church the Rev. Edna. Forster, whose generous legacy funded this project.
        We warmly invite you to come through our new porch into our church for our Christmas Services. As the words of a well known hymn says: ‘go into his gates with thankfulness and into his courts with praise.’

Anne Redfern.