One of the things that we pride ourselves on here at S.Thomas the Apostle is being both forward looking, radical sometimes even, and yet being firmly rooted in our Anglican heritage as the Church of England parish church.

This gives us responsibilities to the heritage of our sacred space: preserving it as the focus of Christian worship in Elson and Hardway, but at the same time, this calls us to build the Kingdom of God within this area: for the faith is not a relic of the past, but a vibrant and growing statement of our future hope in Jesus Christ.

This is why we are seeking to shape S.Thomas the Apostle into a sacred space which will support our worship both now and in the centuries to come. Some of these plans have been forced upon us by time: the 150 year-old pews have reached the end of their natural life, and they have a reputation as being some of the most uncomfrtable for miles around: necessary perhaps when it was felt you had to be uncomfortable in Church, but not what we think these days. Some of the rotton through pews have been removed for safety reasons and this accellerates our plans to remove the remainder and replace them with chairs.

If you would like to make a donation towards a chair (which will be approximately £60 each), then please use one of the envelopes in church, or contact Fr. Simon. The actual chair to be chosen is still in the last stages of voting, so come along and make your preference known.

Chairs can have a dedication plaque on them at a small extra cost. Gift-aided donations are especially welcomed, as it means an extra 28p in every pound donated.

Initially, we plan for a tranche of 50 chairs (which will give us around 90 seats to begin with), and to add a further 100 over the next 5 years when we can afford them. Your help now will make a difference for the next 100 years ot so (the expected life of these chairs).