Canolfan Penrallt, Bangor

Penrallt Baptist Church was struggling to connect with their local community until they converted part of their church building into a community centre and handed over the running of it to local people.  The result is a church completely embedded and confident of its place in the local community, committed to partnership and keen to play a wider role in the development of their city.

Invisible and irrelevant

Ten years ago Penrallt Baptist Church, Bangor, was a small evangelical church meeting in a 125-year-old building tucked away down a side street in the city centre. There was a desire to grow as a church and since then the conviction has grown within the congregation that growth in ministry has to be expressed through interaction with their community. At that time they felt they were invisible and largely irrelevant to the wider population of the area.
The journey from irrelevance to interaction began when, for lack of space, the morning service moved out of the church building into a school on one of Bangor’s more troubled estates. The three years spent there were good, but despite the church’s best efforts they failed to create any real partnership with the local residents’ group. 

We were seen as a group of middle class religious zealots who drove in on a Sunday and disappeared until the next weekend. Although we formed a few friendships and won some respect, overall we were disappointed with ourselves.

Although the church offered help, they were unable to find a way to match the residents’ needs with the church’s available skills. “We were seen as a group of middle class religious zealots who drove in on a Sunday and disappeared until the next weekend,” was their comment. “Although we formed a few friendships and won some respect, overall we were disappointed with ourselves.”

About five years ago the congregation of Penrallt Baptist was re-housed in a brand new building following amalgamation with another church. That made the former Capel Twrgwyn, a Grade 2 listed building and one of the area’s oldest (opened 1854) and biggest chapels, redundant. The church negotiated with Cadw to modernize the interior and after their approval, bought it, and embarked on a half-million-pound refurbishment programme.

The church’s experience on the housing estate had taught them that although they had a highly skilled and capable congregation, these people are very busy in their professional lives and have little left over to offer to the community through the church. But they decided that what they could offer was the building, so they decided to turn the rear part of the building (known as “The Vestry”) into a fully-equipped community centre, Canolfan Penrallt, and to share the running of it with the community.

The decision was not taken lightly, and only taken at all after consultation with the community leaders. The church established by research that there was a shortage of good facilities for community groups (indeed, even at that stage groups were expressing their interest in booking an evening or afternoon). They established that there was a strong interest in seeing the building transformed into a community facility in strong contrast to so many other similar buildings which have been turned into flats or commercial properties.

It became important to send a strong message to the community that God’s church is not an exclusive club, but an open, wide-embracing gathering of people who are doing their best to live justly in a broken world. A management group was set up, comprising five church members and four representatives from the different community groups who had expressed interest in the community centre.

Building the partnership

The intention to share administration with the community was a difficult one, which caused a certain amount of tension and discussion within the church membership. The leadership felt that the church needed to express a spirit of generosity by more than just renting out space. It became important to send a strong message to the community that God’s church is not an exclusive club, but an open, wide-embracing gathering of people who are doing their best to live justly in a broken world. A management group was set up, comprising five church members and four representatives from the different community groups who had expressed interest in the community centre. This sent a very powerful message that the church is here to share what we have with others, and that it wishes to meet them at their level as people. It must be said that some of the church people struggled with the idea of relinquishing “control” and having outsiders with some degree of power over church property. The majority, however, were prepared to take the risk (because it did seem to be a risk to them).

The church instructed an architect and embarked on the modernization programme. The new facilities comprise:
a moderately-sized hall with a separate chair store so that the hall space is left clear. The numerous screens and boards are all on wheels and easily movable;

• a large kitchen equipped to industrial standard. It is easily possible to prepare and serve meals for up to 60 people;
• a fully-equipped crèche with child-sized toilet facilities, and plenty of unbreakable toys;
• a video lounge;
• a carpeted general-purpose room;
• two unisex toilets, one of which is completely suitable for disabled people;
• access ramps to the building. Only the video lounge is not accessible for wheelchair users because of the lack of space to install a lift;
• white-boards, data projector, overhead projector, flip chart, etc.

The church applied for many grants and eventually received about £150,000 towards the overall costs. Government bodies in Wales were open to them as a faith group, and once they were satisfied that the church was genuinely applying for grants on behalf of the community as a whole rather than repairing an old building for private use by religious folk, they were helpful and generous.

When the auditors came to inspect the project they were appreciative, supportive and encouraging. They assured the church of their support should they choose to expand the work some time in the future (they are very short of space now) and their parting words were, “We wish we had more like you!” Maybe that is a “word in season” to evangelicals everywhere.

Three years on...

Three years after the inauguration of the building, the results have been way beyond what they had imagined. The record has been seven different community groups in one day using the facilities!

Three years after the inauguration of the building, the results have been way beyond what they had imagined. The record has been seven different community groups in one day using the facilities! (There are usually between three and five groups a day using the community centre.) Those using it regularly include three dance classes, three Welsh classes, an art class, the Probation Service, Social Services, the Upper Bangor Society, the Wednesday Club for ladies, the Bangor Civic Society, the Bangor Development Group, Youthworks, a housing association, university groups (Malaysian, Chinese, Japanese societies), Tearfund, CYTUN, numerous private bookings for parties, etc. The church also uses it to run an open Youth Club, a Parent and Toddler group (now the biggest in Bangor), and the Alpha Course. It took some effort at the start to persuade church folk that they would need to book to use their own building, but it was surprising how quickly they got used to the idea. It has never been a problem in practice.

Through the winter months the Canolfan is in use seven days a week. Once a year at Christmas the church organises a Community Carols by Candlelight service in which they encourage the different community groups to take part. It is decidedly not a typical carol service because people who have no church background express their spirituality in a very different way to regular church-going Christians. Local community leaders turn up, a wide spectrum of society takes part, the Mayor of Bangor pronounces his/her blessing and a mountain of mince pies gets consumed. One of the Belly-Dance Group (yes, you did read that correctly) said “It is so nice to be included”. Of course, we know that she had never been excluded from God’s promises or blessings, but that was not how she had perceived it. Needless to say, the service is an opportunity for creative folk in the congregation to create music and drama on the Christmas theme and to announce the Good News.

The challenges

Of course there are problems, most of them practical in nature. How do you handle security in a building with such a high degree of use? How do you get keys to the different groups? How do you keep the space clean and tidy? How much do you charge? The church has a part-time office administrator who handles some of the workload, but they have found it necessary to have a bookings manager as well, who puts a lot of voluntary time into chasing people up and trouble-shooting. “Getting payment out of institutions like the university or Social Services is a constant pain. But having said that, we have been very surprised by how well the different user groups treat the facilities. We have not experienced nearly as much trouble as we imagined. We keep a separate bank account, and the management group discusses how to use the excess income for improvement and repair of the community centre. It makes a big impression on non-church people to be invited to spend what they see as ‘church’ money.”

The most taxing problems have been of a more spiritual nature. Who uses the building and what is allowed? In this case it is governed by a covenant on the property which prohibits the consumption of alcohol and a nineteenth-century trust deed which states that it is to be used for the promulgation of the Christian Faith. The church takes the religiously neutral events as being broadly within that category (by sharing our resources with them we are promoting the Christian faith) but other activities are difficult. There were long discussions about yoga before deciding that there was no guarantee it fell within the limits imposed by the trust deed. Gambling is prohibited, but do raffles fall into that category? Having non-church folk on the management committee has been helpful in that respect and they have been supportive. 

Leaving the ghetto and discovering a role in the wider world

What are the results? “We think that the large number of people who pass through our building weekly and see it as part of their life is an achievement in itself. We maintain close contact with the community groups, shamelessly recruit for them (the Kingdom of God stretches beyond the church – he smiles on anything that builds healthy communities) and invite them to join in other church activities. Some do, but more importantly than that, we have broken down barriers between the church and the community.” No longer is the congregation seen as a slightly threatening group of judgemental religious enthusiasts, but as ordinary people. They have dismantled a lot of prejudice against “church” and over time that is sure to produce a harvest.
“We have discovered that we can be part of our community naturally. We are now respected and consulted as providers of facilities for everyone. We are not seen as a strict group out to proselytise, but as concerned citizens willing to support community groups and development. We have discovered that it is perfectly possible to partner non-church groups in community development and we have lost the fear that we had at the beginning. We have left the evangelical ghetto in which we were living and have a deeper understanding of God at work in the wider world. Our theology has shifted from an individualistic faith towards embracing a generosity that is the hallmark of grace. The word ‘community’ has appeared nearly thirty times in this short report of what Penrallt does in the world. Ten years ago it would not have appeared at all.”

The future

What of the future? The church would love to have more space and even better facilities; but better still, they want to get more involved in the growth and development of our city. They have discovered that churches can sit in on meetings and projects as equal partners, and be accepted by those at the forefront of planning and discussion. “We are more reluctant to go it alone now, and in almost everything we do, we seek to find partners both inside and outside the wider Christian community. Our experience has radically changed us, and we believe that the steady growth and development of Penrallt Baptist Church stems in no small measure from our new social awareness.”

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For more information on the church please visit www.penrallt.org.

This story was first published in 'Meet the Neighbours: serving our communities through acts of kindness', which is edited by Alison Walley and published by Gweini (the Council of the Christian Voluntary Sector in Wales) in 2009 and reproduced with permission.