The sun shone brightly on South Shields, and the balloons festooning the entrance tugged violently in the on-shore breeze, as crowds of people from the neighbourhood and from the wider church community came together at the St Paul & St John's Church Centre. June 2nd 2006 saw the formal reopening of the Centre after a programme of renovation that saw the building in Broughton Road transformed into a modern suite of premises that have the potential for being a real resource for the whole community.
Minister Ann Jackson welcomed all who had come to join in the celebrations, reinforcing the words that had been placed in people's hands - "Thank you for being present today. You have been part of our journey - part of our project. We thank you and we welcome you."
Synod Moderator Peter Poulter referred to the time between the Ascension and Pentecost and the hopes that the Church Centre might become a place where creative gifts were shared and bridges built. And he challenged the people of St Paul and St John's to take risks: if in thirty years time the building looks as new and sparkling as ever, then they surely will have failed.
Worship continued with the singing of a hymn of dedication and the sharing of a blessing, after which Ann invted the Deputy Mayor of South Tyneside, Councillor Tracey Dixon, to speak and voice her good wishes for the project.
As the congregation have been reminded time and time again over the past years, and particularly throughout 2005 when the whole suite of premises was a buildinbg site, the renovation of the Centre is merely a beginning. The challenge now is the quality of community life and the variety of activities that it is able to support.
Next to come forward was Mrs Anne Martin, a former caretaker, who had known the building inside out from the mid 1950s up to her retirement in 1990. She and Maureen Morris, who had fronted the church's working party and had allegedly had her own hard hat, were given the honour of cutting the celebration cake.
The afternoon continued with a buffet tea, during which entertainment was provided by the New Found Fame Production Singers - a young singing group who rehearse in the Centre, and were shortly to put on a fund-raising concert in the church. Their three short bursts of music were very well received - at the end of which everyone was invited to "tour the premises" on their way out.
The two storey building now boasts a spacious upstairs hall, where the celebrations were held, a well equipped kitchen downstairs and a variety of other meeting rooms, and of course a lift connecting the two floors. Everything is disability friendly and of the highest quality. For a number of people there seemed to be a special interest in visiting "the den" - a hideout well known to generations of Scouts, but now transformed into a play area that is forbidden territory to anyone over three!
It's the one and only place that's out of bounds - so far as everyone at St Paul & St John's is concerned, this Centre is now a place for everyone in the community to feel welcome and at home.
