How it all started
St Nicolas Centre
We were fortunate to receive an amazing gift left to us by Pat Dummer. Pat worshipped at St Nicolas from its very beginning, when a temporary hut was erected on the current site in 1946. Her father, Amos Sharp, was a local builder, a church warden and his expertise was critical when the first brick church, now used as our Hall, was built in the 1950s. From the start St Nicolas has been and still is home to many community activities.
After Pat’s death in 2013, we learnt she had left St Nicolas church a large bequest. The overall purpose of the bequest is that it ‘should be used in a manner faithful to Pat’s memory’ and that it ‘must accord with the mission of Earley St Nicolas Church’.
The Open Door Project
In 2014 we set up a project to look at how to use Pat’s bequest. It was named “The Open Door Project” to remind everyone of our vision statement of being ‘open’ – both opening our doors for everyone to come in and also for us to be going out through the doors to meet our community. We consulted with the St Nicolas congregations and with a number of key people in our community such as schools, doctors’ surgeries, local councillors… and we also talked to many individuals at our Election Café on 7 May 2015.
The St Nicolas Centre
It became obvious there was a need for a focal point for the community. We brought everyone’s ideas together and came up with the vision for the St Nicolas Centre.The building works started in October 2017 and the centre was opened on Sept 22nd 2018. It is now used by the whole community as a meeting place and useful space. We have a lot going on, if you’d like to join in please take a look at our groups, or visit to worship with us.
