New church opens doors on Telford showroom site
At a time when some church doors are closing a new congregation is bucking the trend by setting up in Telford.
Delighted worshippers at All Nations Church held their very first service at the site of a former car showroom, in Holyhead Road, Ketley, on Sunday morning.
Most of the attendees transferred from the body's Wolverhampton headquarters to start the sister branch.
Among the guests at the opening was the mayor of Telford & Wrekin, Councillor Raj Mehta, who helped to cut the ribbon with associate pastor Rick Kaul and his wife Sarah at the official opening service.
Mr Kaul said: "This is a brand new church plant with most of the people being local to Telford. We are connected to All Nations, in Wolverhampton. Many of them were commuting to Wolverhampton to get to church.
"We have always wanted to have somewhere in Telford, but we were was waiting until the we had a nucleus of people.
"It is something we'd been discussing since 2012. At the back end of 2018 we felt we had enough people to set up. People are looking for hope and they are turning to all sorts of things to find it and going to church is one of those things out there.
"The opening on Sunday exceeded our expectations. For us, it was absolutely wonderful. About 80 per cent of those who came were from Telford.
"It was a great turnout and the mayor came as well. It's wonderful to have his support, he got behind us as soon as he knew we were looking to come here."
Minor renovations to install facilities including new toilets and a children's area have been carried out at the former car sales centre, after the leaders won planning permission earlier this year to convert the premises.
A community afternoon tea was also held at the worship centre on Friday, attended by up to 40 residents. It was organised in partnership with a food bank and Christians against Poverty.
Mr Kaul also praised Asda in New Road , Donnington, which donated the food for the tea party.
