Good News Spotlight: Over 100 Volunteers Gather as Woven Church Unveils Refurbished Hall
Woven Church, a family of eight local churches working together across Nottingham, welcomed more than 100 volunteers to the newly refurbished St Margaret’s Church Hall in early February. The celebration marked a significant milestone, as this is the first of the diocesan Church Growth Programme building projects to be completed.
The Church Growth Programme is funded by the Church of England’s Strategic Mission and Ministry Investment Board as part of a decade long programme building on fruitful mission and ministry in recent years. The funding supports investment in parishes across the diocese in our city, towns and villages, enabling church revitalisation and strengthening evangelism, discipleship, vocations and the development of younger leaders. In 2024, significant additional investment was awarded to further support church growth across the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham. You can find out more here.
Work on the St Margaret’s hall began in September 2025. Following a complete transformation, the keys were handed back to the church at the end of January. Since then, teams have been busy relocating Little Lights toddlers, children’s discipleship groups, Sunday children’s groups and several youth ministries, including Connect United, back into the refreshed space.
Stephen Watson, diocesan Church Buildings Support Officer, commented:
“It is a really impressive job that has been done. The building looks brand new inside and the whole process has been managed really well.”
The newly renovated hall also provided the perfect setting for a special event to thank and celebrate volunteers from across Woven. Representatives from St Margaret’s in Aspley, Christ Church in Cinderhill, St Aidan’s and St Leo’s in Basford, St John’s and St Martin’s in Bilborough, St Martha’s in Broxtowe and All Saints in Strelley gathered together for an evening of appreciation and celebration.
Rich Atkinson, Vicar at St Margaret’s and Leader of Woven, shared:
“Our church hall at St Margaret’s has been completely transformed thanks to the generous support given to us by the Church Growth Programme. On a weekly basis it is being used by our kids, youth and prayer ministries, it has opened up so many possibilities to grow our work in these areas.
The first Woven Wide event took place early in February where we welcomed over 100 of our incredible volunteers from our 8 Woven churches into the hall . We caught up with friends, worshiped together and took part in a quiz. It was an amazing opportunity for our church and staff teams to serve drinks and lots of cake while our volunteers sat back and had fun.”
Good News Spotlight is a regular feature in our diocesan communications that highlights and celebrates God’s work in parishes across the diocese. If your church has a good news story to share, we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch with us here.