THE WHOLE community would benefit from a new £1.5million church building planned for West Ealing, according to organisers.
The International Presbyterian Church has unveiled proposals for modernising its facilities to suit a growing congregation.
The church has already held two consultations with worshippers and neighbours and plans to submit a planning application before the end of the year.
Reverend Paul Levy, who has been at the church since 2003 said: “We want to make this a community space that everyone will be able to make use of. One of our problems at the moment is with all the activities in the week. We don’t have room for all the people coming.”
Over recent years, the IPC has outgrown the chapel’s capacity of 80 people and has had to meet at the University of West London on Sunday mornings.
“Our home is in West Ealing and we hope that we can build a church building which adds to the locality and is a presence in the community for generations to come. Obviously we hope it will be a pleasant addition to the surroundings, but we also want to make it somewhere we can share the message of Christ with the area.”
The church has been in West Ealing since 1969, and has been based at its current site at 53 Drayton Green since 1981.
Mr Levy said that if approved, the new building will maximise flexibility and usefulness of the spaces for a number of church and community-related activities to include a parent and toddler group, women’s English language classes and a children’s programme catering for youngsters aged five to 18.
Mr Levy added he would ideally like to see the project completed by 2014 and that money for the building would come from a combination of church funds and proceeds from fundraising activities.
