St. Mildred’s Church – Vision for the Future
The Need for Change
The use and relevance of any building is reviewed periodically over time. History has shown that this may be for aesthetic reasons, or for practical purposes to reflect changes in the way buildings are used, or in response to the ever-changing expectations of society. Homes, schools, offices, and community buildings are regularly redecorated, refurbished, extended, and refurnished without question. The same principle should apply to our church buildings of today; and has certainly been applied to St Mildred’s over the past 800 years. History demonstrates that every generation has made its own contribution to the physical appearance of the church, both interior and exterior, with some of these interventions being far more radical than anything proposed today!
The church’s mission statement is “Seeing Christ in the world … Being Christ in the world”. Our mission goals are to build partnerships that enrich our communities, imagine new forms of ministry, and grow our churches numerically and spiritually. The Statement of Need has been developed by the church to explain clearly how it will fulfil its mission and vision, continue to be relevant to the community of Tenterden and make the church relevant and available to all. These needs are summarised as follows:
- Greater flexibility of space, especially in the nave
- Maximising the use of the spaces within the church for all users
- Maximising capacity for a wide range of services and events
- Good access to all parts of the building, for all ages and abilities
- A new sound / audio visual system, heating and lighting to bring the church building into the 21st century
- Creating useable, comfortable and flexible spaces in the church for children during worship, for meetings, office space and back-stage areas during performances by making use of the space in the organ chapel
- An intimate space for quiet prayer, worship and reflection
- Additional flexible meeting space within the church for smaller groups or community use
- Kitchen and WC facilities
- Improve storage and display areasDevelopment of a Memorial Chapel in the Lady Chapel
The ultimate vision is that, through the reordering, St Mildred’s will be embraced by the community and so become a building at the heart of the community with the community at its heart. The preliminary design proposals put forward in this booklet seek to solve the issues above (lack of flexibility, cold, cluttered etc). The solutions form a comprehensive scheme that will enable St Mildred’s to serve the community of Tenterden for many years to come.
Extract taken from recent feasibility study undertaken by St Mildred’s Church – for more information and updates please go to the following link: https://www.tentroxchurches.co.uk/#!blank-15/oxs9o
Link: St Mildred’s Church Vision for the Future (PDF, 1.6Mb)
