£1m church resurrection plan

When a young child ran down the street shouting, ‘Come and look everyone, they’re opening the church! They’re opening the church!’ the minister knew something good was happening.

John Bavington, an evangelical CofE minister in Bradford, is leading a £1 million plan to rescue an old, shut-down church building and then plant a new congregation plus a community hub with a soft play area.

St Columba’s is in the Horton Grange area of Bradford, which has a high Muslim population. It closed for worship more than two decades ago and was almost sold off.