Haworth Church Needs You!

The term ‘church fundraising’ tends to conjure up images of older people holding coffee mornings, fayres full of aging soft toys and yellowing books and cake sales selling sorry looking sponges. Of course, a lot of these fundraising methods are still used today. However, when you have £60,000 to raise, there needs to be a little bit of ‘outside the box’ thinking.

 For the initial stages of our roof renovations we need about £60,000. As mentioned last week, we are very fortunate in that we have received a grant for an overall amount of £115,000 from English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund. This sum needs to be match funded by money raised by St Michaels and its congregation, in order for it to be given towards our restoration fund.

To this end, Haworth Church, it’s congregation and their families have embarked on a fundraising campaign in an attempt to raise the required amount. This campaign has included events such as a highly successful 1940s themed Spring Fayre and collections taken at a concert inspired by the work of the Brontes. Ongoing plans include this weekend’s 1960s themed ‘Brolly Folly’ where umbrellas will be decorated to represent 60s song titles. In order to have a chance at winning, the aim is to match the number from the appropriately decorated umbrella to the song title on the entry sheet. Later in the month, on the 25^th, we are very pleased to be hosting a concert by popular Bradford based choir ‘Chordiality’. They will be singing a combination of spiritual music as well as more contemporary pieces. Tickets for this event will be £5 and will be available on the door. Continuing the concert theme we are also hosting a concert from the award winning Steeton Male Voice Choir in July.

'Mike' one of our mascots for Brolly Folly

This is a cuddly evacuee from our 1940s Spring Fayre

 A more traditional fundraising venture that we have used is producing a cookbook. This was a project that could have appeared dated, but with a variety of recipes from around the world and lively illustrations provided by Haworth Primary School, the book has proved very popular with both the local community and our visiting tourists.

 However, we still have a long way to go until our target is met and we are still looking for inspiration for fundraising ideas that will help protect our building for future generations. We don’t want our church to be seen as merely a building to be used on a Sunday morning, only being for the tourists of Haworth or as a place only to be called upon for major life events. Our church aims to be a place to celebrate God, lives, births and marriages and an historic building. It embraces its status as a tourist attraction and its Bronte heritage, as well as still holding an important position within the community. Without this money, the church building won’t be able to be used to its full potential.  This is why we all need to pull together in an effort to raise funds to restore Haworth Church to a usable building for everybody to use.

If you have any questions about this work, or fundraising suggestions for us then please email haworthchurch@gmail.com, or if you would like to make a donation to our restoration fund you can do so via paypal using the ‘Donate’ button on our website www.haworthchurch.co.uk