A New Project for the Jubilee Year
A new West Porch for St. James's Church. Words my husband Jon and I have heard many times over the past few months, but have never once really stopped to consider the impact for our family, congregation or the wider community of our Parish.

No doubt like many others we had read the St. James's Mission Action Plan, however in our so called "busy" lives had never really given much thought or consideration to the content of the plan.

So when Brian asked if we could become involved in the redevelopment plan for the West Porch we had a very steep learning curve to go through, not least having to admit, with huge embarrassment that we were not even sure where the West Porch was!

Opening Our Doors - The Benefits
The project now has a name "Opening Our Doors" which we believe is synonymous with the aims of the project and will in particular help us to achieve one of our key Mission objectives, that of supporting the growth of newcomers, those on the periphery and regular attendees.
On a more practical note there will be more office and administrative space for parish business and a small workroom for individuals - and a very welcome new toilet with disabled access and baby changing unit.

"Creating a new space which blending in with the rest of the building, will fill St. James's with natural day light, give a welcoming environment as you enter, and provide' a wonderful view right through the whole length of the Church"

Opening Our Doors - Keeping you up to date with progress
Your help and support will be fundamental to the success of the project. To help keep you up to date we hope to create a small exhibition at the back of the Church to give you a thorough overview of the project, as well as progress updates and details of the events we will be holding to help raise funds for the project.
Our aim is to have the project completed by St. James's Day in July 2003 - a fabulous way to celebrate, but a very challenging road ahead.

Opening Our Doors - How can you become involved?
A small team has been formed to help kick-start the project and currently we are putting together various development plans and have identified a number of fundraising activities, which we hope you will all be able to join in with and support. Our first event and official launch will be a B.B.Q. on the evening of St. James's Day, 7th July 2002. By time this is printed we will have already been selling tickets for a couple of weeks - so make sure you get yours soon!

Source: Kim Smith, The Spire Magazine - 2002 June

The Key to 'Opening Our Doors'
It seems like only yesterday since we launched the “Opening Our Doors"' Project to raise funds to redevelop the West Porch. But in fact it was back in June when we held the Jubilee Open day - a magnificent day which attracted lots of people from both the parish and far beyond.

Our target, to enable us to complete the project is £100,000, and we are pleased to announce that after a series of very successful fundraising events, including the St. James’s Day Family BBQ, the Spire to Spire sponsored cycle ride to Chichester, the Dream Auction, and a number of personal donations we have reached a magnificent total of £30,000 - nearly a third of the way to achieving our Goal.

To help keep everyone up to date with how developed our own Key to “Open Our Doors” and this will be updated each month in the magazine and at the back of the Church on the “Opening Our Doors” display panels.

Also hot off the press, we have created our own “Opening Our Doors” Key badges, which will be on sale from mid October in St. James’s and at all events. By wearing a badge you will not only help the project financially, but also hopefully help spread the message about the project and its aims, to our wider community.

Source: The Spire Magazine - 2002 November