Lancaster church opens new building as part of multi-million pound renovation

Monday, 24 March 2025 08:41

By Greg Lambert @greglam72

The community celebrates the opening of the new Welcome building at Moorlands Church

A Lancaster church has celebrated the opening of a new Welcome building as part of a multi-million pound redevelopment.

Moorlands Church bought the former Trinity URC buildings on the corner of High Street and Middle Street in Lancaster in 2018.

Since the church has been carrying out a redevelopment project called ‘Building For Growth’.

They reached a huge milestone with the opening of the glass-fronted Welcome building on March 2, which coincided with the church's 20th anniversary.

Moorlands Church was formed in March 2005, when around 12 people gathered together in a small building on Dumbarton Road in Lancaster.

Twenty years later, Moorlands Church has now grown to around 250 people spanning multiple generations, ages and nationalities.

In 2015, they began searching for a suitable building, despite having no money and no particular openings.

The church then purchased a set of three historical buildings in the middle of the Lancaster: a 1774 congregationalist chapel, an 1856 Sunday School Hall and a 1930s Warden’s House.

Building began around three years ago, with the team having to face the challenges of the Covid pandemic, inflation, leaks, and the church continuing to meet on a construction site, as well as needing to raise over £2m.