Baptist church receives donation of chairs for its warm space 

Buckland Road Baptist Church now has 40 new seats for its ‘warm space’ days thanks to a local funeral directors

On Mondays and Tuesdays the church in Parkstone opens its doors to everyone between 10.30am and 2.30pm.

Its Victorian heating system keeps people physically warm and the friendship offered keeps people warm on the inside.

Douch Family Funeral Directors’ Ives and Shand branch in Ashley Road was refurbishing its ceremony room and had 40 smart spare seats. Knowing the church because of funerals it has organised there, it donated them.

Zoe Grimley from the church who runs the warm space said the chairs are already well used.

'We launched the warm space days in October and they’ve been very popular,' said Zoe. 

'There is always a safe, warm space in our back room where we have tea, coffee, biscuits, and a soup and roll. People pop in for a chat and it helps those who are lonely.

'You wouldn’t think by looking at our church from the front that we’d have such a large area at the back, but we have pool tables and even a stage for performances.

'However, we were short of chairs and those donated are perfect and they are very well used. We are very grateful and invite everyone to come along.'

Jonathan Stretch from the business said, 'Our branches are being constantly updated and in some cases completely rebuilt.

'With our Parkstone branch Ives and Shand we bought some new chairs for our ceremony room.

'It seemed fitting to donate the old ones to the church, which does a great deal of good work for the community.'

Buckland Road Baptist Church was built in 1880 and services are held on Sundays at 11am. 

Photo | Back row (l-r) Leanne Adimi from Douch Family Funeral Directors, Deacon Jonathan Martin from the church, Jonathan Stretch and Marcella McDonagh from Douch Family Funeral Directors and in front Zoe Grimley