And so it begins! (With an insane number of photos!)

Last Sunday after months of planning and discussion and suggestions and whatnot St. John's Church building officially closed to allow the refurbishment and redecoration work to begin. Last Sunday evening after the evening Mass lots and lots of marvelous people were kind enough to help move all of the pews, stations of the cross, statues, tables and everything else out and set up in the hall. A really, really really big thank you to everyone who gave up their time to do this. It was greatly appreciated.

I'll admit that I thought it would seem rather alien to have Mass in the hall but I have to say that I was proved wrong and it was not at all strange when I went on Friday. Everything has been set up very well to make the transition as smooth and simple as possible.

For those of you who will be wondering where the Stations of the Cross and other pictures/statues ended up then I have some rather excellent shots from the Presbytery dining room for you...

It's wonderful and rather exciting to now be at that point when the work outlined in Phase One of the Refurbishment Brochure (if you can't remember what's in it tis still available to download in the sidebar) is actually starting to happen. And although two months might seem like a long time it will fly by I'm sure and before we know it we will have the joy of walking back into a beautifully done-up Church. It will more than have the wow factor I'm sure. In case some of you were wondering what's been happening over the last seven days here's a few snaps from this afternoon...

And although I thought it all went quiet on the weekends there were still a few hardworking people tirelessly scraping off the wallpaper in the confessional!

I'll take some more in a few weeks time so all can see what's going on and what progress is being made. Please, please do pray for the workmen and our community here in Horsham too. The results will be well worth it I assure you.