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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Judith Tonner

Airdrie church completes £1.3m transformation

The finished £1.3m transformation of a historic B-listed Airdrie church has been unveiled at a series of special events.

Cairnlea parish church in the town centre has been completely renovated with a new interior, environmental and accessibility improvements following five years of design, construction and fundraising.

Its minister, Rev Peter Donald, described the new look for the 150-year-old church as “just wonderful” and says it is now “an asset fit for the 21st century” – while the Church of Scotland has praised the congregation’s “pioneering” work on green improvements to work towards net zero.

Local residents and community representatives were this week invited to open days and a service of dedication to see the changes to the church building and its adjoining hall and former manse, while the congregation then celebrated at a special service of dedication.

The first phase, completed a year ago, saw the removal of the church’s traditional pews to convert it into a flexible and accessible space both for services and other community uses; along with new glass-lined areas, accesses and heating systems using renewable energy.

Cairnlea's renovation has seen the removal of the church's pews to create a flexible community space (Stuart Vance/Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser)

With the congregation able to move back into their sanctuary last April, work moved on to the hall and former manse Cairnlea House – where the work including replacing the stage and heating plus insulating the ceiling, all while continuing to seek grant funding to complete all the elements of the project.

Rev Donald said: “The finished product is so much better than we even imagined it could be and it’s been very exciting to see what a difference it’s made.

“We’ve been able to change the way we serve communion, by having lots of tables out so there’s a sense of a communal meal; and we can now have all different types of events in the sanctuary area, which means it can be used through the week.

“It will enhance our mission and outreach as people expect a welcoming space, and I want them to cross our threshold thinking, ‘this is a place worth coming to’ and potentially exploring their faith.”

He added: “We took out all of the fossil fuel heating and put in renewable pumps instead – all of these big 19th-century spaces are being heated by air source pumps and it’s working really well.

"My impression is we’re quite advanced in removing the use of fossil fuels from our site.”

Mary Sweetland, acting chair of the Church of Scotland’s net zero group, added: “More congregations are looking at their buildings and how to reduce their carbon footprint.

“It’s great to have the pioneering work on moving in this direction from Cairnlea, and I hope we can share their experience with other congregations.”

Rev Donald said: “One of our retired elders who has a motorised scooter was also able to drive into the sanctuary, into a platform lift to take him down to the hall and then into the lift of the house to go up to the first floor – he could get everywhere.

The church, hall and former manse in Airdrie town centre have been made accessible for users with a range of upgrades (Stuart Vance/Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser)

“We’re very much in the centre of Airdrie and we’ve always had different groups use our hall such as dancing, slimming and theatre classes; the sanctuary wasn’t very accessible at all before and there were fixed pews which meant it wasn’t really allowing it to be used except on a Sunday.

“The building itself has really sung with the new lighting and the redecoration and is much more beautiful than it was before but with the advantages of full accessibility and new toilets, so it’s a total win.”

Cairnlea’s project followed the union of Flowerhill and Broomknoll churches in 2016 to create one merged and enlarged congregation – with the new church being based in the former premises while the Broomknoll building has since been converted into flats.

Cairnlea's hall and former manse were renovated in the second phase of the project (Stuart Vance/Airdrie and Coatbridge Advertiser)

Rev Donald described it as “the most satisfactory way to make sure that the former church site was not going to be neglected”; and the proceeds of its sale along with congregational donations, “energetic fundraising” and grant applications allowed the plans for their Johnston Street home to be developed over two years.

Work on the transformation went ahead from July 2020 and the main church building was completed 11 months ago, and with the hall and former manse having been finished just in time for Christmas, the congregation were thrilled to welcome the community to their official re-opening events.

Rev Donald said of the second phase of six further months of work on the hall and manse: “We were trying to consider whether we could afford to do it and had to keep on seeking out grants.

“COVID made it all the more urgent to find ways of regenerating community which opened up some funding from recovery funds.

“We’ve all had to work very hard and this could never have happened without an amazingly gifted team within the church, who have given so many hours to overseeing the project.

"We hope it will benefit the whole community as well as the church – it’s a heritage site and part of the renewal of Airdrie.”

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