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Whatever happened to the Helmdon Baptists? -
February 2006
They are still around - after the Chapel at Helmdon was closed they
went to the old chapel at Weston. But at the moment they can't meet
there either, because of building work to the chapel, so they meet
in each others' homes during the week and in the Village Hall at Lois
Weedon on Sundays. In March they'll move to Moreton Pinkney, to meet
in the Village Hall there on Sundays for a few months, before they
finally return to Weston.
All this moving around does not feel as strange to them as it might
seem to you. There are three reasons for this. Firstly: because they
are now a Cell Church, their activities in Cells which meet in houses
in villages around, are now as important to them as events at chapel
building. Secondly: Helmdon Chapel (and now Weston) drew people from
eleven villages, most of whom lived neither in Helmdon or Weston so
they are accustomed to travelling anyway (as people did two hundred
years ago when Weston was the only Nonconformist Chapel for miles
around). Thirdly: they have rediscovered an old Baptist truth - the
church is the people, not the building, and they are comfortable anywhere,
providing they are together!
So, why are they doing all that building work to Weston Chapel? Like
Helmdon it too needs repair but unlike Helmdon its foundations are
on bedrock, making it a more soundly-constructed building. The Baptists
felt they could not justify spending money on its repair for their
use alone. So they decided not just to repair the Grade II Listed
building, but to thoroughly improve it and make the whole building
available to everyone as an amenity, one that does not make a profit.
[You can capture something of that vision in a short DVD video, made
a few months ago before the work began. It plays for less than 5 minutes
on computers and TVs that can be obtained free of charge from any
Baptist church member you may know, or from Phil Drage, 01295 768690].
To achieve this end, the existing building at Weston has been completely
gutted and now is being refurbished to modern standards. An extension
is being added which will have a semi-industrial kitchen, toilets
upstairs and down, baby-changing facilities, an office and a storage
room. It will be centrally heated and be a comfortable environment
for the elderly and disabled as well as suitable for the young and
vigorous. When it is finished, at a cost of over £300,000, it
will reopen as the "Weston Community Project", a social
amenity for people of all the villages around - including Helmdon,
of course - for six days of the week. On Sundays, though, it will
once again be the place where you will find the Helmdon Baptists.
Though the Baptist Chapel at Helmdon is closed, Baptists still meet
regularly in the village! If you go to Irene Innes' house in Cross
Lane (the one with the Ceramic Art Studio) at 9.15 on a Monday morning,
you will find the Helmdon Cell. It has an informal meeting over coffee
and everyone is welcome to come and sample the Cell Church way of
doing things. From time to time the Cell arrange social activities
to which all are welcome and without any religiosity - a demonstration
of planting hanging baskets, a historical walk round Helmdon (led
by your own Webmaster - fascinating), a talk on Bletchley Park by
someone who worked there in WWII, a wassailing party (definitely unusual
carol singing)… Watch this website for details of the next one! |