Firstly, we are not closing! We will remain as Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians for now and the future – and we have plans for that future.

As we head into winter 2021, here’s an update for everyone on what’s happening at Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians with regards to the sale of our building, where we’ll be meeting in future, and what’s happening with services over the winter!

Secondly, as many of you know, we are selling the building. The reasons for this are essentially that it needs repairing, the repairs would cost more money than we actually have, and more importantly, it doesn’t really suit our needs as a congregation any more. It’s a wonderful building, but it was built for a different era, and it needs refurbishing so that it can return to having a central role in the life of Newcastle upon Tyne.

We are in the process of selling it to Tyneside Group Limited. You may have seen their offices by the side of the church, near the Tower Door. The owner is Robbie Kalbraier, and his intention is to turn it into a combined space for small businesses and performing arts organisations. We will put out a display of Tyneside Group’s designs for what the building might look like in future in the Durant Hall.

Tyneside Group have what is called an ‘option to purchase’ with us, wherein we have signed an agreement with them meaning that at any point between now and April 2022, they can exercise this option, and purchase the building from us, with a certain amount of notice. They are currently waiting for Newcastle City Council’s planning department to arrange a site visit so that their application for planning permission can be assessed. They are confident that they will get approval, but the pandemic has caused a large backlog of applications for planning permission, and the sale has taken longer than expected.

We are working with them and with our solicitors to set our having a long-term tenancy of the Turner Hall, following its refurbishment. In other words, we hope that in future we will be back here again for worship! At this stage we cannot be specific about the timings, as much depends on the speed of the sale.

So, where will we be over the winter? We are going to go back to having services on Zoom from 17^th October onwards until Spring next year – date to be confirmed. The central heating in the building no longer works, and we cannot use fan heaters to heat the worship space, as we have in the past, due to issues around air circulation and spreading coronavirus and other winter illnesses. In the past we have moved into the Turner Hall, but its small size makes social distancing impossible. It is not possible for us to keep worshipping in person in the building over the winter.

However – we know that many members of the congregation prefer to worship in person, and prefer not to use Zoom. So we are looking at arranging somewhere in the city centre for people who don’t do Zoom to meet over the winter, and we will set up a large screen so that people who want to can join the Zoom services by attending there. This is still a work in progress as we are trying to find a suitable venue. We cannot at this stage 100% guarantee that we can do this, but we will try very hard to make it a possibility. If it is not possible, we will do what we did during the pandemic, and keep in touch with everyone by phone calls and letters. I will keep everyone informed about what’s happening.

It’s a challenging time for us, but it’s also a time of great possibility and hope. We hope that by handing our building over to people with the resources to refurbish it and have it play a role in the life of our city, we can move forwards and reach out to others in Newcastle who could join our spiritual community. We hope that in future, both our building and our congregation can play more of a role in the life of Newcastle upon Tyne.

As always, I hope that your families and loved ones are well – and if not, I hope you are finding the love and support you need. If Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians can help, you can email us at: info@newcastleunitarians.org.uk, ring: 07506 255 731, or write to us at: Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians, Ellison Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE1 8XG. We’ve also recently added a form to our website for suggestions and complaints. We know not everyone is comfortable giving their views in person, so if you want to give feedback on how things are going without having to give your name, you can do this here: https://newcastleunitarians.org.uk/suggestions/

Thank you for continuing to be part of our community. We are here for all our members and will support everyone as best we can! Please do let me know what works best for you. Love and blessings,

Louise Reeve

Chairperson, Newcastle upon Tyne Unitarians.