A church on Oxford Road, Reading, is planning to move to a new permanent home in south Reading.
Reading’s Church of Pentecost International Worship Centre, currently based in a temporary site at 117-119 Oxford Road, has submitted a planning application to Reading Borough Council (RBC) to move to 15 Bennet Road.
Currently home to an autism charity which sells and stores furniture, the Church of Pentecost UK is purchasing 15 Bennet Road and plans to convert it into a place of worship.
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The site is a detached two-storey office building, with five car parking spaces.
The building is currently in use by charity Sara Charity Furniture Showroom for furniture sales and storage but this is only a temporary use and no official change of use from offices (class E) has been sought or granted.
The Church of Pentecost wants to convert the front half of the building into a church, with the back half of the building remaining as four small industrial units.
It has planned a programme including four church services per week, Zumba classes, counselling, youth empowerment, debt management and immigration support.
The planning statement from consultants Pegasus states: “The purpose of the move is to establish the church in a permanent building, which will be better suited to its needs.
“It should also be noted that the church will offer services to the local community, which will significantly enhance peoples mental and physical health, as well as their general well-being.
“These types of services will be particularly important, as the country emerges from lockdown after the Covid-19 pandemic.”
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Hicks Baker have marketed the building for the last two years but received no suitable interest from commercial occupiers and consider the building to be not suitable for modern commercial use.
Established in 1989, the Church of Pentecost-UK is a religious charity in the United Kingdom with 159 local churches across the UK and a membership of more than 19,000 people.
The charitable objectives of the church include: advancing the Christian faith, relieving sickness, relieving financial hardship, promoting and preserving good health and advancing education.
It is part of the larger global organisation The Church of Pentecost, which operates in 105 countries around the world, with around 3.3 million members across the globe.
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