We’re now offering the public the chance to purchase a piece of Belfrey history with the reuse of the wood that’s been reclaimed from St Michael le Belfrey and made into quality furniture. 

As part of the pre-construction phase of our major £11m Impact building project, we employed specialist York contractor Pinnacle Conservation to carefully and sensitively take down all the wooden pews, Narthex screen and gallery. It has then been repurposed into furniture by Stewart Long, an expert furniture maker, based in Lincoln.

Currently being inflexible with a narrow dark entrance, we are seeking to repair and renovate our medieval church building to create a welcoming, accessible and beautiful space for the next 100+ years. As part of our sustainability strategy we have sought to meticulously reclaim the wood for it to be made into traditional furniture that can be purchased and enjoyed by hundreds of people for generations to come.

In addition to the above, a York Social Enterprise has been given some of the wood to use in their workshop and create some specific items for The Belfrey, including a communion table and holding crosses.

Andy Baker, Interim Priest in Charge at The Belfrey explained “We wanted to remove and treat the wood with great care so that anyone with an attachment to the church could purchase a piece of it to keep. Pinnacle and all the contractors have done a terrific job during this process, which forms the starting point to creating a flexible and accessible open space in the church that will ultimately welcome many more people into the building”

Adam Hickey, Managing Director of Pinnacle Conservation commented: “It was an honour as a local main contractor, to be involved in the timber and tiling reclamation works at the stunning St Michael le Belfrey Church. At Pinnacle we are driven by a passion to help protect and preserve architectural heritage.”

For details of the wooden furniture for sale please see belfrey.org/furniture. 50% of the proceeds of the wooden items will be going towards the Impact building project, with the remainder going to the furniture maker for their time and labour.

We’re really excited to announce that we’ll be partnering with York Foodbank to host their Saturday morning foodbank session at the De Grey Rooms, as part of our social action programme. We’ll initially be doing this on a 6 month trial from 3rd February 2024, with the expectation that it will continue for the rest of our time at the De Grey Rooms and hopefully beyond. York Foodbank are part of a nationwide network of foodbanks, supported by The Trussell Trust, working to combat poverty and hunger across the UK. All of York Foodbank’s sessions are run in partnership with local churches.

In order to make this possible we are looking for a volunteer from our church family to be our Foodbank Coordinator for this initial 6 months. This would be a commitment of up to 5 hours per week (Saturday mornings 9am-1pm, or as needed to facilitate the 10am - 12pm session, plus some weekday admin). You'll be supported by Alison Dawson, our Social Action Programme Manager, and our staff team. All expressions of interest for this role are very welcome - we're really flexible! Please contact alison.dawson@belfrey.org if you think you would be able to help. A role description for the Foodbank Coordinator is here.

We’re also recruiting a team of volunteers to run the sessions on a monthly rota. If you’re interested in learning more about this, please come along to our Foodbank Volunteer meeting on Saturday 20th January, 10am at the De Grey Rooms.

We are delighted to announce that the Bishop of Selby, together with the Archdeacon of York and our PCC, has appointed Revd. Andy Baker to be Interim Priest in Charge of St Michael le Belfrey.

Andy will hold this role for the next three years, whilst we are worshiping in the De Grey Rooms and the Impact project for the major restoration and reordering of our church building is taking place. Having been Associate Vicar for the last four and a half years, and Chair of Impact, Andy will bring stability in this time and will continue to hold the vision for Impact and the exciting new season of life as The Belfrey that God is leading us into.

Bishop John says of Andy’s appointment: ‘I am delighted that Andy Baker has accepted the role of Interim Priest-in-Charge of St Michael le Belfrey during this time of major change as the church is renovated and the congregation meets in the De Grey Rooms in York. Andy’s existing ministry in the church means he is a loved and trusted leader and I know this will help him as the Belfrey community explores what it means to Live Christ’s Story over the next three years in these changed circumstances.’

Recruitment will begin soon for an ordained Associate Minister to join us for the same time period. 

Please pray for Andy, his wife Hayley and their two children; and for God to lead an excellent Associate to join our team and church family here at The Belfrey.

We are delighted to announce that we will be launching a counselling service at The Belfrey in early 2024. This will be the major project supporting the Mental Health pillar of our Social Action Programme. We’ll be partnering with Wellspring Therapy and Training, who work with churches to enable provision of affordable, accessible and professional counselling services in local communities. Our service will be building on the foundation of the Spurriergate Counselling Service and the many years of excellent support that this has given to people in York. More information to follow - watch this space!

We are really excited as we now have all the permissions we need to move to Tender and Build Phase on our Building project called Impact. Faculty approval has recently been granted by the Chancellor for the Diocese of York, Lyndsey de Mestre KC.

Impact is The Belfrey’s first major building project in well over a century. It is both necessary, costly and a wonderful opportunity to transform our Grade 1 listed church building in a way that is welcoming, accessible and flexible. We are excited that it will be a place that welcomes more people, encourages people to stay longer, develops and sends out more leaders and is a blessing to the city.

Over 85% of the funds have already been received towards this c£10.5m project which has been an amazing answer to prayer and we continue to work to raise the remaining 15% or £1.5m. In recent weeks members of The Belfrey including some of the children, teenagers, young adults and leaders have staged activities such as a Football competition to to raise funds.

Please do consider giving to Impact. Click here to fill in the Pledge form or email impactgiving@belfrey.org. Alternatively click here to give a one off donation. No donation is too small and collectively makes a big difference.

You can find out more about the project at belfrey.org/impact, including viewing our thrilling 3D video walkthrough of what the building is envisaged will look like when Impact is complete. Any general queries about Impact please contact impact@belfrey.org or for fundraising contact fundraising@belfrey.org.

Please join us as we keep praying for the Board and Design team, led by LDN Architects, that the work is done effectively and progress is timely.

Thank you for your interest, your support and your prayers.