THE community and conference centre at Scargill House in Wharfedale, North Yorkshire, which announced last year that it was to close (News, 11 July), looks set for a “rebirth”, thanks to a campaign by friends and supporters.
This week, the Council of the Scargill Movement, the group set up to try to save the centre, chaired by the Bishop of Bolton, the Rt Revd Chris Edmondson, confirmed that it had taken over the work of its steering group.
In December, the group had an offer accepted to buy the House and its 100-acre estate in the Yorkshire Dales (News, 2 January), financed by individual donors and an interest-free loan from the Lee Abbey Movement.
The Council includes members of the steering group, nominees of the Bishop of Bradford and the Lee Abbey Council, and others “with particular experience and skills that can help take Scargill’s work forward”, Bishop Edmondson writes in a letter to the Church Times. “I’m thrilled to be part of seeing a rebirth of Scargill.”
He thanks Church Times readers for their prayers and concerns, and says he looks forward to Scargill’s being once again “a key resource in the work of the Kingdom in the 21st century”.
The community opened in 1959 and was Anglican in its origins, but became an ecumenical retreat and conference centre.
On 20 June, a celebration and rededication of the House will take place to mark the 50th anniversary of its foundation.
Letters