A NEW town in Cambridgeshire is awaiting the outcome of a bid to build a faith-based community hub designed to bring together faith, education, well-being, and community life.
Northstowe is hailed as the largest planned new town since Milton Keynes and was developed from scratch. The first residents moved in in 2017, when there were just 150 houses. The current population is more than 4000 and could eventually reach 25,000.
Residents had expressed a need for dignified spaces for midweek prayer and worship as well as for weddings, baptisms, and funerals. A strong relationship has developed between the Northstowe Church Network and Northstowe Muslims, built through collaboration in schools, community events, and civic life.
The space includes the Chapel by the Lake, a permanent home for Christian worship. The project has brought together many collaborators, and support has come from organisations such as Churches Together in Cambridgeshire, the Growing Faith Foundation, and the diocese of Ely.
Muslim residents had voiced a clear need for a prayer space within walking distance of their homes, and the new centre will have a prayer and education room.
The Pioneer Minister of Pathfinder Church, Northstowe, the Revd Dr Beth Cope, who first came to live in neighbouring Cambourne with her family in 2018, said: “I think a lot of people have moved here with the desire to form community.
“It’s a much bigger picture than just the story of the centre, or Christians and Muslims sharing a space. It’s about offering hospitality for the whole town, sustained through Christian prayer and worship.”
She continued: “God absolutely broke my heart for this place. We had heard about the estate that was developing near by, and I started walking the streets and praying. One day, a little boy outside the primary school said, ‘Hello, have you come to lunch in our school?’ And that’s actually what I ended up doing, and that school has been the base of so much of our activity. I’ve had the opportunity to join in with what God was already doing here, with some amazing people from all faiths and none.”
The outcome of the bid will be announced on 23 June, and the aim is that the project will be completed in 2029. But the dream has long been to activate the site as soon as possible.
“We’re not starting church from scratch,” Dr Cope said. “The mission and ministry in the community is already happening, day by day. Everybody brings something. It’s a huge gift.”