Theresa Villiers, Member of Parliament for Chipping Barnet, has backed the campaign to save New Bevan Baptist Church. The church’s building on Grove Road in New Barnet is owned by the London Baptist Association, but since 2001, it has been shared with the Barnet Christian Fellowship.
The Baptist congregation closed in August 2017 because of falling numbers. The Barnet Christian Fellowship (BCF) were told that they could continue to use the church building, but only until the end of February. The London Baptist Association have now received an offer by a developer to buy the building putting continued use of the property by BCF in jeopardy.
The Barnet Christian Fellowship is a church group headed by Revd Diane Druce which provides outreach work in the community and offers free services to young families, elderly and vulnerable residents.
Theresa Villiers said “The Barnet Christian Fellowship does fantastic work in the local community, I would like to thank Revd Diane Druce and the Barnet Christian Fellowship for all their hard work.”
“If the church building is closed and redeveloped, leaving BCF without a home in New Barnet, this would mean a brilliant community asset has been lost. I know the local community really value the work done here and are firmly against the planned closure. I would encourage everyone to show their support for the ‘Save our Church’ campaign run by Natasha Mercer by signing the campaign’s petition.”
The petition is available to be signed at: https://www.change.org/p/london-baptist-association-stop-the-closure-of-the-new-bevan-baptist-church
Theresa visited the church on Friday to sign the petition and meet the Barnet Christian Fellowship.