Infra-red heating helps village church with missional heart offer a warm welcome

THE CHURCH IS MEDIEVAL (THE earliest parts are 900 years old) but is not a place that rests on its historic laurels. It wants to welcome people and “express the love of God”.

According to Roger Goodden, who is in charge of the fabric of the church, St Andrew’s “is simply wishing to link with and be a friend to the rest of the community and to spread the gospel.”

Oakington is a village in South Cambridgeshire, with a population of just 1,400 and St Andrew’s aims to share the presence of God with the rural community. As part of this call, the church hosts a summer garden party, a harvest and other concerts organised by the community, and performances from visiting choirs.

If you’re going to do these things, you need a good heating system, not just a missional heart. “The better the facilities, the more welcoming we are as a church,” says Roger.

Formerly, the church was heated by electric panels on the back of the pews. These dated back to the 1990s and had become notoriously unreliable.

“The whole system was subject to breakdowns,” says Roger, “and whole sections of pews could lose their heating.”

So, to make the church physically warm and welcoming as well as emotionally and spiritually so, in 2023 infra-red panels replaced the old, unreliable ones, on the back of each pew. Sixty-four panels were installed around the church, as well as two wall-mounted infra-red heaters in the side aisles which have chairs instead of pews.

“In a building such as ours, heating people is the way to go rather than heating the building,” says Roger.

And it’s made an instant difference. First, the new system is reliable. People know that when they turn up for a service or a concert, there will be heat and they will be warm. Second, it doesn’t take long to warm up.

“Instead of the vicar going in at the crack of dawn to get the heating going, it can go on half an hour before the service,” says Roger.

“A welcoming church should be warm and a nice place to be and so this was an important thing for us to do. It’s about what we can offer to further the kingdom of God.”

The new heating system was just a start. An ‘air curtain’ has been installed in the porch. Imagine yourself walking into a shop where a curtain of warm air welcomes you and keeps out the cold. St Andrew’s now has the equivalent, stopping the cold air from outside leaking into the church as people join services.

“In the depths of winter, it was really bad before,” says Roger, “and people complained because it was cold. Now the air curtain is really comfortable for those coming into the building.”

After this, LED lighting was installed throughout the building.

And the care for the environment is also to be seen outside, where a rewilding scheme, piloted by parishioners, is improving the churchyard as a habitat for wildlife.

“We were aware of the net zero target,” says Roger. “We needed to do something, and these were things that we could do.”

All this cost the church under £30,000. The new infra-red heaters cost around £25,000, the initial feasibility study to come up with a plan cost £1,176 and the lighting was another £2,269.

Thanks to a generous legacy from the former churchwarden, there were funds to do the work, and there was no need to apply for grants. It’s hoped that the new heating and lighting will reduce the church’s fuel bills by a quarter.

Roger and the team at St Andrew’s aren’t stopping there. Currently, they’re considering an air source heat pump for the church hall in a bid to keep it warm all the time.

But for now, they’re celebrating the possibilities brought about by a welcoming and comfortable church building: the potential for more concerts, people feeling confident about attending particularly in the winter, and potentially lower bills over time.

“We have greatly benefited from the new, more efficient heating,” says Roger, “and it’s been welcomed by the congregation!”