{"id":2941,"date":"2018-01-04T19:42:17","date_gmt":"2018-01-04T19:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/news\/2018\/01\/04\/hundreds-of-jehovahs-witnesses-from-across-the-country-are-flocking-to-st-anns-to-build-a-place-of-worship-on-the-site-of-a-former-pub\/"},"modified":"2018-01-04T19:42:17","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T19:42:17","slug":"hundreds-of-jehovahs-witnesses-from-across-the-country-are-flocking-to-st-anns-to-build-a-place-of-worship-on-the-site-of-a-former-pub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/hundreds-of-jehovahs-witnesses-from-across-the-country-are-flocking-to-st-anns-to-build-a-place-of-worship-on-the-site-of-a-former-pub\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Jehovah\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Witnesses from across the country are flocking to St Ann\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s to build a place of worship on the site of a former pub."},"content":{"rendered":"
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The site of the former Sycamore Inn pub in Hungerhill Road is currently being turned in to a meeting hall for the Christian sect, with work due to finish by the end of February.<\/div>\n
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However almost every stage of the building, from design to putting in the windows, is being done by unpaid volunteers \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 450 of them in total.<\/div>\n
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Adam Byrnes, 35, of St Ann\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, a cleaning business owner who has been helping out three days a week, said: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It is absolutely amazing to see people volunteering to build our church.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have been waiting for a purpose-built church since before I joined nine years ago.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I have no construction experience but I am being trained in everything. The ones who are more experienced train everybody up and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re really patient.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s challenging but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re learning in a good environment.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am definitely looking forward to being in the new building.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/div>\n
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Some of them have come from as far afield as the Isle of Skye in Scotland and Truro in Cornwall to help build a place of worship \u00e2\u20ac\u201cknown as a Kingdom Hall – for Nottingham\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s congregations.<\/div>\n
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Allister Dryden, a 49-year-old painter and decorator who has 15 years\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 experience on similar projects around the country and abroad, came from Truro on December 18 with his wife Esther.<\/div>\n
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He said: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I am having a good time, despite the weather.<\/div>\n
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Work continues at the new Jehovah’s Witness Kingdom Hall<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is a sense of building excitement towards the end, it will be a really lovely moment when you see them come in and appreciate what has been done. That is really satisfying.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I expect there will be a few tears, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bit like DIY SOS.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is more to life than just going to work to pay the bills.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/div>\n
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(L- R) Mark Jones, 36 and Jo Jones, 30 of North Wales pictured alongside Hannah Spelman, 30 and Tim Spelman, 35 of Norwich, on site\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n
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Many of these volunteers are trained in the skills needed to put up a building and are being housed by members of three local congregations \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Nottingham Central, Sycamore Park and Nottingham Polish \u00e2\u20ac\u201c who are also lending a hand.<\/div>\n
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They have been working on the site since September and will undertake every part of the construction apart from laying the tarmac for the car park.<\/div>\n
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This is the culmination of many years\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 work, with the Nottingham Central congregation waiting to move out of their rented accommodation on Bath Street since they formed in 1981.<\/div>\n
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Planning permission for the single-storey building was granted by Nottingham City Council in 2014 and the pub was demolished in the same year.<\/div>\n
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In charge is 36-year-old Mark Jones, a professional site manager from Deeside in North Wales who has been offering his services for free full-time to the church for the past four years.<\/div>\n
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He said: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If we can avoid using contractors and instead use our own skill it benefits the cause.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u0153The fact that there are so many people willing to sacrifice their own time and resources to help one another is incredible and faith strengthening.<\/div>\n
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\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Doing this is absolutely fabulous, especially this one as they have waited so long for it.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/div>\n
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http:\/\/www.nottinghampost.com\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The site of the former Sycamore Inn pub in Hungerhill Road is currently being turned in to a meeting hall for the Christian sect, with work due to finish by the end of February. However…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2941\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}