A dilapidated church that is considered 'not suitable for the goal' will be converted into an ultramodern mosque after he has been bought by a Muslim organization for £ 3.5 million.
St. Thomas' United Reformed Church in Watford, Hertfordshire, concluded in 2015 with the first plan to demolish it and rebuild it due to serious structural issues.
The building permit was granted twice, but the scheme was never implemented and it was offered for sale and then purchased by the local AR-Rahmah Trust in December.
Now the charity is trying to pick up another £ 1.5 million to renovate the 20,000 square meter building to reopen it next year as Masjid al-Ummah with facilities like never before '.
The sale was completed in January after Ar-Rahmah raised the money in 'Qardh Hasanah', an Islamic financial period with regard to interest-free charity loans.
Now the trust has launched a crowdfunder project to collect £ 500,000 to repay the short -term financing this month – with 477 people who have already given £ 452,555.
AR-RAHMAH wants to increase the £ 1.5 million for renovation in December, and then open the mosque next year before paying back the rest of the loan by January 2027.
St Thomas' United Reformed Church in Watford, Hertfordshire, closed its doors in 2015
A view in the church of St. Thomas released in a promotional video of Ar-Rahmah Trust
A launch page for the project states that the mosque will be a 'hospitable, non-sectarian and non-party-related environment that offers accessible spaces for worship, learning and community involvement,' reported the Watford observer.
Masjid al-Ummah will also have a dedicated women's gymnastics, daycare, food bank, Koranklassen and Islamic education, social spaces for the elderly, youth spaces, a gym, a digital library, a digital library, study hubs and mortuary services.
The website of the project states that the Muslim community in Watford 'has grown from a small group to a lively and diverse population of 15,000'.
It adds: “While existing Masjids and Musallahs have served us well, the demand for space, especially during Jummah and Ramadan, has outgrown the current facilities.”
The website also says: “Masijd Al Ummah will tackle the spiritual, educational, social and welfare needs of the community, inspired by the traditional role of a Masjid as a hub for prayer, learning and community cohesion.”
The Sitelay-Out for the planned Masjid Al-Ummah that will be opened at a certain moment in 2026
A hall in the church in Watford that was purchased last December by Ar-Rahmah Trust
The managers behind the scheme would have met the local residents' association in the Nascot area of the city to discuss how the community was updated and involved in the project.
It comes after the church of England intervened to block an unused church II-raised church in Staffordshire by being converted into a mosque in August last year.
The Sint-Johannes de Evangelist church in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent, was not used as a place of worship since the tower was declared unsafe in the 1980s.
The building, which dates from 1788, was last used as an antique center and café before it was sold to the Zamir Foundation that won permission from the Stoke-on-Trent-municipal council to turn it into a mosque.
But the church of England blocked the plan with the help of a legal clause under a covenant that forbids it to become a place of worship for another religion.
The first plan was to demolish and rebuild the church because of serious structural issues
A view of the United Reformed Church by St. Thomas who will be Masjid al-Ummah
However, other transformations have been adopted, such as a Victorian Methodist Church in Bradford, which will be used, which will be converted into a mosque.
Clayton Heights Methodist Church dates from 1870, but has been empty since 2020 – with plans to never change in houses, and the church instead bought by the local Muslim community.
Elsewhere, the dilapidated former St Chad's Church in Blackburn, Lancashire, was transformed into the new Masjid-e-taqwa mosque after a major renovation in 2023.
According to the National Churches Trust, more than 3500 churches in the UK are closed in the UK in the United Kingdom – with many who become houses or community centers.
About 46 percent of people England and Wales or 27.5 million claimed to be Christian in the 2021 census, which was a decrease of 13 percentage points since the last census in 2011.
The number of people who describe themselves as a Muslim in 2021, however, increased to 6.5 percent or 3.9 million, an increase of 4.9 percent or 2.7 million in 2011.
