The Lantern Building Project

About us

The Lantern is a local Anglican church (part of the Canford Magna Team), based in Merley near Poole, Dorset. We are passionate about God, each other, and the local community.

Right from the beginning in 1976 the lantern has been “buzzing”. Literally thousands of children have come through Playgroup and Sunset, thousands of teenagers have heard about God through the youth work, and countless folks have come closer to God through great services, great people and the blessings from our great God.  The ripples from this community of faith keep flowing out, and we pray will continue, into the future.

The building project

After 35 years, it is now time to bring the building into the 21st

century in preparation for 21st century people:

• New entrance / welcome area
• New kitchen
• New toilets / disabled WC
• Heating
• Lighting
• Seating
• Audio-visual system
• Improved worship area

• Multi-use facility

Over the past 24 months, some amazing plans have been put together for a truly exceptional design, and once the fundraising target has been reached, we are very keen to complete the building project in a single phase within 18 months.

Helping others too

As it’s not all about us, we as a church thought it would be great to help others with this project too, and hence decided to give 10% of the raised funds to build a clinic in Romania and a classroom in Serbia.

Ways to support the project

£340,000 will pay for everything to do with the building project including the bits in Romania and Serbia. Over half of this sum has already been raised, and we are busy applying for grants and organising fundraising events to make up the rest of the required figure.

You can help financially:

• by making a one-off donation via bank transfer (please contact the church office), cheque, cash, PayPal , JustTextGiving,
• or by setting up a standing order to the church (please contact the church office)

Whichever way you wish so support us, please think about Gift Aid (download a gift aid form here <link> or contact the church office), and also bear in mind that direct bank transfer, cheque and cash donations are commission free, meaning your entire donation will go towards the building project.

Other ways of helping are:

• giving a ‘promise’ for our ‘auction of promises’ (contact us to find out more)
• raising awareness for the Lantern and this project, for example by linking to this page or inviting your friends

You can find us on these social networking sites

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