Inspiring Worship, Learning and Community

Reimagining this historic building to serve our community and our city for generations to come

The Inspire Project Vision

St John’s Church has for many years considered proposals to enhance the church’s facilities. The proposals, whilst varying in scale, have had a common theme, to create a space that is suited to modern community use. The Inspire Project shares that aim. There are three strands to the Inspire Project vision: Inspiring Worship Worship at St John’s draws on ancient Christian traditions of praising God in the beauty of holiness. We express this through our inspiring worship enriched with liturgy and choral music. We’re committed to inclusivity and outreach and our building needs to enable people to explore God in different ways. Inspiring Learning Learning is an integral part of our life together at St John’s as our hearts are open to the teaching of scripture. Learning in our choir equips our choristers to pursue a life-long love of music and inspire others. Scissors Paper Stone, our community history project, shares a love of learning together. The building needs to offer a space that inspires learning in all its forms. Inspiring Community At St John’s, we strive for peace, justice and the integrity of creation. We hold strongly the responsibility that we have to create a space for community to gather and be inspired by one another. The Inspire Project seeks to transform our building to create an inspirational space for a range of community uses.

The Need

We’ve identified lots of challenges with how we use our building:

• St John’s doesn’t have any kitchen facilities and the only running water in the building is in the toilet cubicle.
• There is only one toilet in the building and it is inaccessible to disabled visitors.
• The heating system is inefficient and the building is often cold.
• The space is inflexible and restrictive, leaving little opportunity to use the space creatively or have space for community use.

The Inspire Project

1) Restoration of the Tower and Spire
The Tower and Spire of this Grade II* listed building have deteriorated significantly and are now on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register. They require urgent restoration to prevent further deterioration.
2) Kitchen servery
The lack of a kitchen is inhibiting use of the building. We’ll be installing a servery kitchen in the north-west corner of the church, a space already established as our refreshment area.
3) Vestry re-ordering and installation of additional toilets. 
The vestries are in a poor condition and are letting in water. We plan to re-order the space to create three accessible toilet cubicles and versatile vestry spaces that canal so be used for Sunday school and small meetings.
4) Heating
The longer term plan is to remove the pews and install underfloor heating. In the meantime, we’re exploring remedial options to maximise the efficiency of the heating.

We plan to complete phase one by 2029, the 150th anniversary of the first Ranmoor church.  However our initial fundraising appeal is to ‘Save Our Spire’ - the most costly and vital element of the project.
 

SAVE OUR SPIRE

St John’s has the tallest parish church spire in Sheffield. The tower and spire are the only remaining parts of the first Ranmoor Church, that was destroyed by fire in 1887. Situated on the hillside, it can be seen for miles around and is a beacon of prayer and hope for our community.

However, concerning deterioration has been identified in the stonework of the tower and spire caused by exposure to the weather. In August 2023, the tower and spire began to shed masonry and protective scaffolding was erected around of the base the spire to protect those entering the building.

The tower and spire needs to be urgently re-stabilised. We plan to line the spire with brick, which will be tied to the external stone skin using stainless steel pins and cross braced. The spire and tower will then be de-scaled and re-pointed. This part of the project will cost over£1 million. This work is urgent and we need your help to ‘Save Our Spire’ and protect this heritage for future generations

Funding the Project

Whilst the PCC has set aside some reserves for use on the building, we still have a significant amount to raise. The recent announcement by the Government that the Listed Places of Worship VAT relief Grant Scheme is to be drastically reduced has added over £200,000 to our fundraising target. In order to deliver all elements of Phase 1, we now need to raise£1 million before any work can start. Funding the Project.

We are actively seeking external grant funding, from both local and national partners. A community fundraising campaign is also being developed. There will be lots of events to engage with over the next couple of years. We’re also looking for people or organisations that might be able to help us fundraise or fundraise on our behalf. £1,000,000As soon as we have raised sufficient funding for the tower and spire work, that project will commence whilst we continue to fundraise for the other elements of the project. We hope to have fully funded phase 1 by the end of 2026.

How you can help? 

This project won’t be able to go ahead without your financial support. We need donors to buy into the vision for the future of St John’s and give generously. There’s information below about the ways in which you can give. Your donation can be a one-off gift or regular donation to support the appeal. Please do consider carefully how you can support the project and complete a pledge form so we can track progress towards our appeal target. If you’re a tax payer, do make sure you complete a Gift Aid declaration - we can claim an extra 25p for every £1 donated.

 

---

The full survey report can be downloaded here

 

The information leaflet can be downloaded here

 

---

What people like about our Church:

What people dislike about our Church: