ALFRESCO worship is being enjoyed by the congregation of Wallyford Livingroom Church which has been taking advantage of the recent sunny weather.

As they await a building warrant to start work on the extension to the church building following the granting of planning permission last October, they are gathering for services, weather permitting, outdoors on the site of the new building on Sunday mornings.

The church is based in what was the former Mine Superintendent’s cottage on Salters Road, built in the early 1900s to serve nearby coal mines.It was bought in 1980 to be used as a Mission Hall and is home to the Livingroom Church, which builds on the work of the old Wallyford Mission, which stretches back to the 1920s in the village.

The plan to extend the building to the rear to create a community-sized worship area and communal facility would allow up to 170 people to be seated in the new main hall and provide Bible class and crèche facilities.

The congregation met in Wallyford Miners Club and then local primary school on Futures Way prior to the Covid-19 lockdown.

The extension project, to enable the church to have more space to serve the community, was initially turned down by planners on parking grounds but was approved on appeal to East Lothian Local Review Body.

Pastor Andrew Agnew said: “Our church has been making pre-recorded services for the last year and, during the lockdown easing at the end of March, we have been meeting in person for small numbers on a Sunday morning in our little Livingroom building.

“The weather has really improved and so we are meeting on the space where our new building will be erected on Sunday mornings, with the ability for a majority of our church to gather together. Our wonderful neighbours have kindly allowed us to amplify our music and talk, so we have our guidelines, our physically distant bubbles and we bring along our picnic chairs, and try to block out the background noises to concentrate on having our time together to sing, pray, listen and worship.”

He added: “Long ago, Charlie Dury, who ran the mission for years, always believed that one day people would build a church through the fire escape doors of the existing building. We are out there now being a church in that space and we are praying that East Lothian Council will grant us our building warrant soon so that we can make that belief a reality.

“Like all churches at the moment, we have to have a booking system to attend and complete our track and trace element of place of worship gatherings but we are glad that the lockdown has pushed us to make online content for folks who would like to see what we are up to, listen to the music we love to sing, and how we learn from the Bible. It’s almost like a ‘try before you buy’ shop window for us.”