Much has happened at Moldgreen since the centenary celebrations which is hardly
surprising as the world has also changed quite a lot and the United Reformed Church was formed.
During those years a Boys’ Brigade was founded and became very strong until it
had to disband around the time of the millennium due to the fact that not only had the numbers fallen but
the current leaders wished to retire and replacements could not be found. Work with young people continues
with Rainbows, Brownies and Guides.
Like most churches, numbers attending Junior Church have fallen but in general the
number of people attending worship has not fallen to the same extent. We print eighty service sheets out each
week and when we have a baptismal service we have to print more or share!
What is important though is that the church has extended it’s outreach into the
community especially at special occasions such as Easter, and Christmas. The premises are also well used by
other organisations in the community which many of the members actively support.
The church has also made moves to work more closely with the local Methodist Church
and with other churches in the Huddersfield and Halifax District of the United Reformed Church.
The biggest change of all, however, is that we have a new building which in its way
has helped us to do these things.
The history of this is not only very complicated but very drawn out. Even as far back
as the centenary celebrations it was known that the authorities were thinking of changing the layout of the
A629 which runs through the centre of Moldgreen as it was not only the major road to Wakefield but also Sheffield.
From the start the church knew that this probably meant that the new road would be
going through the church building, but what was going to happen to our church was not immediately evident.
As planners invariably do, they changed their minds a number of times over the years leaving the church in a sort
of flux, not knowing what would be happening to the building and yet not wanting to throw away money on a building
which in a few years time would be demolished. The plans ranged from going straight through the middle of the
church to just taking off the corner which meant that the church had no idea what sort of compensation they would
be getting.
In the end the planners finally made up their minds and we saw that the new road meant
that one end of the church was affected. After consultation, however, it was agreed that the building would have
to be demolished and the church would receive appropriate compensation. While this was good, to build a modern
church on the new site allocated meant that the church had to raise a lot of money to get the building they thought
was necessary to do God’s work in the community of Moldgreen.
The new building was finally opened in 1989. It is a multi-purpose building and servers
the church and other organisations from the community.