Malmesbury Abbey in Wiltshire is an historic 12th century building in which generations of Christians have come to worship.

Transforming the building into a 21st century skate park takes some imagination! But in a bid to reach out to the community, that’s what the church did. Hundreds of young people got on their skate boards to take part!

Neill Archer, vicar at Malmesbury, explained how the idea began: 'For a few years we have been committed to using the abbey as a community building in order to create a new sense of belonging amongst the people in the town. A number of our members were involved with Christian Skaters UK and we decided to do something to engage with the skaters in Malmesbury.
We really wanted to show these young people that they are welcome here, and we had the idea of placing a skate park within the Abbey’s grounds. On further reflection however, we thought it would be a much stronger statement to put the park inside the building itself, and so, for three days in February, that is what we did.
It was fantastic to see hundreds of skaters coming through the doors and we are now looking forward to developing these new links over the coming months.'

Permissions needed to be obtained by not only the local Church Council, but also the Bishop of Bristol, and once this was cleared the work began. Christian Surfers provided the mobile skate park, and the Malmesbury Abbey team did an amazing job of laying a new temporary floor and protecting the key parts of the Abbey with a mixture of hay bales and wood.

During the course of the festival over 300 different skaters used the ramps, many coming back numerous times. The event caught the media’s attention, even a TV crew from BBC Persia which transmits to countries such as Iran and Afghanistan.

The church is keen to work with people of all ages, and regularly opens its doors on Fridays for a Seniors’ Pop-in.
'Elderly people in the town can often feel quite isolated,' Neill told us. 'Pop-in is an opportunity for people to come in, enjoy a cup of coffee and befriend others. Alongside this, we run a seniors’ Alpha course and it has been great to see new people coming to the church and being baptised as they come to know Jesus.'

Malmesbury Abbey also run a men’s basketball team and a women’s netball team.
Neill told us: 'The two sports teams provide an opportunity to create links with men and women in a more relaxed atmosphere. They are another way that we engage with our community as we seek to be a church that is “out there” and not just in the building.'


For more information go to www.christianskater.co.uk OR www.malmesburyabbey.com