Precious Blood church launches £250,000 fundraising appeal

The Church of the Most Precious Blood, formerly served by Salvatorian priests, was in 2013 placed in the care of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. Its parish priest, Fr Christopher Pearson, is a former vicar of an Anglican church in Kennington.

The O'Meara Street church building was last year given grade II listed status by the Government.

The MPB 125 appeal was launched on Sunday 5 July at a Mass – celebrated by Monsignor Keith Newton, ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham – to mark the Feast of the Most Precious Blood.

The church hopes to raise £125,000 in each of the two years running up to the anniversary. A total of £250,000 is needed to complete the flooring and make the church more accessible, to redecorate the walls and improve the electrical and lighting systems. The final stage will be to rebuild the pipe organ in the west gallery.

“The area around the Borough is rapidly developing and our congregation consists of a broad mix of both long-term local residents and people who have moved to the area more recently for work or study," said Fr Christopher Pearson.

"The church is open all day and a steady stream of people use it as a place to pray or just find some peace and tranquility.

"As a congregation, we have already raised and spent over £100,000 in the past two years on improving the facilities; to complete the restoration project we must now seek funding from other sources."

• Details of the MPB 125 appeal are available on the parish website at www.preciousblood.org.uk/125-appeal.html

• Earlier this year the church was awarded £5,400 of Cleaner Greener Safer funding by Borough, Bankside & Walworth Community Council to floodlight the building.