The whole concept of an Anglican/Methodist Covenant was alive in the minds of Methodist Church from the late
1970’s but sadly this failed to come to fruition. The concept was reborn in the late 1990’s when the Minister of the
Methodist Church and the Vicar from the Anglican Church discussed a possible way forward for the two Churches
to share one building in an area ripe for mission. Many shared Worship and social events took place over the next
few years and folk began to know and value each other.
The Council offer to buy the Methodist Church (Salford Methodist Community Church) under a compulsory
purchase order was agreed and joint planning meetings began in earnest. In 2006 the Anglican Church
(St Ambrose) moved into the Methodist Church following a fire in their building and for a while worshiped in
a small room separate from the Methodist congregation. A series of away days ironed out the minor
difficulties and devised a way forward as it had now become apparent that both parties wanted to not only
share mission within the community but importantly wanted to become one in worship. Thus the two churches
came together as a Local Ecumenical Partnership and so the Emmanuel Church and Centre was born from the
vision of unity to Worship and serve the Community together.
Ministers and members of the Church laying the Foundation to the Building.
A Contract was entered into with a builder in May 2007. Later, a Legal agreement was drawn up in order to part
company with that builder and a new contract with an alternative builder was agreed in March 2008. Building work
now came to a halt and the Construction company was instructed and secured the site in March 2008 whilst
discussions took place with them to endeavour to negotiate a completion cost. The church was approached by a
new builder in October 2008. Unfortunately this builder went into administration in May 2009. A local business had
been subcontracted to complete the works in July 2009 but again, the builder went into administration in September
2010
The Building of the Emmanuel Centre Community Hall.
A new builder then reached agreement to complete the works on an ad-hoc basis from September 2010 until
(approximately) May 2012 . From then on building work was at a standstill untill 2014. In the early summer of 2011
the community centre was signed off by building control which meant that the Church could then move into the
Community Centre. The twenty-two appartments on the three floors above had previously been completed and
were occupied.
The twenty-two affordable appartments above the Emmanuel Centre.
In February 2013 the City Council awarded the church a Regeneration Grant of £60,000, in order to complete the
outside works including the car park. This work was completed in February 2014. During the course of completing
the outside works upper brick work problems were discovered and all safety issues were addressed. There had
been an additional storm damage which has resulted in loss of ridge tiles on the Sports Hall roof and internal
damage to the ceiling/insulation tiles. This latter was an insurance claim and repairs begin Thursday 27th February
2014. The Church worshiped in the Community Room each Sunday. The remainder of the week a wide range of
community groups occupy the Centre which is staffed by volunteers.
The Worship space was completed and was officially opened and dedicated on 4th July 2015. Throughout the entire
journey the churches benefited from the support of the Anglican Team and the Methodist Circuit and indeed the
District and Connexion.
