A CHURCH congregation is preparing to enter their new £280,000 building.

The 30-strong congregation at Chatburn Methodist Church will move from their makeshift place of worship at a nearby undertakers.

The new Chatburn Methodist Church should be open in the next two weeks.

The building, funded by grants from Methodist Church headquarters and by local fund-raising, is single-storey with state of the art facilities for the whole community.

It will include a worship area, two other multi-purpose rooms for 40 to 50 people, a kitchen and an office as well as full disabled access and disabled toilets.

The demolition and construction of the church, which began in March, has provided many surprises including the finding of a 119-year-old time capsule.

The builders also discovered the back end of the old church was built without any foundations

The previous church was built on four levels and would have cost £500,000 to refurbish.

The Rev Chris Cheeseman, superintendent minister of the Clitheroe Methodist Circuit, is delighted with how it looks.

He said: "The building is complete, and the decorators are in now.

"It is going to be well used, and we are sending a survey around the village to see what facilities people want to see operating."

The church will be used by organisations including pre-school groups, youth groups and a women's fellowship.

It will also support adult learning classes with the help of Accrington and Rossendale College.

The classes will be aided by three new computers and broadband internet access.

The time capsule tradition has been retained with the placing of a 2002 time capsule, including a copy of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph and a photograph of the present congregation, under the new building's foundations.

Funeral director Brian Price, who provided a stop-gap place of worship for the congregation in his chapel of rest in Downham Road, is also a regular attender at the church.

Mr Price said: "I am pleased I have been able to have them here, it has gone really well."