The Opening

A crowd of 60-70 people squeezed into St Olav Christian bookstore at 10:00 am on Saturday 12 December for the opening service led by the Rural Dean for Chichester, Richard Hunt.  The picture shows the crowd beginning to gather, at about 9:55.

The service, which lasted about ten minutes, was an expression of thankfulness to God that Christians working together in Chichester have been able to get to this point.  A selection of readings and prayers emphasied the place of the literature in its place of directing people's hearts toward God, and asked - in keeping with the goals of the shop - that it would be a ministry to those who use it. 

Bradley Smith (Bookshop Manager) with Richard Hunt, the Rural Dean.

We who are trustees are thankful to God for the help of the Chichester Diocese who have supported us by providing the building for us to use.  We recognise that we share the stewardship of a property that believers through many centuries have used in worship of God, and pray that its current use will further that cause.

New Poster

St Olav's - the building is surrounded by scaffolding at the moment, and awaiting some external attention. We don't have a 'shop window' -it probably wasn't considered necessary for the building's original purpose. But the good news is that we've been able to replace the closure notice placed on the door by the Charity Commission's Administrator with posters advertising our re-opening.

Can you see it?

Chichester has a craft fair in town this week.  Paying a visit to see Bradley and colleagues getting the shop ready for tomorrow's opening, I discovered that two of the traders had set up their stalls right up against our scaffolding, completely blocking the entrance.  Not unreasonable when you consider that yesterday the building has all the appearance of a long closed shop - the notice on the door referred to closure back in August.  They've kindly agreed to move a few yards down the street tomorrow so that our entrance is clear and shoppers can see our new posters and open door inviting them in.

What's Happening

A number of people have been working hard behind the scenes for several months in order to open the bookshop before Christmas.  The building, an old church, has had a rewiring and some other work done to it.  More needs to be done, but we are keen to open before Christmas.

Bradley Smith, formerly the manager of the SPCK Bookshop, has been appointed as Manager of St Olav Christian Bookshop.  Bradley has been energetically bringing together stock orders and the various things needed to re-open a shop.

We hope to share with you some other details of the parties involved and plans for the future - but we're still in a process of developing the trust so this post is a stop gap.

Look out for the new posters that should appear on the doors soon.

Opening Hours

The Bookshop is open Monday-Friday 9:30 am - 5:00pm, and on Saturday 9:00 am - 5:00pm