A growing Whitehaven church is set to hold its Sunday services at St Benedict's School.

It will be a new chapter for Grace Church, as from Sunday, July 9 it will meet at the secondary school.

The church has been using a building on George Street in the town centre for Sunday services and weekly activities. It will continue to run its weekly activities there, but meet in the school on Sundays.

Aaron Travell, one of the church leaders, said: "Moving to St Benedict's school is a great move for Grace Church. It might sound strange to people that a church can meet in a school, but we very much believe that a church is defined by people and its community rather than a specific type or structure of a building."

He said they have been searching for a new venue as they are starting to out-grow the George Street venue.

"When the opportunity arose with St Benedict's, it seemed like a match made in heaven (excuse the pun), great facilities, room for growth and the St Benedict's management have been super accommodating with us.

Mr Travell said: "We are blessed to have a real mixture of people at Grace Church, lots of families, a real mixture of ages young and old, various nationalities and we are welcoming new people every week. Moving to St Benedict's ensures that we can continue to grow, we'll have more space to accommodate more people who join us, better parking facilities for everyone including better disabled parking. The extra space will also allow us to improve our children's work.

"At the same time as this move, we will also continue to occupy the George Street building which we rent from the Elim church on Woodhouse.

The George Street building is used for various community groups and other activities such as the weekly toddler group, a recent acoustic night and other events.

Grace Church, which was formed a number of years ago, belongs to Christ Central Churches which is part of New Frontiers – a recognised branch of the Christian church.

Mary Lowrey, St Benedict's school business director, said: "We are delighted to be able to extend the use of our school to the whole community and look forward to enjoying a new link with the Grace Church in Whitehaven.

"Our school facilities, including sports halls, are already used by a wide range of groups, including adult education, Brownies, sports clubs and conferences. We welcome enquiries from all members of our local community and will always do our best to accommodate requests to use our facilities after school, at weekends and during holidays. Grace Church is most welcome."