The beautiful town of Newquay is famed for its fine surfing conditions, where the wild Atlantic hits the Cornish coast. Having stepped out into uncharted waters, the newly formed Newquay Evangelical Church have been through their own choppy waves, needing throughout it a firm faith in God’s providence, and support from people with the right expertise.
Remaining faithful to God’s word
A desire to remain faithful to God’s word led the church’s leadership and congregation to explore the possibility of becoming an independent church. Having begun discussions to separate from their historic denomination, the church soon realised the value of keeping use of the church building in which they met, currently owned by the denomination.
“We really wanted to keep the building but we didn’t know how this would be possible at all. It was at this point that we really needed some legal help.”
Matthew Bray, Elder and Trustee at Newquay

Newquay’s church building (image courtesy of Newquay Evangelical Church)
Finding Christ-centred legal expertise
The church decided to come to Edward Connor Solicitors to find that legal help for a number of reasons. Matthew explained,
“We wanted it to be a Christian firm dealing with it, and we knew you’d had a lot of experience with dealing with other churches throughout the country. If we’d gone to an ordinary solicitors they just wouldn’t have had that expertise.”
Edward Connor Solicitors were able to help Newquay both with the legal matters surrounding the purchase of the church building, and also setting up the new charity, which the church recognised as vital to get right from the outset.
For such important and potentially complex matters, you want to know you can ask any questions – no matter how simple they might seem! – and get the right answers:
“We had lots of questions as we went along, and the lovely thing for us was that there was such a peace of mind that you were there and able to deal with the questions we had and offer advice where needed.”
Making waves for the gospel
Now an independent fellowship with ownership of their own church building from which to worship and reach their community, Newquay have already seen amazing gospel work happening. Matthew remarked,
“The church family has doubled in size since becoming independent in 12 months and we’re seeing new faces all the time.”
On a more mundane but no less important level, the building purchase made the church aware of a number of practical things regarding maintaining the building that needed sorting, for which the church has now been able to secure a number of grants.
Matthew finished by emphasising,
“We give all the thanks and glory to God because God has supplied those needs for us and it’s thrilling to have those dealt with.”
Please give us a call if you want to talk through your requirements and find out how we might be able to help you.
Photo in banner by Louis Reed on Unsplash