A FRIENDS group is being set up to secure the future of a landmark church in Wirral.
The Shrewsbury diocese has confirmed Ss Peter and Paul’s church in New Brighton – known as the “Dome of Home” – will re-open fully later this year.
After the church shut in August 2008 a pressure group Save Our Unique Landmark (SOUL) was set up to battle for the prominent church to be re-opened.
Former New Brighton councillor and longstanding supporter of SOUL, Tony Pritchard, said many had believed it was a battle they could not win.
However, earlier this year the church was partially re-opened with a service on Friday mornings. It later emerged the diocese was in talks with the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest to take over running the church.
The Rt Rev Mark Davies, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Shrewsbury, and Monsignor Gilles Wach, General Prior of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, have agreed to work towards establishing a foundation of the Institute at the church.
The principal aim of the new foundation will be to provide a centre for the celebration of Mass and the other Sacraments in Latin with the priest leading the faithful in facing east.
