Funded by Benefact Trust, the Scottish Episcopal Church, ASDA Foundation and generous donations from congregation members.
The vestry and congregation of St Leonard’s Lasswade are delighted to have been chosen as the 2025 Pioneer Project for the Benefact Trust and SEC Net Zero funding for the Diocese of Edinburgh.
In 2025 we are celebrating 135 years of life of the church of St Leonard’s serving the local community, offering a place of worship and much needed community resource in our community.
For a number of years, we have been struggling with an antiquated heating system which in the depths of winter, despite being switched on often for more than 10 hours, struggled to heat the building to 12 Celsius.
This very inefficient and ineffective system resulted in us not being able to offer a warm and welcoming environment for worship or for other community functions.
The Vestry, having already signed up to become an Eco-congregation, were delighted to become early supporters of the Provincial Net Zero programme. It would have been financially easier to install a gas heated wet system but we unanimously agreed that we would seek to work towards becoming a carbon low, or possibly even a net zero, church.
We also desired to reorder the church so that rather than only being used on a Sunday the building could be utilised by the community throughout the week.
In late 2024 we were further encouraged when the ASDA foundation awarded us a grant to help us reorder the church enabling us to have the funds to work towards the installation of an accessible toilet.
Frustratingly however our application to the Community and Renewable Energy Scheme (CARES) was not shortlisted for funding and although told that we had a good project in hand we would need to wait until next year to apply. This left us despondent as there was no way we could afford to move forward with our plans to reorder the church or install the new heating system.
Nevertheless, we prayed and put our plans on hold wondering if we would be able to realise our vision and dream for the church. It was shortly after this that we were contacted regarding the Benefact Trust partnership with the SEC and are relieved and excited that funding has now been secured.
Starting in September, the work begins to remove the pews, install an accessible toilet and servery area. Alongside making the building more useable we have opted for a Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system which utilises an Air to Air source heat pumps to provide a constant ambient heat.
This will be boosted by additional heating, provided by non-glow infrared heaters to warm the people when needed. Underfloor and loft insulation are also being installed to minimise heat loss.
In this way, the fabric of the church is preserved and the people of the congregation have a warm welcoming and flexible space to use for both worship and a variety of community activities.
Rev Peter Harris, St Leonard’s Lasswade
