HALLELUJAH! Blackpool's Baptists are looking forward to meeting in their own church again as work begins their a brand new building at Forest Gate, Blackpool.

Worshippers have auctioned goods on the internet, run social events and donated money to raise a whopping £123,000 towards the new building.

Additional church funds mean that the worshippers are now only £12,600 short of their £240,000 target.

"Hopefully by Christmas we shall have all new building and new facilities both for ourselves and our local community," said a spokesman for the new Forest Gate church -- previously called Whitegate Drive Baptist Church.

"Everything is now set as we look forward to celebrating our centenary back home."

Whitegate Drive Baptist Church was demolished in May 2001 after the building was declared unsafe due to subsidence. The congregation has been worshipping temporarily at Blackpool's Bethesda Church on Grasmere Road.

But the new building at Forest Gate will be much more than a church, explained Blackpool Baptist Church's Reverend Ken Paskin.

"It will be mainly two large halls. We'll have an upper floor sanctuary which will be provided with modern technology for services and can also be used as a conference centre, and downstairs there'll be a main hall for the general weekly activities of the church, which will also be available for community hire."

Churchgoers want their new building to become an 'easily accessible' community centre as well as a place of worship, Rev Paskin added. Parents will be able to 'drop in' and and get help with accessing websites, for example if they want to find out benefits information, while children are looked after in a creche, he said.

"And not just the young, but some of the older people as well, need a friend to help them fill forms, get into the web and understand benefits. It's being in a way a neighbourhood facility."