A church in Derby has told Premier that they are optimistic about rebuilding their place of worship, after it was burnt to the ground at the end of 2020.

All Saints Church in Mackworth, Derby was completely destroyed by a blaze that took hold within the building.

An 18-year-old has now been charged with arson and is due to appear in court at the end of this month.

Church Warden Bryan Jones told Premier and said how they are seeing this an opportunity to build an even better church, he said: "My favourite gospel is John's gospel and I can sum his gospel up in one word, transformation. 

"We have been transformed from being survivors into being pioneers, for making the church last for another 1,000 years. 

"When your only building is the church, you don't have a church hall, and it's completely devastated, you're suddenly homeless, or churchless shall I say.

"We have been very lucky because we have a small group of churches and about three miles up the road towards Nashville on Kurt Langley, they have invited us in, and we are worshipping very happily jointly with them.

"Most of the contents of the church were completely destroyed. 

"The church building now is full of scaffolding and we're now having talks with the architects and were trying to design the new church. 

"We're not replacing the pipe organ, we're going to have a classical electronic organ, which is much smaller, you don't have to have lots of space.

"It's going to be quite different inside from what it used to be. 

"The church is going to be more open, previously, it was full of pews and the fire destroyed many of them, so we've decided not to replace them.

"We're going to have a big open area, the worship area will be in what was used to be the chancel area."

Jones explained that although they are insured for 11 million pounds to replace the church, they will still need to fundraise for extra equipment in the church. 

He estimates the rebuild won't be completed until 2025.

He also hopes that the new building will attract more people into the church day by day.

Jones asked for prayers whilst the rebuilding of the church takes place, he said: "I think we need prayers for wisdom, in the prayers for our vision, we do have a vision. 

"But I think that needs to be honed. The vision has to cope with a bigger challenge, with more and more houses and the primary school in the parish. 

Also for us to be able to work together to make this happen and to discern how God wants us to be in the future. What sort of church does he want."