On 25th October, 1956 the deacons met exceptionally at the home of Charles Quinton at West Wittering. Charles had lost a leg in the first world war and although normally very mobile with his artificial leg, he was suffering one of the periodic bouts of pain which still afflicted him, so the place of meeting was switched from the Secretary’s house in Chichester to his home so that he could take his leg off without embarrassment!

The purpose of the meeting was to look at the preliminary building plans again, preparatory to further discussion with the architect.

The Secretary’s Annual Report for that year says, “After prayer we were sitting around the table discussing the plans when the telephone rang. It was the Area Superintendent (of the Baptist Union) asking to speak to me, with the great news that £3,425 had been allocated to Chichester. The six of us would not have made much of singing the doxology, but we did, as you may imagine, offer together a prayer of deep thanksgiving for this seal and token of approval upon our work. God never is before His time, and never is behind.”

The money allocated was ‘ported’ from war damage compensation by Lake Road Baptist Church, Portsmouth, and a plaque in the vestibule of the new church building commemorates this, the cost being met by Charles and Ethel Quinton, who had previously been members at Lake Road.

Nearly £8,000 had been raised by the young Church in gifts and loans and with the Lake Road money, well over half the expected cost of the new building was now available. The deacons took this news as the leading of the Holy Spirit to proceed confidently with the purchase of the site and the erection of a church building at Sherborne Road. The fact that the Secretary was not at that time on the telephone, seemed to confirm that it was the Lord’s leading (albeit through Charles’s disability) that the meeting was held where there was a telephone.

At about the same time, two young men – Ralph Biddiscombe, an architect and Roy Dann, a surveyor – came into membership of the Church and it soon became clear that they had been “sent to the Kingdom for such a time as this.” They urged that a more contemporary approach be made in the design of the building and although they could not act directly because of their employment by local Councils, Brian Tyler, to his credit, willingly agreed to incorporate some of their ideas, including greater window areas and a cross motif in the west end of the building. Progress towards a new building was getting into top gear.

On 28th November, 1956, the Church decided to apply for an ‘Initial Pastorate Grant’ from the Baptist Union. These grants, usually on a decreasing scale for seven years, were to help new churches with the stipend of a minister. The Rev. Harold Larcombe, Area Superintendent, was pleased to process the application. Things moved quickly. In February, 1957, Harold Larcombe introduced the Rev. Albert Crowther, then at Bedworth, Warwickshire, as a possible first minister. Albert visited the Church on 17th March and again in May and at the Church Meeting on 23rd of that month it was:

“Unanimously Resolved – That, believing ourselves to be led of God, we invite the Rev. A. W. H. Crowther of Bedworth, Warwickshire, to become the first Minister of this Church at the earliest convenient date.”

By now the Church, with still under 50 members, was embarking on a huge undertaking financially, with the purchase of a site, erecting of church premises (and the architect’s and surveyor’s fees involved), commitment to the payment of the stipend and expenses (albeit with Initial Pastorate Grant aid) of a Minister and the purchase of a house for him and his family to live in. It was a great act of faith and involved much detailed work by the deacons.

The year 1957 was certainly eventful. Albert Crowther had consented to come and his Induction was fixed for 14th September. In July a decision was made to purchase No. 45, Parklands Road as a manse, appointing the Baptist Union Corporation as the sole Trustee. The “Kingsgate Trusts” were approved for this purpose and the property obtained for £2,550, completion on the morning of 20th August when the Pastor moved in – but not before the kitchen and certain ceilings had been redecorated and five additional power points dealt with.

The purchase of the site (0.7 of an acre) was at long last completed on 12th August. An old hedge and raised bank (part of the former Salthill Lane previously referred to) stood across the southern part of the site and this had to be removed before any building could commence. Neal and Sons undertook this work for £67.19s.9d, but the men of the Church moved many barrowloads of earth and gravel to get the ground reasonably level.

The design of the church building having been agreed after numerous meetings with the architect and his assistant and later partner, John Dixon, invitations to tender were sent out, with a closing date of 1st October. Nine tenders were received, the lowest, that of John G. Snelling, Ltd., of Chichester for £12,475.15s.2d, estimating 32 weeks for completion, was accepted on 8th October.

All this was fitted around the arrival and Induction of Albert Crowther, the first Baptist Minister in Chichester for possibly a century. The Service of Induction and Recognition was held on Saturday, 14th September, 1957 in the Coronation Hall, Chapel Street, led by the Moderator. the Rev. Hubert W. Janisch, M.A., Minister of Worthing Baptist Church, and the Rev. Harold Larcombe, B.A., B.D., General Superintendent of the Southern Area of the Baptist Union, the Rev. David Rigden-Green, M.A., President of the Brighton District of the Kent and Sussex Baptist Association, presiding at the public tea which preceded the Service.

The minutes record that in that year, too, Mr. Jim Pilbeam was appointed as organist, in place of Mr. Keith Morgan; a Youth Fellowship was started under the leadership of the Secretary and his wife, with Miss Christine Box as Secretary; £1,500 was allocated from the Marylebone Fund of the Particular Baptist Fund (the Church to pay 15 shillings a year in recognition); the Free Church Chaplaincy of Graylingwell Hospital was vacant (subsequently filled by the Rev. Albert Crowther), and a Stone-Laying Ceremony was planned.