Some history
A special service in the St Giles’ Parish Church, Wrexham, marked the official inauguration of the St Giles’ Centre on Saturday, 14 January 2012 with well-known and respected North Wales RE adviser, Gavin Craigen appointed as founding director. Working alongside local teacher-advisor colleagues and ‘faith development’ colleagues, Gavin shaped and led the St Giles’ Centre during its initial formative years.
The St Giles’ Centre has always had a close relationship with the St Giles’ Parish Church and this was marked physically from the beginning with an ambitious building project within the church itself, designed to accommodate and resource a centre for religious education and faith development (the St Giles’ Centre).
When the St Giles’ Centre was a young centre, it entered into a supportive partnership with the already established St Mary’s Centre, Wales (an Anglican research institute) and became a part of the St Mary’s and St Giles’ Centre charity. In 2016 the St Giles’ Centre became ready to embark on the next stage of its journey on its own, outside this organisational structure.
The St Giles’ Centre today
While remaining close to its roots, the St Giles’ Centre has responded proactively to both internal and external changes, and this has opened up new opportunities for our work for Wrexham. Today, the St Giles Centre is officially in a new and exciting phase of its development, and glimpses of this may be seen through this website and the recent relationship established with Bishop Grosseteste University, Lincoln. Bishop Grosseteste University is one of the Cathedral Group universities and has a rich history in teacher education.
Although the St Giles’ Centre still benefits from the facilities created for it within the St Giles’ Parish Church, it is now physically located in another building (College House) in the grounds of the church.
From the beginning, we have valued the vision, sponsorship and support of the Wrexham (Parochial) Educational Foundation, without which none of this is possible.