Bless this (public) house

l The Rev Patrick Bamber (foreground) with (left to right) Seven Stars landlady Ameena Williams,Tony Barrett and Pip Evans

August 2, 2008: St Austell licensee Ameena Williams has come up with an innovative way to drive trade on quiet Sunday evenings – by inviting the local vicar to hold his church services in her town centre pub.

The tenant of St Austell Brewery’s Seven Stars Inn has teamed up with the Rev Patrick Bamber, of the neighbouring Holy Trinity Church, to help him take the Christian message beyond the walls of the church and into this traditional town centre pub.

The first evening service was held on Sunday and proved a great success, with a second service planned for tomorrow, starting at 7pm.

Ameena said: " I was delighted when the vicar agreed to hold some services in the pub — after all he’s normally got more customers at 7pm on a Sunday than I have!

“Patrick was keen to show some of his parishioners how good a local pub can be and also to show some of the Seven Stars' customers what the church is doing. The service was really nice and quite informal, with some traditional Cornish songs mixed with hymns — and at the end a few of the congregation even stayed on for the karaoke!

Patrick was delighted at the way the first service had been received, with about 40 people in the pub joining in with local musicians in singing popular and praise music, as well as listening to Patrick read from The Bible and give a short talk.

He added: “The whole idea of the Christian message is that it is for everyone. We love our church, but we know not everyone will go there so this is a way of reaching out into the community with an informal service in a relaxed atmosphere.

“It is also a way of supporting our local pub, the Seven Stars, which like so many pubs in Cornwall plays an important role in the life of the community.”

The Seven Stars was the first of St Austell Brewery’s 168 strong pub estate, opened in 1863 by the brewery’s founder Walter Hicks, the great-great grandfather of current St Austell Brewery managing director James Staughton.