A PORT Glasgow church which has fought to stay open against all the odds is now reaching out to the local community and helping with the cost of living crisis.
Hamilton Bardrainney Church of Scotland's parish refused to give in despite losing their church building and being left without a full time minister for ten years.
After their sanctuary was demolished the congregation moved into the hall and continued in the face of uncertainty and repeated attempts to merge them with other parishes.
All their hard work has paid off as their church was recently the only building in the whole Clyde presbytery to be upgraded and their independence as a parish is now secure with a link to Greenock Wellpark Mid Kirk.
As the congregation looks to the future, Hamilton Bardrainney is opening the doors to its neighbours with a hugely popular corner cafe.
Elder David McLellan, who looks after the fabric of the building, said: "We are really pleased with how things are going now.
"We are delighted to be linking with Wellpark Mid Kirk and we have May Bell as our locum.
"We were also pleased to get an upgrade on our building by the presbytery, we have put a lot of work in to maintain it."
In January this year the church was awarded a grant as part of the council's warm hand of friendship funding initiative and set up a weekly corner cafe.
It proved so popular with people from the wider community that the church has decided to carry on, funding it on their own.
David added: "It is lovely to have people coming here, our friends from St Mary's and St Francis' and from no churches.
"It is really for the whole local community."
Ukrainian refugee Iryana Zabzodska and her children Bozhena, 10, and Artem, two, are among those coming along.
Iryana, who now lives in Port Glasgow, said: "We had to leave our home town because it was occupied by the Russians, it is terrible, and my husband is still there.
"It is wonderful to be able to come here especially in the holidays.
"The people are very kind.
"Bozhena is looking for friends and Port Glasgow is such a wonderful place to live, we are so thankful to everyone here."
The Hamilton Bardrainney Corner Cafe is open every Monday from 11am to 1pm.
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