|PIC1|Worshippers and clergy will join together to raise finances for their churches in a mass sponsored bike ride in September.

Various initiatives have been organised this year to work in parallel with the annual historic Churches' Cycle Ride, which sees hundreds of worshippers visiting churches around the Anglican Diocese of Portsmouth. The event this year takes place on 8 September.

One participant, Rev Paul Smith, who is vicar of St Alban's Church in West Leigh, walks with the aid of a stick and needs to use steps to climb aboard his tricycle. However, he has revealed his determination to cycle around his parish on 23 September to raise cash to help repair and decorate his church.

Worshippers have arranged to wave him off after sharing their morning service and lunch together.

Rev Smith said: "I wanted to see if I could do something personally to put the parish on the map and be seen in the community. I thought I couldn't ride a bike because of my disability, but I can ride a tricycle.

"I hadn't actually cycled since I was a teenager, but I've been practising and getting used to it. My feet will be strapped to the pedals as I can't put my feet in certain positions. And I'll do laps of 0.5 miles so that I can stop if it gets too much."

Other clergy supporting the initiative are Rev David Power, vicar of St Cuthbert's Church, Copnor, and his wife, the Rev Jeanette Power, a chaplain for Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust. They will use a tandem to help raise cash for the building project at St Cuthbert's, cycling the 62-mile official route around the Isle of Wight on 7 September to help raise the final £400,000 towards the £4.2m project.

The ambitious project, which involved splitting the church building into a GPs' surgery, community rooms and a worship area, reaches a new milestone this autumn with the opening of the St Cuthbert's Centre - four floors of rooms and halls for church and community use, including a children's centre.

Rev Power said: "For years we've looked forward to actually opening our doors to welcome the local community to our new facilities, and at last this part of our vision will shortly be realised. It's an amazing achievement for a local Portsmouth church, and I pay tribute to the team who have worked so hard on the project, and the congregation who have put up with a lot of inconvenience."

The Baffins GP Surgery was created within the building two years ago, and is also a partner in the centre's work. The final phase of the project will involve the creation of the 200-seater worship area in the west end of the building. Worshippers have held services in a local school since 2003 while building work has taken place.

The annual sponsored ride has been re-named 'Ride and Stride' to reflect the fact that many worshippers walk rather than cycle.

Participants are sponsored for each church they visit during the day.

The event is organised by the Hampshire and the Islands Historic Churches Trust. Half the cash raised goes to a parish church chosen by each participant and half to the trust, which then helps to fund repairs within the diocese.

For more information on the works of the trust please visit: www.hampshirehistoricchurches.org.uk