Tiverton church reopens nearly double its original size

St John and St James Church in Tiverton reopens this month following a rebuild that nearly doubles the size of the original building. The expansion fulfills a decades-long promise to provide a new Catholic church for the Tiverton community.

Parish priest Canon Paver attributed the need for more space to the growth of the parish, which has seen an increase in residents from Central and Eastern Europe, India, and Africa. He noted that many parishioners work in local hospitals, the care sector, and food processing. Canon Paver also observed that more families are purchasing homes in the area and that there has been a noticeable increase in parishioners in their twenties.