The Marsdijk Foundation Blooms in Assen is trying to get the Opstandingskerk in his hands as a second community center with a final offensive. They started the petition ‘Keep the Resurrection Church as a bustling heart of Marsdijk’. It is signed more than six hundred times within a few days, online and in writing.
“We want to show that this neighborhood meeting place is widely worn through the neighborhood, and that there is a need for it,” says Linda Kramer of activities Marsdijk. “And if you see how often it has already been signed, you can say that we get plenty of support.”
Since this year, the Resurrection Church is for sale for more than 1 million euros. Three buyers have reported to the owner, the Protestant church Assen. The church council will decide of this to whom it sells the church building next Thursday.
One of the candidates is the Marsdijk Foundation, in which various organizations have united. They see the church as a unique opportunity for an extra meeting place in Marsdijk. De Dissel neighborhood building is fully booked and more space is needed for all activities in the neighborhood.
Rudolf Setz, one of the initiators of Assen blooms, finds it ‘for a long time very quiet’ around the sale. “We are worried. Because we are not comfortable with the church council making a good choice. And because it must be clear that our initiative will get a lot of support, we have devised this signature campaign.”
With a crowdfunding campaign, the initiative group has won more than 1 million euros in recent months. It concerns more than 850,000 euros in loans from private individuals from the neighborhood, and around 20,000 euros in donations. Furthermore, the Protestant Diaconie in Marsdijk is taking part for 250,000 euros. He would also like to keep the location for her neighborhood meals and coffee mornings as a meeting place.
The Asser City Council refused to invest a subsidy in the acquisition of the second neighborhood building in April 450,000 euros. The Alliance in Marsdijk then gathered more money together to ultimately make a serious bid for the church.
Marsdijk is afraid that the church building, which stands in the middle of the neighborhood, ‘is prey to redevelopment’ by a project developer, who may have made a higher offer. “We hope that the Protestant Church also feels called to be present and visible, with the Resurrection Church as a place of meeting,” says the petition.