A DISUSED warehouse in Huntingdon could be turned into an all-singing, all-clapping gospel church with Sunday morning services like a scene from the film Sister Act. The International Prayer Palace Church, an international church led by an American couple

A DISUSED warehouse in Huntingdon could be turned into an all-singing, all-clapping gospel church with Sunday morning services like a scene from the film Sister Act.

The International Prayer Palace Church, an international church led by an American couple, Minister Simeon Nyante and his wife, Joyce, from Jacksonville in Florida, has applied to convert a building at 10 Glebe Road on the St Peter's Road Industrial Estate.

Mrs Nyante said Huntingdon was the only town outside Africa and America to have a branch of the Prayer Palace Church, which is already established in Maryland, Florida, Ghana and Nigeria.

The Huntingdon church would also have a space to be used for conferences, meetings, children's activities and a youth club.

Mrs Nyante, who lives in Somersham, told The Hunts Post: "There will be plenty of singing and clapping of hands and lots of nice music, every Sunday. We have a lot of activities for children, lots of youth groups and youth projects. We have taken children off the streets and turned their lives around.

"At the moment we meet in a lot of different places and we want to have everything all under one roof. We will make good use of the building, including having a video library."

Currently the Huntingdon Prayer Palace Church meets at Huntingdon Youth Centre in Sallowbush Road and has a congregation of nearly 200 people. Mrs Nyante said 80 per cent of them were from Huntingdon with others from Cambridge, Norwich and Oxford.

The Nyantes, who have three daughters, came to Huntingdonshire in October 2000 with the purpose of setting up a Prayer Palace Church.

Mrs Nyante said: "We say we plant a church because it keeps growing - in all seasons."

The Prayer Palace is planning to buy the building, which has been empty for nearly a year, if granted planning permission by Huntingdonshire District Council, and the Nyantes expect the refurbishment to take six weeks. The total cost would be �920,000.

The project is being handled by Barker Storey Matthews.