Churches

It is increasingly recognised that church buildings can play a vital role in their communities. A church building can provide space for meetings and activities as well as for community projects, cafés, concerts, exhibitions and essential services such as post offices, while still remaining primarily places of worship. ACRE maintains good links with church organisations in order to gain a shared understanding of church buildings in rural communities.

Rural Community Action Network church case studies



	Millington Village Hall, formerly a Methodist Chapel, was purchased by the community with a number of grants including one from Defra’s Rural Enterprise Scheme and an ACRE Village Hall Loan. It was refurbished internally and is an asset for the community.

Church buildings, especially those that provide space for community activities or wish to do so, can access advice and help through Church of England Church Care. Click here for some interesting case studies from Church Care.

Other sources of information:

The Methodist Church of Great Britain - www.methodist.org.uk

or contact Rev’d Graham Jones on 024 7685 3074

The United Reformed Church - www.urc.org.uk or contact Rev’d Graham Jones on 024 7685 3074

Faith in Affordable Housing - http://www.fiah.org.uk/

The Cathedral and Church Buildings Division (CCB) has contributed to a paper called Church and Faith Buildings: Realising the Potential to help faith groups identify sources of funding that could develop places of worship to make them better able to deliver public service, and to build the capacity of faith groups to engage strategically at local and regional levels around the delivery of local priorities and access to national funding.

A community development approach to the use of church buildings.
A new Toolkit which takes churches through the whole process of opening up their church for wider community use.

The Churches Conservation Trust owns and cares for 341 historic churches no longer in regular parish use and promotes a wide range of community, educational, tourism and cultural projects to bring them back to life. The majority of the Trust’s churches are in rural locations. In 2009 the Trust launched a small ‘task force’ to help communities bring churches back into use as community buildings and they now have a small number of projects outside their own estate.

More information on the Churches Conservation Trust is available on its website www.visitchurches.org.uk or contact 020 7213 0660

All Saints, Benington - Case study from Churches Conservation Trust