Open and Welcome Churches

Churches are designed to be open, welcoming buildings.

They are integral to the landscape of Britain, representing centuries of belief, craftsmanship and design. The buildings and their churchyards are centres for discovering local history and will often be the bastion of local distinctiveness that give the surrounding settlement its sense of place. 

They are enduring centres for communities, with the potential to bring people together through a variety of activities.

Whatever their origin, church buildings all testify to a living faith but, if they are to be accessible and welcoming to all, they need to be open. Locked, they give out so many negative messages and appear elitist. Opening the door and inviting people to share, explore and use the church is a first step in building its future.

The challenges then are to provide a welcome that speaks of loving and caring; to tell the stories of our church in interesting and engaging ways, and to provide opportunities for people to explore their own faith and spirituality.

Every church is different – some have exciting stories to tell others are a place of calm to take time to reflect. The main thing is to celebrate and share what is unique about your church and not to bite off more than you can chew. 

Resources

• Church Buildings for Everyone: A Visitor Welcome Toolkit - a practical resource to help volunteers in local churches to enhance their visitor welcome, plan new activities and produce new materials.
• Interpreting your historic church building – a video produced by the Diocese of Lincoln.
• Research Your Church guidance notes.

Creating a Church Guidebook – resources produced by the REACH Ely project.

• Video: Church Guidebook for Visitors
• Producing a Church Guidebook: Notes for Churches
• Guidebook Template

Safe Opening of Churches – resources produced by the REACH Ely project.

• Video: Safe Opening of Churches
• Being an Open Church Safely - Guidance