The latest news about church heritage including how to save it, things to look out for and interesting places to visit. You'll also find stories from churches, chapels and meeting houses from across the UK sharing about the wonderful ways they are keeping their buildings open and in use.
The National Churches Trust is concerned that the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme will not be renewed before the scheme comes to an end in 2025. Sir Philip Rutnam, Chair of the National Churches Trust, writes to the Treasury to ask them to renew this vital scheme.
Malnutrition is estimated to cost the NHS in England £19.6 billion per year, and the cost of treating a malnourished patient is two to three times more than a non-malnourished patient. Food banks are one way that people experiencing food insecurity can be helped.
Many church buildings are venues for youth clubs and other activities that bring young people together for social activities and sport. Often these help improve mental health as well as physical health and can particularly help those from underserved communities, equipping them with the tools they need to thrive.
Content warning: this blog discusses suicidal feelings Every Parish Nurse is a registered nurse and is there to provide an additional layer of holistic support for individuals and communities. They are employed through a local church or Christian organisation, offering health education, advice and spiritual care to people of all faiths or none.
With the UK Government making it clear that public finances are extremely tight, there are growing fears that the Treasury may be tempted not to renew The Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme, possibly as part of the Autumn Budget. This would be a devastating blow for churches, many of which are already struggling with the high cost of keeping their buildings open and in good repair.
St Illtyd’s Church in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, desperately needed to remove failing asbestos tiles from their roof and make their building watertight again. They then found an ingenious way to do it – one that got local schoolchildren very excited.
Churches, chapels and meeting houses are at serious risk of closure and so it is important to look at creative solutions to keep these buildings open and in use for generations to come. Cherish is helping us to target support at key areas where we are at great risk of losing priceless heritage.
58 churches across the UK will stay open and in good repair thanks to £735,326 – almost three quarters of a million pounds – of funding awarded and recommended by the National Churches Trust in our latest round of grants.
In person church attendance can fall by almost a third (29%) if a local church closes, a new opinion poll commissioned by the National Churches Trust shows, with 22% of churchgoers who currently attend religious services in person unwilling or unable to worship in a different church and a further 7% saying they would only attend services online.
A church in Northern Ireland has been designated a World Heritage Site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). This makes it the 34th UNESCO World Heritage Site in the UK and the second in Northern Ireland. This is a good news story for tourism in Northern Ireland. But should other UK churches follow this example to help attract even more visitors to these important buildings?
A few years on from receiving their Friends Award, we get an update from St Michael’s Church in Llanfihangel y Creuddyn, Wales, about how the grant from the award enabled the damp and dangerous church tower to be fully restored.
Our Last Chance Churches desperately needed help, were close to giving up and were struggling to see a way forward. But together we were able to change this. Thanks to an anonymous donor, we were able to create a fund, enabling every donation that was given to the Last Chance Churches to go twice as far. This led to £1 million being raised, enabling 18 churches to make urgent repairs, so they can now stay open and in use.
