Great Expectations

Churches: See them. Save them. Support them.

Historic churches, chapels and meeting houses are among our most treasured buildings and our most beautiful heritage. But for how much longer?

London’s Victoria and Albert Museum is hosting a high-profile conference ‘Great Expectations’ about the future of the UK’s historic churches on Tuesday 21 October 2025.  

If you care for church buildings and want to see them open and in use for many years to come, we invite you to join us in person or online for a day of discovery. 

Tickets are now on sale to attend in-person or via livestream. Book now by clicking the links below.

Tell me more about the conference  

After attending ‘Great Expectations’, you will come away knowing the current state of church buildings across the UK and what part you can play in saving them.  Here’s more of what to expect:

• High profile speakers from all walks of life – the UK Government, the heritage sector, Christian denominations and more,
• Voices from the ground – this is not a top-down approach; hearing from the people who currently care for and keep churches open is important,
• Challenging panel discussions where we’re able to address the current barriers facing church buildings and together find a way forward,
• Results from the 2025 National Churches Survey – what the data tells us and what we must do to act,
• A practical toolkit to take home and use to help keep churches open.

Hosting Great Expectations – why now?

Churches are not passive relics of the past; they are active, living places, powered by volunteers and sustained by communities who depend on them.

But fragile finances, declining congregations, rising repair bills, and ever-expanding expectations of what they can and should provide mean that they face an uncertain future. How do we reconcile great expectations with limited resources? How can these remarkable buildings continue to serve their communities, inspire new generations, and remain part of our shared cultural fabric?

• There are 969 places of worship on Historic England’s 2024 Heritage at Risk Register, an increase of 26 over the total on the 2023 Register.
• An estimated 3,500 churches have closed in the last ten years across the UK
• The Church of Scotland is planning on closing up to 40 percent of its buildings
• In Wales/Cymru, 25 percent of historic chapels and churches have closed in the last decade
• The changes to the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme this year have made funding repairs to listed places of worship up to 20 percent more expensive.

We want to bring you closer to the heart of how these buildings are cared for, so that we can get creative with the solutions needed to save them.  

The V&A and National Churches Trust, with the Churches Conservation Trust, the King’s Foundation and Ecclesiastical Insurance, are enabling a conversation that brings together people who wouldn’t usually find themselves in the same room – heritage experts and planners, parishioners and policymakers, conservationists and creatives.  

We cannot close the doors now. 

The story cannot end here.

 What if, instead, together we were able to write the next chapter?