New Group Aims To Welcome Tourists To County Churches
A brand new group of people is coming together in Shropshire aimed at encouraging a better welcome for visitors to the County’s historic Churches. Shropshire Churches Tourism Group has already formed a steering committee after two meeting held in November last year showed support for such an organisation.
“More than forty people from as many churches came to the meetings in Craven Arms and Bayston Hill and there were some present happy to volunteer to get the group off the ground,” said Anni Holden from the Diocese of Hereford which is supporting the project. “The steering group has already met and plans are already in place to produce a professional brochure and to develop a website.”
Through a variety of means, churches are receiving membership forms and brochure information forms to complete in order to have an entry in the brochure and on the website. Anglican Churches are being contacted through their Diocesan Offices while Churches Together in Shropshire, the organisation which represents all Christian Churches, will be informing other denominations such as Catholic and Methodists.
“We are very fortunate that we have so many historic and beautiful old buildings which are an integral part of the scenery in the County. We are already part of the tourism industry, also vital to the County, but we believe we can make that welcome to visitors even better by working together as a group,” said Anni.
Membership is open to all churches that want to belong for a two year membership fee of £45. It is essential that those who join are open churches and available for visitors to look around easily. Meetings are also planned to show member churches how to do things better, building on what already exists and introducing some to new ideas.
“Some churches will be able to tell others how to do it while others will perhaps be thinking about a positive approach to visitors for the first time,” added Anni. “We hope as many as possible will come and join us in this new venture. Our membership secretary Lorna Taylor is waiting for forms to be returned to her in Rushbury, while our treasurer Stewart Ballantyne will be looking after the cheques in Ruyton-XI- Towns”
The group has already secured some funding from the Church & Community Fund and is expecting support from Shropshire Tourism in the new financial year. The brochure should be completed and launched by May this year with the website to follow before the end of the year.
Note to editors: Jpegs of some of our historic churches are available on request from Anni Holden below.
Interviews in new member churches can be arranged on request.