Tourism resources for local churches

This section of the website is dedicated to the sharing of advice, examples and good practice for churches seeking to develop their visitor welcome, including looking after the building, churchyard, monuments, developing websites, trails, heritage interpretation, events, art, and much more.

Synod Backs Tourism

The General Synod of the Church of England has backed a call for church tourism to be taken seriously in every diocese - read more here

Developing website information for visitors and tourists

We are developing a section of the website with information for pilgrims, tourists and visitors to the area. If you would like your church included, please click here and then use the template to contribute information about your church.

Encouraging Visitors on a Spiritual Journey

This booklet by Eileen McLean has been recommended for use by all parishes by Diocesan Synod. It is a short guide providing practical and simple suggestions for congregations.

Click here to download the booklet as a PDF

 

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The Parish Tourism morning - Harrogate, May 2010

Resources from the morning at St Mark's Church to download:

Resources from our launch event, 'A new approach to Church Tourism. A morning to promote thinking about heritage, pilgrimage and spirituality.' 

Opening PowerPoint presentation - Discover Ripon and Leeds

A revolving presentation of churches throughout the diocese

Keynote address - Gary Verity - Yorkshire Tourism Board

Click the audio player below to hear Gary's talk.

Keynote talk- Revd Prof. Myra Shackley - Unlocking our potential.

Myra's ower Point presentation on why and how we can welcome visitors.

Seminars

1) Putting your church on the tourism map - Power Point on publicising your church - by John Carter

A Parish Communication Audit - use this two page checklist to discover how welcoming your church is.

2) Encouraging Visitors on a Spiritual Journey - a PDF of the booklet by Eileen McLean which is a short guide providing practical and simple suggestions for congregations - and was the subject of seminar 2.

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Tourism Links

Tourism for All, UK

The national charity Tourism for All UK works towards the goal of making the UK the most accessible destination in Europe. Its new website was launched in March this year - read more here

The Churches Tourism Association: www.churchestourismassociation.info

The Churches Conservation Trust: www.visitchurches.org.uk

The Open Churches Trust: www.openchurchestrust.org.uk

Treasures Revealed in West Yorkshire www.treasuresrevealed.com

North Yorkshire Churches Tourism Initiative www.yorkshire.com/inspire/heritage/churches

 

How to encourage visitors on a spiritual journey

The Rev Eileen McLean, a member of the Ripon and Leeds Tourism Task Group, spent the summer of 2006 finding out how churches are responding to visitors. She has kindly agreed to share the results of her sabbatical study on our website.

When a visitor comes into a church, for whatever reason - interest in its history or architecture, simple curiosity, a place out of the rain, or as a wedding guest – this provides a wonderful opportunity to plant or nurture small seeds of faith, to stimulate growth in spiritual awareness or exploration.

How can churches respond to this opportunity? This was the big question that spurred the Rev Eileen McLean, Vicar of Bamburgh in Northumberland into taking a closer look during a Sabbatical in the summer of 2006.

The results are now available here as a resource to help other churches:

“How do Churches engage with their visitors?” - an account of Eileen’s visits to 100 churches around the country to see how they help visitors to understand their Christian heritage and renew or deepen their spiritual experience. Her findings and recommendations are thought-provoking as well as practical.

“Encouraging Visitors on a Spiritual Journey” – see resources from the Parish Communication Morning for the new version of this excellent resource.

As Eileen puts it, “In a secular age it is a real challenge to present the truths of the Christian faith using comprehensible, attractive and gentle language and imagery. It is right that we should seek to impress and inspire visitors with the fascinating history and beautiful architecture of our churches, but is also important that we should seek to engage them in the faith for which those churches were built.”

“A visit to one church is unlikely to be a life changing experience, though that is possible. Visiting several churches over a period of time, may have a cumulative effect, favourable or unfavourable, regarding the places, the people who worship in them, and the faith they hold. Every single church has a responsibility to consider its own image and how it contributes to the whole picture.”

Case study - Aysgarth Heritage weekend

click here to read or download

An open church? Advice for parishes

Subtitled Why and How to Open your Church daily or regularly, a leaflet devised by Canon Philip Norwood on behalf of the Gartree Mission Partnership. Whilst the circumstances of each of our churches are different, many of these suggestions, in a handy check-list format, may be relevant to your church. Click here to view/download

Ministry of Welcome - a toolkit for churches

This very easy-to-use Tool-kit of resources and best practice for churches was produced for the Diocese of Carlisle by Jenny Bate in 2006. It is still one of the most useful and popular sources of this kind available.  Click here to view/download