Building faith in our future

On 18 October 2004, the Church Heritage Forum launched Building faith in our future, a ‘green paper’ celebrating church buildings and the achievements of the volunteers who maintain them.  The paper, sponsored by Ecclesiastical Insurance Group, also aims to awaken greater understanding of how church buildings contribute to community and social cohesion and to seek partnership to support and enhance those achievements for the benefit of future generations.

Building faith in our future outlines the daily challenges facing the Church of England and its members in caring for and developing the nation's rich treasury of church buildings.  It identifies many positive examples and case studies from across the country of how church buildings contribute to the wider community.  The report also sets out a number of key recommendations for national, regional and local bodies, and suggests good practice for local churches and an Action Plan for the national Church itself to be taken forward over the next few years.

Publication of the report is just the start.  Building faith in our future can only present a limited snapshot of the range of activity and endeavour going on in and around our nation's churches and cathedrals.  It does not pretend to have all the answers but it does identify the questions worth tackling and expresses a positive commitment to finding solutions with which we can all be involved.

If you would like to help progress some of the recommendations or have further examples to share, please let us know.

For further information about progress on the Building faith in our future recommendations click here.

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© The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, 2004