It’s time for churches to tell their story, says Valerie Jenkins

In 2020, we celebrate the 400th anniversary of the departure of the Pilgrim Fathers, when Congregational Christians escaped persecution in England by sailing to the New World. It would be great to mark that year, not just by looking back, but by publishing a record of the Church’s ongoing presence and work.

Some time ago, the Methodist Church produced a brochure about their historic buildings in the style of the guides published by the National Trust and English Heritage. The United Reformed Church history project plans to publish a similar guide for the URC heritage churches, as well as an online reference site to include all United Reformed churches. These resources will form a sort of family tree of our heritage and a brief account of the mission of our churches in the 21st century. The project is supported by the URC history society and the listed buildings advisory committee.

Information is being collected by questionnaire. We are using the one created by Sarah Crossland for the National Churches Trust’s directory for visiting churches, explorechurches.org. This means we can add United Reformed churches to their website while collecting the information we need to produce our own printed and online guide to churches in the URC. …

Valerie Jenkins is a trustee of the Churches Visitor and Tourism Association (cvta.org.uk). To get involved in the URC History Project, email valeriejay712@gmail.com

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This is an extract from an article that was published in the May 2019 edition of Reform

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