Churchcare

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Upcoming Open Churches Event

(30/01/12)

Our next event will be 'The Urban Church and Social Action' to be held on 16th March at Christ Church, Fenton, Stoke on Trent.

For more information and to book click here

MAJOR METAL THEFT VICTORY

(30/01/12)

Home Secretary - Scrapyards must go 'cashless'

Following extensive and intense work by the CofE's Cathedral and Church Building Division and its supporters, the Home Secretary Theresa May recently announced that the Government will outlaw cash payments for selling scrap metal and remove the cap on fines for yards convicted of an offence. 

 

You can read the official statement here - http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-vote-office/4.HomeOffice-ScrapMetalDealers.pdf

 

However, this will not provide the legislative framework to ensure that the cash ban is effective. We urge you to now write to your MP to let them know about the growing problems Churches face from metal theft. We have produced guidance for such a letter, available here -Write to your MP

 

 

For more information on metal theft check out the ChurchCare guidance pages.


One-off capital grant: £18,500 for each diocese

(25/01/12)

Government offers £781,000 capital grant to the Church of England for use on new works in listed parish churches in 2012-13.

 

Thanks to a sustained campaign by the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport has announced a special one-off capital grant of £1.1 million for all listed places of worship in the United Kingdom, 71% of this is allocated to the Church of England reflecting our churches' take-up of the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme in the last two years.

 

We are very aware of the problems created by capping and other changes to the new Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme and although this one-off capital grant doesn't compensate we hope it will help one or two new projects in each diocese aimed to make church buildings more amendable to their congregations and communities.

 

In each diocese, DACs will select one or more projects for grants, likely to be:

Parishes should put their proposal immediately to DACs, who need to register the diocese's proposals with the Church Buildings Council by 30 March 2012.


NEW ChurchCare Disasters Guidance

(13/01/12)

Disaster Planning and Recovery - from Fire and Flooding to Climate Change and Crime.

 

In November 2011 the CCB hosted a forum entitled ''Disasters: prevention and management' at Southwark Cathedral. Delegates considered disaster planning and recovery, focusing on the challenges posed by wide ranging issues, from fire and flooding to climate change.

 

We have added the discussions and presentations from that day to our current ChurchCare 'Disasters Guidance' page. 

 

The page provides a good overview of how to protect your church from disasters, or react to them if they occur.

 

Click here to access the guidance.

 


Design a Church Chair!

(04/01/12)

Church Chair Design Competition announced.

The Cathedral and Church Buildings Division has today announced the launch of a competition for design students, leading designers and manufacturers to design new church seating.

 

The aim of the competition is to seek well made, affordable seats for use in our church buildings. This is a unique opportunity to create a chair or bench that will earn the affection and respect of ours and future generations.

 

We're looking for innovative designs that combine comfort, durability and style, yet maintain sympathy for the historic interiors of our churches. There are two categories:

  1. Design a chair under £100 - open to students and recent graduates.
  2. Design a seat (chair or bench) for churches - open to all.

Entries must be submitted by 30 March 2012 and the results will be announced at an awards ceremony on 14 June 2012.

 

An A4 flyer is available to download, we would be very pleased for this to be circulated to any potential applicants:

Church Chair Competition - flyer

 

Further information about the competition and a full brief is available in the attached document: 

Church Chair Competition - further information 

 

The application form can be downloaded here:

Church Chair Competition - application form [PDF]

 

UPDATE 

We are delighted to announce that the cash honorarium to be awarded to the overall winner of category 1 will be £1000. 

 

Please contact catherine.townsend@churchofengland.org with any enquiries.


Hot off the press - New ChurchCare eBulletin

(20/12/11)

Funding, news, events, activities - all the latest from the world of church buildings

 

Inside our Winter 2011 e-Bulletin you can find out about the range of work and initiatives being undertaken by people who care for, conserve and use church buildings. Click here for the full eBulletin.

You can read about our ongoing fight against metal theft, and find out about the role that churches play in the 'localism agenda'. There's a funding update, with a focus on the changes to the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme, and you can learn how the CofE's Shrinking the Footprint campaign is fighting back against proposed cuts to solar energy Feed-In Tariffs.

 

Click here for all this and much more, and please feel free to forward it on.

 


English Heritage "Heritage at Risk"

(06/12/11)

Guidance for DACs

For the first time, churches are being included in the English Heritage "Heritage at Risk" programme, with a separate Register called the Places of Worship at Risk Register.

 

We have collaborated with EH to produce the following guidance explaining what this is and what it means for DACs and parish churches:

 

Guidance for DACs - At Risk

 

For more information on this process please visit English Heritage's website - http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/caring/places-of-worship/faqs/the-at-risk-register/


Feed In Tariffs - Update On Consultation

(31/10/11)

DECC launch consultation on Feed-in Tariffs scheme

The consultation sets out DECC's proposals on the level of support for solar PV installations and on energy efficiency, and seeks views by Friday 23 December 2011.
 
For further information and to view and download the consultation document please visit the link below:
 
http://bit.ly/s3xNBH  
 
For all general information, please visit www.decc.gov.uk/FITs
 
The Church of England will be responding but please do also comment on the proposals at www.decc.gov.uk/FITS

or via email at mailto:atfits@decc.gsi.gov.uk 

 

or phone on: 0300 068  5733


Commissioning New Art - launch of new guidance

(20/10/11)

Brand new publication from the Cathedrals and Church Buildings Division

The guide, richly illustrated with examples of recent commissions throughout England, includes details on what parishes should consider, how to write briefs and commission and choose artists, as well as the legal framework.

 

This is the first time that the Church of England has produced a guide of this type and it hopes that this will make parishes realise that commissioning artwork - both permanent and temporary - can be very straightforward.

 

To download the guide please click on the following link - new art

 

To complement the launch of this innovative guide, the Church Buildings Council is delighted that the Jerusalem Trust has agreed to donate a prize for £10,000 to be awarded to the parish that makes the best case for commissioning a new artwork applying the guidelines.

 

To find out more and apply for this prize please click here - Jerusalem Trust New Art Competition


Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme

(07/10/11)

DCMS announce how the LPWGS will operate from 2011/12 onwards

 

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) recently announced how the current LPWGS will function, detailing the total amounts available in grants for this year and the next three years.

 

A factsheet detailing the new arrangements is available for download: LPWGS Factsheet (October 2011)

 

You can also check the following sites for more information and updates:

 

LPWGS Official Site - www.lpwscheme.org.uk/

DCMS 'Places of Worship' - http://bit.ly/qFqRCC

 


Community Cashback

(02/07/09)

New Community Cashback Scheme

This is a new scheme called Community Cashback billed as giving 'local people a say in how £4 million of recovered criminal assets should be spent in their communities'.  For more information go to http://cashback.cjsonline.gov.uk/

 

The projects should be related to nuisance, anti-social or criminal behaviour or its impact on the community:

The Church/churches are community bodies but will need to identify projects which deliver on the above, e.g: restoring/creating a wildlife friendly churchyard where it has been subject to vandalism etc might work well.

Some older items have been archived:-