Growing the Rural Church

Devon Communities Together is working with Exeter Diocese to support their Growing the Rural Church project. Parish church buildings are a feature of the rural Devon landscape, with over 300 rural churches across the county. However, fresh thinking is required to ensure the sustainability of these buildings, and to ensure they are fit for purpose to fulfil the Church’s mission in the 21st century.

Devon Communities Together is working with local churches to help them hear from their local community about how they can together preserve the future of the building, identify new opportunities for its use and potential funding avenues.

To begin with we are working with two communities: Alverdiscott and Beaford, to undertake community engagement work to hear from the wider community about the value of the building and how it might better serve the community. Our involvement is a pilot project until the end of 2017.

For further information about the Growing the Rural Church project, see the project website: http://exeter.anglican.org/resources/growing-rural-church/

For more information about our involvement please contact Martin Parkes: mparkes@devoncommunities.org.uk