• All about us - visitor information
• Our Priorities
• Work of the Diocese
• Diocesan News Magazine
• Diocesan Office
• Deaneries
• Archdeacons
 

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• Heritage Buildings and Community Development
• Crossing the Threshold
• Buildings for the 21st Century
• Buildings for Mission
• Opening up for Community Use
• The Three Diocesan Priorities
• Being Good Stewards
• Viability and Sustainability
• Asset Management
 

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• Safeguarding Children
• Rt Revd David Walker - a biography
• The Rt Revd Dr John Inge - a biography

Heritage Buildings and Community Development - Crossing the Threshold Conference

Over 200 people from across the country attended coming from individual churches, dioceses, local authorities, health trusts, rural community councils, the voluntary sector, the Heritage Lottery Fund and English Heritage. The main event was the launch of a new Toolkit which takes churches through the whole process of opening up their church for wider community use. This was commissioned by the Diocese of Hereford, supported and with input from the Shropshire Rural Community Council and Hereford Council and ourselves.

As well as four workshops looking at some of the practical guidance contained within the Toolkit and also two site visits to two success stories, there were presentations from the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division, English Heritage, and the Department of Communities and Local Government. There was also a report back on the recent review of the Rural Churches in Community Service Programme Ten Years On.

The Toolkit and all the presentations can be downloaded from the Diocese of Hereford website:
http://www.hereford.anglican.org/churchgoers (...)

The Toolkit is helpfully broken down into sections so no one has to download the whole Toolkit in one go.

There was also a DVD which features people from four Hereford villages, Peterstow, Peterchurch, Yarpole and Bridge Sollars talking about their particular projects in their historic churches and how they did it! These four churches between them now house, within their building, a branch library, a community shop, and a Children's Service Centre as well as numerous other community activities and other local authority services. The DVD should be available to all who are interested shortly, just keep an eye on the website.