Friends' Groups can be a valuable mechanism for engaging with the community and generating support for the care of church buildings.
Why have a Friends’ Group?
Many churches have found Friends’ groups to be an effective means of encouraging support for the care of church buildings and associated fabric as heritage and community assets. They can help to raise additional funds for repairs and development projects. They can also facilitate social interaction for people beyond the congregation, and demonstrate community involvement in development projects - which in turn can be very helpful when approaching other potential funding sources.
A recent study by the National Churches Trust has found that there are several hundred Friends’ groups now in existence around the country, with many thousands of people involved, of whom typically more than half are not members of the local congregation. The average Friends' group raises over £2,000 per year towards the care of church buildings and over £3,000 towards development projects.
Setting up and managing Friends' Groups
A workshop on Friends' Groups was held in July 2011 at St George's Church, Jesmond (which has a good active Friends' Group). This was led by Rhodri Evans from the National Churches Trust, drawing upon NCT research and setting out options and best practice for setting up and running such groups. Copies of presentations are now available to download: see links provided below. Here is a ‘taster’ of some of the content covered:
Who might be interested in joining a Friends’ group?
- Supporters of history and heritage
- Those who wish to use the church for events but don’t worship regularly
- Maintaining a key community building
- Visitors who want to maintain a link with the building
- Those with family ties to the church
- The church family
Typical Terms of Reference for a Friends' group
- To help towards the cost of the preservation of the church
- To help towards the cost of the building insurance
- To help towards the cost of repairs to the church
- To help towards maintenance costs of ornaments and furnishings
- To raise funds for the above purposes
- To help with the maintenance and upkeep of the churchyard
You may download a full set of workshop handout notes by clicking here and more information on Church Friends' Schemes can be found on the National Churches Trust website - click here.
Some examples of Friends' groups in the North East
We know there are must be other examples of Friends’ groups in the area, so please let us know and we will add links from this page!
