Why we want more chatting in our churches

Let’s talk…

It’s National Conversation Week, a week when we celebrate that most human of endeavours, communicating with other human beings. But this time we want to communicate in one particular way: by getting people together in the same place. It is so easy to tweet, to text, to email, and to forget how great it is to spend time with our fellow humans, just talking.

At the CCT we help local communities care for 353 historic churches. These building have always been about bringing people together. They are places to share life experiences, both good and bad, and to talk about them. We feel that our buildings should never fall silent. They should be filled with human conversation.

Chance encounters

You never know who you might meet in one of our churches. I have found some really interesting people while out and about, but I only realised how interesting they were because I spoke to them. Once I met a couple who were celebrating their golden wedding anniversary by visiting the place of their marriage, All Souls’ Halifax. They hadn’t been back to that church since the day they exchanged vows, but they had stayed together to visit together years later! Once you get a conversation started, it is amazing what you find out.

Chatting about the Commonwealth

Next month, the Commonwealth heads of government will meet and talk face to face in England. We’re celebrating by extending the conversation across the country. Over the next few weeks, we will be holding a series of Commonwealth Big Lunches across the country.

The idea is to bring people together for lunch and encourage them to talk and enjoy themselves, which is always a great thing to do! We want to hold 53 lunches in different churches across England to celebrate the 53 nations of the Commonwealth. So there will almost certainly be something near you.

Everyone is welcome and we want as many people as possible to get involved. Talking can only be a good thing, as the more we understand each other the better to we can live and love together. What better place to do this than in a historic building?

Keep talking and keep visiting our wonderful churches. And if you can do so when there is a Commonwealth Big Lunch going on, even better!

Don’t forget to send us your pictures and comments to [email protected] or on social media using the #CommonwealthBigLunch hashtag.