Church of England Revamps ChurchCare Website

England's 16,000 parishes have an improved website to call on to help maintain their buildings. www.churchcare.co.uk, the central hub of information for everyone managing a church building, has received a 'make over' by the Church of England.

The redesign was supported by the financial and professional help of specialist church and heritage insurer Ecclesiastical. The refreshed site now includes easier navigation, enhanced functionality and increased content and resources for anyone responsible for the upkeep of church buildings.

Janet Gough, Director of the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division, Archbishops' Council says, "ChurchCare is the principal source of information and resource for all those caring for the Church of England's 16,000 parish churches and 42 cathedrals, 12,500 of which are listed of special architectural or historic interest."

"The site is a one-stop-shop for guidance, news, campaign information and examples of best practice. It also is home for "Shrinking the Footprint", the Church's environmental campaign, which aims to reduce the Church's carbon footprint by 80% by 2050."

John Coates, Church Insurance Director at Ecclesiastical, commented, "Ecclesiastical has been protecting churches and church communities since 1887. This year, in our 125th Anniversary year, we wanted to extend the support we give to the Church beyond what we normally do and help create an easy-to-use sustainable knowledge hub for church buildings' managers.

"The not-for-profit organisations we work with tell us that it's no longer only financial support that they need, but also more practical hands-on help. So, in addition to funding the redevelopment of the website, our web development and digital marketing experts also offered professional advice and guidance during the project. I believe this teamwork has led to the creation of an excellent website, which will serve the Church community extremely well in the years to come."

The site is managed entirely in-house by the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division at Church House, Westminster. This means that is can respond quickly to new developments.

Rolled out in May 2012, the new ChurchCare website will be officially launched at the Diocesan Advisory Committee Conference in Hull on 25-26 September. The site has already seen a marked increase in visitor numbers. More than 15,000 people visited it the site between 1 June and 31 July an increase of 150% compared to spring 2012.