Churches Tourism Association

A Jubilee Churches Festival is planned for the Cotswolds from 25 May - 5 June. This follows the success of the first ever Cotswold Churches Festival which took place in May 2011,

Further information about the Cotswold's Jubilee Churches Festival can be found at cotswoldchurchesfestival.org

David Gambier reports on the 1st Festival: "We had 110 churches that registered to participate and from the calculations that we were able to make from the reports we received back from the churches, the events staged attracted in excess of 20,000 visitors.  Naturally, many of these churches came from the immediate area, but on my travels around nearly 30 of the participating churches, I met up with many people who were clearly travelling to different events in different churches.

"We had a number of visitors who came from well outside the Cotswold region – especially to those churches which opened up their old records  for perusal.  It may be anecdotal, but I can tell from the Visitors Book at Stonesfield church where I am one of the church wardens that the number of entries in the book has risen considerably since the Festival.  We would like to take this as an indication that the Festival has an important legacy that we can build on.

"And build on the Festival we are certainly doing. For 2012, we have taken the opportunity to broaden the scope of the event so that we can coincide the Festival concept with the plans that we know are developing across many communities to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  Again, whereas the Cotswold Churches Festival only involved a small proportion  of the 811 churches within the Oxford Diocese, we have deliberately expanded the area to be involved so that it covers the whole of the Diocese – which includes Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire.  We are seeking to encourage our neighbouring  Dioceses to link in with our plans, along with making the Festival infrastructure available to churches across the denominations – over 30% of the churches which participated were non CofE which made for a truly ecumenical event."

David Gambier is doing a major piece of work within Oxford Diocese. For further information he can be contacted at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it