On Monday 6 December 2021, the Churches Conservation Trust (CCT), an English charity protecting churches at risk, is launching CCTdigital.com, an online streaming platform where people can watch films about churches, whilst helping to care for these churches in the process.
In addition to free content, members of CCT will gain access to exclusive series and episodes.
Peter Aiers, Chief Executive of CCT, said: “Church buildings in England face an uncertain future, and the various challenges they face have only been exacerbated and accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Put simply, more churches are likely to close for regular worship. As a nation we have one of the world’s finest collections of historic church buildings that tell the story of a community and place like no other building can – parish churches belong to all of us, regardless of faith. As the leading national charity responsible for caring for and conserving our nation’s historic churches, we have never been needed more. Our ambition is that CCTdigital.com becomes a place of learning and discovery, where people can engage with fantastic digital content and be a part of saving church buildings in the process.”
George Reynols, Digital Media Officer for CCT, said: “We have got exciting plans for future series and productions. In the new year we will be training volunteers, communities and the public to create their own church tours, lectures and documentaries to upload onto our platform. CCTdigital.com gives us the ability to reach and engage a wider audience in new ways. We know that churches in the past have faced challenges engaging younger audiences, but over the past year we’ve seen a much younger demographic wanting to learn about churches and the variety of fascinating topics associated with them, as well as wanting to get involved with our work in conserving and protecting historic churches at risk.”
Read the full press release here and visit CCTdigital.com here.
To celebrate the launch of CCTdigital.com on Monday 6 December, CCT is premiering episode one of Churchcrawls in Solitude free of charge from Wednesday evening 1 December: