As members of the Church Visitor and Tourism Association, last year we had the privilege of hosting the annual conference, this year’s annual conference will take place on Saturday 17 October 2026 at the Trinity Centre, Four Elms Road, Piercefield Place, Cardiff CF24 1LE.

The conference theme of ‘using buildings creatively; empowering volunteers’ will address the urgent need to find ways of keeping places of worship in community use as churches and chapels all over the UK face closure and inspiring examples of the many ways in which places of worship can continue to thrive at the heart of our villages, towns and cities.

The speakers include:
• Gareth Simpson of the National Churches Trust on using places of worship creatively to earn income and engage with the wider community;
• The Rev’d Rebecca Sparey, Mission Area Leader in Denbigh Mission Area, on empowering volunteers;
• Sarah Perons on the growth of pilgrimage and new routes in Bangor Diocese;
• Susan Fielding and Beck Edwards on the Welsh Royal Commission’s Capeli Cyrmu project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to carry out a national audit of the status of chapels in Wales and promote examples of benign reuse.
• Anastazia Thomas, Heritage & Community Officer with the St Elvans Community Heritage Trist on the transformation of St Elvans, Aberdare, known as ‘The Cathedral of the Valleys’, into a community resource combining concerts, festivals, exhibitions, heritage tours and the Spires coffee shop with an active place of worship.
• Rachel Morley, Director of the Friends of Friendless Churches on her new book, Church Crawling (Penguin), in which explains the joy of visiting churches and explains how they bring people and history to life in colourful, moving and unexpected ways.
• Sir Robert Buckland, Church Estates Commissioner and chair of the Bishoprics and Cathedrals Committee and the Mission, Pastoral and Church Property Committee on supporting historic places of worship at the heart of our communities.

In addition to the conference, there will be an opportunity to visit some of Cardiff’s historic places of worship on the previous day, Friday 16 October. The itinerary will include St John the Baptist church in Cardiff city centre, St David’s Metropolitan Cathedral, St Mary the Virgin Bute Street , the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas Butetown and the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay with optional attendance at Choral Evensong at Llandaff Cathedral and an evening meal at a venue in Cardiff Bay or Cardiff City Centre.

Further details are to be found at https://sites.google.com/view/churchtourism/agm-reunion-2026.