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Exhibitors enthuse over the CRE experience
By 4pm on the first day of CRE 24 at the Marshall Arena in Milton Keynes, exhibitors Chris and Kim Dunphy had already had so many helpful and detailed conversations with visitors that they were “completely talked out”.
Chris, founder of ChurchEcoMiser, will now make several site visits to churches over the next few months – introducing them to the company’s eco-friendly heating system. In spite of two long days interacting with hundreds of visitors, Chris and Kim – along with more than 60 other organisations – have already booked their stand at CRE 25, taking place on 15-16 October at Sandown Park in Surrey.
Margaret Wylie was equally busy at Holy Socks. “Working from home or an office is fine, but it is good to get out and actually meet people face to face,” she said. “You just don't know what's going to come from a face-to-face conversation.”
It was the first-ever CRE at the Marshall Arena. Total attendance over the two days was 1,786, comprising 1,446 visitors and 340 exhibitors: almost identical to CRE 23 in Solihull.
“Once again we sent out the 60-page exhibition handbook free to thousands of former visitors and new contacts, several weeks before the event,” said CRE owner Steve Goddard. “It meant they came fully informed and ready to do business.”
Modernising churches was a theme picked up by ITV News, who filmed the exhibition in full flow and broadcast a report in a prime spot on the first evening of the show. The report is available to view on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs8Nbh_GV_s. The BBC also published a piece on their regional website at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8elg901n9zo.
But CRE 24 wasn’t just about ‘holy hardware’. Two days of worship and discussion about worship were led by popular worship leaders and song-writers Lou and Nathan Fellingham, Lucy Grimble, Roger Jones and Devon Brown.
“We have presented hints and tips on the practical way of writing from the heart,” said Lou. “It would be great if those who attended the sessions are released to use the gift that God has called them to exercise.”
Nathan, who wrote the popular song Lift up His Name when he was just 17, added: “There will always be a need for more songs and hymns and we hope many will be inspired to craft them.”
For two visitors in every five this was the first CRE they had ever attended. One of them was Ellen Andrews, a children and family worker at Biggleswade Baptist Church.
“The song-writing workshop looked interesting,” she said. “I had not thought of writing a song before, but it has inspired me to think more about doing so!”
A series of more than 40 talks and presentations covered fundraising, faith sharing, bereavement support, social media, church security…and much, much more.
The exhibition was opened by Daniel Cutting, football freestyler and 10 times Guinness world record holder. Also a youth leader in his local church, Daniel declared the exhibition open while bouncing a football on his head, knee, foot and arms.
“I was surprised at the amazing range of subjects and equipment covered at this event,” he commented. “The friendliness of stand holders and visitors was wonderful.”
There were a number of new exhibitors, including Liverpool-based Nick Radcliffe, who gave up his practice as a GP to produce eye-catching Christian posters.
“This is the first time I have had a stand at an exhibition, but it has fully justified my decision to give up being a doctor,” he said. “I have had so many conversations and sold a good number of posters.”
The Rev Simon Faulks, a 56-year-old Anglican priest in Bletchley, was also enthusiastic about the number of people interested in his workshops on storytelling and circus illusions.
“I have chatted to lots of people and was delighted to be here,” he said.
When the event returns to Sandown Park in Esher, Surrey on 15-16 Oct next year it will celebrate 40 years as the UK’s biggest and longest-running exhibition of resources for churches. To book a stand at CRE 25 contact James Batterbee on 0161 240 4500; email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Richard Shepherd, business development manager at Ecclesiastical and Heritage World (pictured at the magazine's stand at the last CRE North in 2019), is a regular visitor at CRE exhibitions throughout the country. He said: "These events are always worth a visit, even if only for the pleasant and friendly people there. The usual variety of stands all have one thing in common: the Christian spirit and goodwill. My experience is always of very professional and trustworthy experts in their respective fields."
Over the years the CRE has provided church organisations with a focal point to source goods and products ranging from building solutions and furniture to lighting and sound systems, vestments and plate. Many exhibitors became regular fixtures, acting as a network of service providers. Its many quirky features included a series of ‘Clergy on the Catwalk’ fashion shows of vestments and the unforgettable My Church Needs One of Those competitions – the McNoot Awards.
Among CRE exhibitors offering solutions to practical questions is Fuller’s Finer Furniture, who travel from Weston-super-Mare to demonstrate a range of specialist church furnishing.
The company’s managing director Paul Fuller (pictured right) told Ecclesiastical and Heritage World the shows are a success and an “opportunity to have good conversations with existing and new customers”.
Fullers have been making their renowned height adjustable Canterbury and York Lecterns since 2001. Demand for these popular lecterns continues and Paul puts this down to a number of factors - click here for the full story.
Pictured (right) is Gerry Browne of church lighting specialists, Lighting Dynamics - unusually alone at his stand as every time we tried to get to speak to him he was busy talking to interested visitors and showing them examples of his spectacular church lighting projects.
Indeed, Lighting Dynamics are regularly featured on the front cover of Ecclesiastical and Heritage World including a lighting project at the beautiful St Giles RC Church in Staffordshire. Gerry commented: "I believe that as one of Augustus Pugin’s top UK building projects, there has been a considerable amount of architectural interest in the feature”.
In its 35 plus years of existence, Christian Resources Exhibitions has grown to become one of the most important ecumenical events in the Christian calendar. There is no other exhibition in Europe that features so many organisations from such a broad church.
For more information on upcoming CRE events, and to book stands, contact James on 0161 250 2306.
The true cost of an organ for your church
What is the true cost of an organ for your church? Questions to ask your organ company.
At Allen Organs we believe that the true cost of ownership should be considered when purchasing a new organ or considering a rebuild for your church.
Click here to read the full story.
Belfast Cathedral celebrates 120th anniversary with new chairs
With Belfast Cathedral celebrating the 120th anniversary of their consecration, they decided to replace their old, non-stacking seating. They looked at three companies and many sample chairs. After testing samples, two of Alpha Furniture’s chairs were among the favourites.
Click here to read the full story.
Shining brightly together: church embraces eco-friendly lighting upgrade
St Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church (SFX) is a Grade Two*-listed building designed by Charles Day of Worcester and built initially for the Jesuits. It sits in Broad Street, Hereford in the shadow of the cathedral. The laying of the foundation stone was on 19 September 1837 when Queen Victoria sent her representative the High Sheriff of Herefordshire to represent her. This was the first time in 300 years that a reigning monarch and head of the Anglican Church had a representative at a Catholic ceremony.
Click here to read the full story.
New York cathedral gets bespoke furniture to accommodate diverse needs
In March ICS Church Furnishers of the Republic of Ireland announced the successful completion of a bespoke seating project for The Cathedral of St John the Divine, the cathedral of the Episcopal Diocese of New York. This collaboration began in 2018 when the cathedral sought a solution for their seating needs that would accommodate their diverse range of services and events.
Click here to read the full story.
When it comes to church lighting, experience matters
When Anthony J Smith (Glos) Ltd was formed in 1976, it was initially as a general electrical contracting company carrying out work in domestic, commercial and industrial properties. Anthony’s first foray into church lighting was when his own church, St Peter’s Catholic Parish Church in Gloucester, suffered from an arson attack and as part of the Fabric Committee – he is now chairman, and has been for many years – he was allowed to carry out lighting tests and trials.
Click here to read the full story.
Ecclesiastical and Benefact Group launch the Movement for Good Awards 2023
Ecclesiastical is inviting people to nominate a heritage charity to receive £1,000 as part of Benefact Group’s Movement for Good Awards.
Now in its fifth year, the Movement for Good Awards will once again see more than £1million gifted to charities up and down the UK and Ireland.
Click here to read the full story.
Wales’s medieval jewel now sounds as magnificent as it looks
St Asaph Cathedral dates back 1,400 years, with the current building dating from the 13th century. The cathedral now benefits from a bespoke, comprehensive premium sound system designed and commissioned by expert engineers from Richard King Systems.
Click here to read the full story.
If you’re renovating a heritage building, having the right insurance is a must
Leigh Ide, business development executive at Trinitas Church Insurance Services, shares some useful guidance on insurance and contract works for heritage buildings.
Providing advice and guidance on the insurance aspects of building works to existing Trinitas clients is a regular part of my role. Those works can be very wide ranging. Most of the buildings we insure are listed as they are Church of England parish churches, and there is often an extra dimension to the advice and guidance required.
Click here to read the full story.
Co-operation and collaboration – working for the future
The amalgamation of two churches in Harwood, near Bolton, paved the way for a major redevelopment project, involving demolition of the church hall and former manse to make way for the new building. Opened in July, the facilities at the new Harwood Methodist Church comprise a worship area, activity hall, meeting rooms, kitchen and café. All-in-all, it is a busy social hub with a variety of activities catering for all age groups.
Click here to read the full story.
Most Precious Blood Catholic Church, Southwark gets new internal and external lighting
The Catholic Parish of the Most Precious Blood was founded in 1891 by Bishop Butt and designed by architect Frederick Arthur Walters (1849–1931) who designed over 50 churches in his career.
The clients provided a clear brief to CES Lighting and Electrical Specialists: "The overall effect we are aiming for in the church is one of 'Cistercian' simplicity and calmness punctuated by highlighted areas of religious/spiritual significance. The architecture of the building is already strong in both scale and form and does not of itself require any particular highlighting or enhancement."
Click here to read the full story.
LED Conversion at Grade 1 listed St John the Baptist Church, London
St John the Baptist Church, Holland Road in London is Grade I listed, embedded between the urban landscapes of Shepherd’s Bush and Holland Park. The church is an impressive example of Victorian Gothic Revival built from 1870 by architect James Brooks.
Click here to read the full story.
The Anglican Diocese of Exeter
As the Christian Resources Exhibition comes to Exeter, we thought we should take a look at the Anglican Diocese of Exeter.
There are 605 church buildings in the Diocese of Exeter and each represents the lives of thousands of people who have worshipped, celebrated and mourned there. Many are historic listed buildings and their care and maintenance can be one of the greatest challenges that congregations face.
Click here to read the full story
Looking for an audio-visual system to suit your style of worship?
APi Sound & Visual are leading designers and installers of audio-visual systems for churches, community centres and heritage buildings in the South West and beyond.
Founded in Exeter in 2003, the team at APi Sound & Visual pride themselves at making technology work for people. Specialising in the design and installation of projection, sound and streaming systems; they are also installers of hearing loop systems and CCTV.
Click here to read the full story
Skilled craftsmen create bespoke tributes for churches
around the British Isles
In January 2019 Fullers Finer Furniture received a call from a client in the USA. Her mission was to secure a bespoke lectern for a church in Portsmouth attended by her mother, in memory of her father.
The design brief was for a solid wood, fixed-height lectern bearing a memorial plaque. Working within the proposed budget, a design was drawn up and tweaked to achieve the exact result required.
Click here to read the full story
New commissions keep heating specialist busy
It is turning out to be a busy New Year for specialist church heating contractor Mellor and Mottram and its managing director Stuart Mottram.
Fortunately, in these strange times, it doesn’t involve a great deal of travel as the three projects they are due to start imminently are within striking distance of the firm’s Stoke-on-Trent base.
Click here to read the full story
It’s “All Aboard!” for a project with a difference
In January last year Fullers Finer Furniture were approached in connection with a unique project. All Aboard is an exciting collaboration between Edinburgh charity People Know How and Polwarth Parish Church in the city, aimed at running a canal boat from Polwarth Pontoon. The project is designed to benefit the local community in a variety of ways. Polwarth Church is located adjacent to the Union Canal, which runs from Edinburgh to Falkirk.
Click here to read the full story
Latest installation ensures everyone can participate – whether in church or not
A recent commission saw Creative Audio-Visual Solutions (CAVS) install a new AV system into Holy Trinity Church at Frogmore in St Albans. The new installation not only ensures the highest quality audio-visual solution for the church, but also provides a flexible and expandable visual streaming and recording system, to ensure those not able to meet at the church can continue to participate actively in services.
Click here to read the full story
Rinzaffo MGN – salt resistant lime scratch coat, available from Core Conservation
One of the unique products from Core Conservation is RINZAFFO MGN, a plaster developed in 1980 in Venice to tackle the problem of capillary rising damp, penetrating damp and salts - however its origins stretch back to ancient Roman times.
Click here to read the full story
Live Streaming now available from Creative Audio Visual Solutions
Live Streaming, especially during the Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic, is a vital means for churches to keep communicating to their congregation and the wider world.
Even when the lockdown is eased and churches open their doors again, many church regulars may still not be able to attend services. This is where a simple-to-use, reliable and high-quality online streaming system will allow your church to be ever present in these times when fellowship and togetherness are perhaps more important than ever. Creative Audio Visual Solutions (CAVS) offer a complete IT and networking solution for the modern office. Utilising the latest wired and wireless technologies, their systems are designed to increase your organisation's growth and productivity when storing information, printing and communicating with the outside world.
Click here to read the full story
No cash? No problem! The future of giving is in the app
Cash is losing relevance in society generally; and that presents both a problem and an opportunity for all churches: how can people give during the offering without it? That question led to the creation of Givt – an app designed for church and charity use to allow people to donate in all situations.
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Every church needs one of these…bespoke hand sanitiser stations
In a sign of the times a local church recently approached Fullers Finer Furniture of Weston-super-Mare in connection with the provision of purpose-built hand sanitiser stations. The church was in the process of undertaking risk assessments to take into account the additional precautions necessary to enable the building to be Covid secure and safely re-opened, in due course, for gathered worship.
Click here to read the full story
Aesthetic audio solutions
Modern audio solutions often mean function over form – where cutting edge audio quality and distribution may not sit happily in the aesthetic surroundings of a traditional church. This is precisely the challenge mounted and overcome by Creative Audio-Visual Solutions (CAVS) in their equipment selection and overall system design – providing the latest technology whilst respecting the décor of, in most cases, grade-listed buildings.
Click here to read the full story
Furniture makes its way across the sea
This summer saw West Country-based Fullers Finer Furniture complete a number of deliveries across the water in Northern Ireland. The first was to the Salvation Army’s new premises in Larne, County Antrim – just a short distance from the ferry port. The order was placed following introductions at the Christian Resources Exhibition in Manchester. It was for the company’s trademark York lectern, a Holiness Table and, more unusually, three flag stands.
Click here to read the full story
St Bart’s goes digital
The parish church of St Bartholomew in Horley, a parish covering Horley town and Gatwick Airport, is a Grade One-listed building, mainly of 14th century origin, although a church has been on the site since the middle of the 12th century.
Click here to read the full story
Lighting developments have evolved into new LED product ranges
Over recent years, West Midlands-based Lighting Dynamics UK has continued to develop as one of the UK’s premier companies specialising in the interior and exterior lighting of cathedrals, churches and other places of worship, across all Christian denominations.
Click here to read the full story
Lighting specialist looks forward to a welcome return
One of the companies that had reason to be glad they exhibited at the last CRE in Manchester five years ago is Anthony J Smith (Glos) Ltd. They have a long history of designing and installing bespoke lighting systems within churches and since that last show they have been fortunate to have been involved in a number of church projects in the North West – including at Standish, Ecclestone, Preston and Oldham. They also have a small number of other projects in the region at the planning stage.
Click here to read the full story
Collaboration brings stunning results
Nestling in the heart of the historic Norfolk market town of Swaffham, the beautiful Grade Two-listed Methodist Church has recently been renovated to offer state-of-the-art resources to people of all ages and interests in a bright and welcoming building.
The transformation has been accomplished in no small part through the collaboration of two specialist church suppliers – Cunnings Recording Associates and Fullers Finer Furniture – in conjunction with the building contractor H Smith and Sons of Honingham.
Click here to read the full story
Grade One-listed church is latest masterpiece in heating company’s portfolio
The Church of St Lawrence in North Wingfield, Derbyshire, is a Grade One-listed building, part of which dates from the 12th century – although mention is made in the Domesday Book of a church and priest there.
Click here to read the full story.
Get the latest church AV – without the visual impact
Churches, understandably, provide numerous challenges which need to be faced when installing an audio-visual system. The complexity and feature set of the system – although important – can often take second place to aesthetic concerns: where the building’s décor cannot be compromised under any circumstances.
Click here to read the full story
New church building is an award-winner
On 12 May 1894 a parcel of land on Elizabeth Road in Caterham – now Francis Road – was purchased at a cost of £32, for a new church building to be called Oak Hall. The church building was completed during July and August at a cost of £206, and opened on Thursday 13 September of that year.
Click here to read the full story
CAVS install new AV system 'seamlessly' at St James Church, Trowbidge
Creative Audio-Visual Solutions (CAVS) are a dedicated church audio and visual supplier working throughout the UK.
The Hertfordshire-based company were recently commissioned to install a new audio and visual system into the Parish Church of St James in Trowbridge. The brief was to ensure that that all new equipment fitted seamlessly into the environment whilst providing the latest technologies for full range worship and advanced multimedia display.
Click here to read the full story
Church heating specialist spans the Midlands
The Parish Church of St John the Baptist in the village of Somersham, near Huntingdon, stands on a site which is thought to have been used for Christian worship since the second half of the 7th century.
Earlier this year the heating system in the church was completely upgraded by Stoke-on-Trent church heating specialists Mellor and Mottram. The previous system was over 20 years old and had become very inefficient and costly to maintain. In a news article the church noted that in 2016 it had cost over £2,000 to have the boiler serviced for the following winter.
Click here to read the full story
Hymnal Plus - the leading worship music solution
Whether you have trouble finding good, reliable organists (or other musicians), have no instrument or simply want good music available for outreach, the Hymnal Plus is the solution.
As well as churches, the Hymnal Plus is widely used by Schools and Colleges, Chaplaincies in the Armed Forces, Prisons and Hospitals, Retirement Homes, Retreat Centres, Christian Holiday Centres, Cruise Liners, Crematoriums and private individuals – all of whom find the Hymnal Plus provides their complete worship music needs.
Click here to read the full story
Best-Selling Crematorium Furniture
Rosehill are often the contract furniture supplier of choice for the bereavement and crematorium sector. We’ve been supplying quality furniture to funeral directors across the UK for over 3 decades offering a wide selection of seating and bespoke sanctuary items.
This blog post covers our best-selling items for crematoriums making it easier for you to choose and order your furniture with Rosehill.
Click here to read the full story
New audio system for St Nicholas’ Church, Burton in Wirral
St Nicholas’ Church, Burton in Wirral, is located in the village of Burton, Ellesmere Port and Neston, Cheshire. It is designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building and is an active Anglican parish church in the diocese of Chester, the archdeaconry of Chester and the deanery of Wirral South.
The parochial church council’s set audio, lighting and control systems specialists, Richard King Systems, the brief of upgrading and modernising the audio system, for the reproduction of both speech and live performances.
Click here to read the full story
AV system at St Martins Liskeard
APi were asked by St Martins to design and install a comprehensive sound and visual system as part of their refurbishment. This video is a short case study with interviews from the church family on their experience of the system.
For further information visit www.apicommunications.co.uk
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