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This is not intended to be a full-blown course on how to be a family-friendly church, containing every detail from A-Z, and qualifying you for a government charter in family-friendliness. This is more of an appetiser, an introductory resource to share with your parish, and to reflect upon together. Some ideas you may adopt quickly, others may take a little longer, and some may not be appropriate for your parish at all. But, as you explore the needs and hopes of your church, keep in mind that there are some basic essentials that legally cannot be bypassed or overlooked, such as child protection policies, disability access, induction loops for those with hearing difficulties, and basic health and safety guidelines. If you need some help with these aspects, then look for the links on these pages. These are the basic steps we are offering in this resource:
- Firstly, look through the whole package, and discuss it with your church leadership - perhaps your pastoral council.
- Evaluate what you are already doing using the Questionnaire entitled 'What is our church doing here and now to be family-friendly?'
- Discuss the case studies as a group, and write down what you have learnt from them, which may help you on your way towards becoming the kind of church you would really like to be.
- Before you gather information from your parish or local community, you need to consider whether you are in fact seriously committed to helping your church become more family-friendly. There is no point in continuing along the family-friendly route, unless you are sure that you want to make some changes, and implement new projects. Once you start asking other people for their views and ideas, they will expect you to make some positive changes. The route towards increasing your family-friendliness, and the changes you may have to make, will be different for each church, and there may be some interesting discoveries to be made along the way.
- When you are ready, gather all the information you can from as many sources as possible, and use the information to help you grow your church into a community where everybody truly feels welcome.
- Remember in all of this that you are participating in a national initiative to encourage friendly, welcoming and family-sensitive parishes and that this work has the backing of all the Catholic Bishops in England and Wales.
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