The Churches Visitor & Tourism Association (CVTA) is a dedicated organisation that champions the role of churches, chapels, and meeting houses as places of welcome, inspiration, and discovery. It supports those who open their doors to visitors, helping them share their buildings’ rich heritage, spiritual significance, and community value with a wider audience.
CVTA brings together church leaders, volunteers, tourism professionals, and heritage enthusiasts to promote best practices in visitor engagement, hospitality, and storytelling. The organisation provides resources, training, and guidance to help churches respond to the needs of their visitors while preserving their unique character and history.
By fostering collaboration and innovation, CVTA encourages churches to explore creative ways to attract and inspire visitors, ensuring these sacred spaces remain vibrant and relevant for generations to come. Whether you’re seeking to grow your visitor numbers, enhance the visitor experience, or celebrate the unique identity of your church, CVTA is here to support and guide you every step of the way.
The objectives of CVTA are:
To promote among churches and others the need to welcome visitors and tourists
To educate churches and others about the benefits to individuals and communities which can arise from such a welcome
As a registered charity CVTA is entirely dependent on donations and membership fees. By becoming a member you are enabling CVTA to continue its vital work of promoting work as open and accessible buildings for all.
All members have a legal say in the way the Association develops and its priorities for the future. The more members we have the greater the weight the Association will have to encourage government and local authorities to understand the significance of our work.
Membership is available for individuals, single churches, groups of churches, dioceses (or their equivalent), charities and non-charitable organisations. You can join us by downloading and completing the membership form below, and sending it to us.
Richard Tulloch: Chair
Richard Tulloch has had a long career centred on rural and community development, working for many years in Yorkshire. Since 2013, he has worked for the Diocese of Bath & Wells, where he supports parishes wishing to make greater use of their churches, and undertakes tourism functions. These have included producing a popular set of four maps ‘Discover Somerset Churches’ working jointly with a Dunster hotel to run a West Somerset church visiting weekend, and a day trip visiting churches using a 1950 Leyland coach. Away from work, Richard and his family live in a converted village chapel near Salisbury, along with over 30 serotine bats.
Dr John Beal MBE, JP: Treasurer
John is a retired public health dentist with an interest in church buildings and tourism and how the Church uses its buildings to further its Mission. His experience includes: Member of General Synod; Church Buildings Council and chair of its Clocks Conservation Committee; Member Yorkshire Historic Churches Trust, Norfolk Churches Trust, Churches Conservation Trust; Member of West Yorkshire and the Dales DAC and Diocesan Church Tourism Advisory Group; Assistant Lay Chair of Allerton Deanery Synod; Church Warden at Moor Allerton & Shadwell Parish; Author “Representations of St Apollonia in British Churches” in Dental Historian (1996).
Matthew Betts
Matt currently works as Development Manager for the Carmelite Charitable Trust. He has worked in the charity sector as a volunteer or in paid employment for over twenty years. Matt is originally from Yorkshire, went to school at Stonyhurst College in Lancashire, and studied Classics at the University of Kent. He now lives in Dorset.
Reverend Canon John D Brown: Honorary President
John was ordained in 1967 and has served in urban, suburban and rural parishes in the dioceses of York, Chichester, Southwark, St Andrews and Chelmsford and also at Chelmsford Cathedral. From 1992 to 2007 he was the Bishop of Chelmsford’s Rural Officer and latterly unofficially the Diocesan Tourism Officer. John is Vice President of the Rural Community Council of Essex and the Essex Association of Local Councils. He was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of the County of Essex in September 2007. He was been Chair of CVTA between 2004 and 2022 and is passionate about the ministry of open church buildings to visitors and tourists.
Christopher Catling
Christopher is the Chief Executive of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. He is also Chair of the Llandaff DAC and a member of the Welsh Places of Worship Forum, whose primary aim is keeping places of worship in community use. The Commission has recoded many hundreds of chapels over the last decade and is working with partners to highlight and celebrate the heritage of non-conformity in Wales.
Emma Critchley
Emma has spent her career in diocesan administration, for the past 6 years as Pastoral and Advisory Secretary in the Diocese of St Albans. Her dual role administering the work of the Diocesan Mission and Pastoral committee – making better provision for mission and pastoral care across parishes and benefices – and the Diocesan Advisory Committee – caring for and developing church buildings – enables her to make links, especially in the strategy for church buildings. She emphasises the role of church buildings as local centres of worship and mission and seeks ways to make church buildings open and sustainable.
Sarah Crossland
Sarah has been working with churches for over 25 years, primarily in church tourism, opening up and giving a great welcome, training volunteers and creating great interpretation of heritage. She managed Heritage Inspired in Yorkshire for 13 years, working with nearly 200 churches, shortlisted for tourism awards and the 7th most visited free attraction in England. She is Head of Stakeholder Engagement at the National Churches Trust leading on tourism, training, events, major projects and the National Church Awards. Outside work she is often to be found walking, visiting churches or helping keep the brambles down at York Cemetery.
Revd Canon Clive Deverell
Clive am a member of the DAC in the Bristol Diocese and has a passion for seeing churches being open and used. The opportunities tourism bring are part of God’s mission. He is also responsible for one the finest small Parish Churches in the country, St Mary’s Lydiard Tregoze. Clive has been a Church Army Evangelist since 1986 and was Priested in 2008, working in diverse settings in Aylesbury, Milton Keynes, Islington, Peterborough and Swindon.
Jo Hibbard
Jo is Director of Engagement at the Methodist Church in Britain. Jo is involved in the conservation, development and promotion of Methodist historic buildings, archives and artefact collections. She is passionate about the need to open religious buildings and tell their stories for visitors as part of the Church’s mission. Jo’s role includes liaising with trustee bodies, interpretation and creating exhibitions, publishing in print and online, encouraging and facilitating visits and tours, and helping volunteers increase skills.
Rebecca Payne
Becky Payne was formerly an archaeologist, before spending several years with English Heritage. Between 2003 and 2010, she was the Policy Officer in the Church Buildings Division, Church of England promoting and enabling the potential of church buildings as a resource for the whole community. She is now working as a freelance consultant undertaking projects on different aspects of sustaining historic places of worship including church tourism. She is a member of the London Diocesan Advisory Committee. She also volunteers two days a weeks as the Development Officer at the Historic Religious Buildings Alliance at the Heritage Alliance.