Are we visitor-friendly?

This week we replaced our Visitors Book, that is kept in the Narthex of the church, with a new one. In the completed book there are 96 pages and 768 entry spaces, covering a period of four months from the end of March to the 9th August, 2025.

Among those who wrote in the book were visitors from Indonesia, Singapore, USA, Chile, Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Australia, Czech Republic, Colombia, Poland, Italy and many places in the UK. Many used the word “beautiful” to describe the church. Some asked for prayers or gave thanks for prayers answered. As you’re probably aware, in the last four weeks Canterbury has been full of visitors. Many of them make a visit to our church — some to sit quietly, others to light a candle, or to wander and look around.

This has got me thinking.

How visitor-friendly is our church? Especially for those who are not Catholic or Christian?

• We have paper leaflets in various languages, giving an outlined history of the church and some of its main features.
• We now have a professionally-printed leaflet for anyone who wants to pray the Stations of the Cross.
• We did print a coloured, updated version of our ‘History of the Parish’ but they don’t seem to be freely available.
• Last year, a parishioner suggested she would be willing to record a brief tour of the church, to be downloaded via a QR code to a person’s phone (sadly, I didn’t take her upon her offer).
• I thought that we might offer suggestions of short prayers that could be used at our various statues (St Gregory, Sacred Heart, St Joseph, Our Lady, St Francis, St Anthony and St Thérèse of the Child Jesus).

What do you think? How can we continue to make St Thomas of Canterbury Church a place of prayer, a means of evangelisation and a place of welcome?

Please do speak with John Renn, Chair of the Parish Pastoral Council — or myself — with any suggestions or ideas. My contact details can be found in the weekly parish newsletter.