At Christmas services, our doors will be open to many people within our communities who may need some additional support or reassurance.

With the support of the Diocese’s Disability Inclusion Action Group (DIAG), a 2-sided checklist has been devised with some easy-to-implement ways to make every church open and inviting this special season.

>> Download the accessible Christmas guide [PDF]

The Christmas guide comes at the end of a very special and successful year for DIAG.

Over the summer, they launched a series of accessible symbols for churches to freely download and use in their publicity. These can be used to highlight the accessibility provisions available so that our churches can become welcome spaces. A website was designed especially for the symbols so that they are available to freely download.

The disability arm of our national church was so supportive during the consultation phase and championed the end result by making them available to all parishes across the Church of England earlier than anticipated.

This was followed by a seminar in November where Rt Revd Malcolm Macnaughton, the Bishop of Repton, Carl Veal (DIAG Chair) and Lynda Herbert (DIAG representative) presented on the subject of “Enhancing accessibility in parish churches”. A recording of the webinar is available here.

A difference has truly been made in 2025, and we can look forward to what comes next from DIAG in 2026.

Thank you to all who give their time freely to champion this work.