A TOOL kit for use by small rural congregations to enable them to better serve their communities will be developed over the next two years, thanks to a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Travelling Fellowship.

Jill Hopkinson, research officer at the Arthur Rank Centre at Stoneleigh, spent six weeks travelling in the USA and Canada and hopes to develop the kit drawing on examples from the USA, Canada and the UK.

Ms Hopkinson travelled in North Carolina, Kentucky and Ontario, visiting projects where rural churches were at the forefront of economic regeneration of agricultural communities facing the loss of their major sources of income.

She said: "I found churches working in partnership with government and private sector organisations to help deliver services.

"These could be as diverse as advice on marking, farm diversification, skills training and leadership development."

She added: "Groups of rural churches were working together to provide services such as meeting places, affordable housing, mental health care and also some basic services such as food banks and clothing exchanges."