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Shirenewton Church - Press Release

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Local Village Church turns to the web for Fund Raising!

- Shirenewton Church launches its revolutionary website and shopping portal –

Shirenewton, UK – August 20th, 2003 – ShirenewtonChurch, a local village church in South East Wales , has launched a revolutionary church website in a bid to raise funds for the church’s maintenance and improvement. By creating a complete on-line shopping portal with over 100 shops, each of which pay Shirenewton Church commission on every purchase, Shirenewton Church is hoping to raise harness the Internet shopping revolution for its own benefit!

In common with many churches in today’s environment, Shirenewton Church is having to raise substantial building and improvement funds against a background of falling church attendance,  multiple ‘good causes’ competing for people’s compassion and the rising costs of maintaining such an historic building and village landmark.

Their novel response is a website which has links to over 100 internet shops. These include ‘traditional’ high street names such as Boots, Debenhams, John Lewis & Tesco. The site also encompasses dotcom creations such as Amazon, Dell, e-bookers & Lastminute.com. Shoppers simply ‘click through’ from the church website [www.shirenewtonchurch.org.uk] to the shops in question. The church gets a commission on the order value whilst the service costs the shoppers nothing extra. Everyone wins!

David Cornwell, the Church’s webmaster, said: “People suggest that the competition to church on a Sunday is ‘retail therapy’. Therefore we like to think we are taking a pragmatic view and, rather than trying to stop people shopping, we are providing a way for people to support the church and shop at the same time! We are not asking people to attend church, we are not even asking people to dig in their pockets and donate their hard earned cash - we are simply asking people to make their on-line purchases through our website” He continued “The beauty of this system is that everyone wins. It doesn’t cost the shoppers anymore, the church benefits and merchants benefit from increased custom!”

Kevin Bounds, the Church’s Treasurer, said: “This really is a win, win. It’s an innovative idea that enables everyone to support the church in a way that costs them nothing – in fact, I’ve found that booking my travel this way often saves me money. The church benefits – and many in the community appreciate the benefits of an active and outgoing church regardless of whether they are regular church goers or not.  This scheme will make a real difference to us.”

About Shirenewton Church

The Church of St. Thomas a’ Becket Shirenewton has existed since approximately 1220 and was constructed the fifth Humphrey de Bohun - the first Humphrey de Bohun,  having come over from Normandy with William the Conqueror, his cousin. The Church was dedicated to St. Thomas a Becket, the Arch Bishop of Canterbury who was murdered in his Cathedral in 1170.

The Church has a solid square tower, placed between the chancel and the nave; the practice at this time being to build churches with a two-fold purpose, as places of defence as well as of worship, and this is a good example of a Norman fortified church tower. It has a battlemented top with a turret at the N.E. corner and slits in the sides, originally for defence purposes, although today they are used to hold the four spindles which operate the hands of the clock.

Editors notes:

The full text of this release is available electronically at www.shirenewtonchurch.org.uk/press.html

All photos on the website may be re-produced in print but should be credited to Barbra Davies

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