Parishioners wont like it
The church community generally welcomes visitors. There may be worries about abuse of church building by unsupervised overnight stays. Some of the apprehension can be dispelled if pilgrims leave a mobile phone number with a church volunteer, for example in order to gain access to the church key. Some churches have parish halls or rooms which parishioners may feel are more suitable for pilgrims. It is for each church to decide if and how to welcome pilgrims.
It will bring rubbish
Most pilgrims will be more likely to clean up your churchyard than leave rubbish behind them. If it does happen, accept it is a small price to pay, the small time clearing will not be wasted.
Insurance
Inform your insurers about the potential overnight stays. We have found that they need to be informed but premiums remain the same.
It will attract undesirables
Good, the church is open to all, but the reality is it will attract clean living people on pilgrimages after spiritual truth rather than distilled spirits. Remember pilgrims stay for one night only, access is by key, held by the key holder, and pilgrims must text or contact either by a phone call or in person before they can have the key.
It will attract the homeless and we cant cope
In some city churches this maybe a problem, people living on the edge may be drawn to somewhere they can stay. The situation can be seen as an opportunity for the Church to develop its strategy of coping with homeless people and many city churches do already provide a night place for the homeless. Churches could prepare by having information on places to stay, support groups, access to food and shelter etc. which many towns do provide. However, if it is clear that pilgrims stay for one night only, and to gain access must have the key, obtained by phone call, text or in person, it is unlikely to happen. This is especially the case in country churches, where each person is recognised and the proposed facilities are minimal (i.e. water source and compost toilet). The decision on welcoming pilgrims, or not, of course lies with each church.
Health, safety and child protection
If you can help us please do get in touch, perhaps you already have a check list from working with children. Scout groups, festivals, schools all manage this and can probably advise. We will be looking at HSE guidelines and looking at Best Practice elsewhere.
It will be too time consuming when the church has other pressing needs
One way would be to set up a separate group to organise, but the work load should not be great. Planning for a toilet will be the biggest thing, but if you put out the call, people will come forward to plan, deal with the paper work, apply for funding and build a good compost toilet, or conventional one.