Sign up to receive regular digital updates from Torch
We will email you our Torch News magazine four times a year, full of encouraging stories, updates and information on how you can get involved. Our quarterly prayer diary is included to give you a daily guide to how you can be praying for the ministry of Torch. By receiving these digitally you help us save costs and help the planet!
We are only able to continue our work supporting those with sight loss thanks to the generosity of our supporters. Please consider if you can support the ministry financially.
Write us an email and one of our friendly team members will get back to as soon as possible.
If you like to contact us directly, please use this phone number: 01858 438260
Office hours are 10:00am to 4:00pm Monday to Thursday.
From outside UK: +44 1858 438260
Get in touch
Use our online form to get in touch
Send us a message using our online form and a member of our friendly staff will get back to you as soon as possible.
It’s free and easy to become a client supporter. You can do this online or over the telephone. This will give you access to most items that a client would have access to.
Register your Church to become a Sight Loss Friendly Church
It’s free and easy to become a client supporter. You can do this online or over the telephone. This will give you access to most items that a client would have access to.
Torch Trust can help your church to become more aware of how to support people with sight loss. We can support you to become more accessible and more able to confidently engage everyone in your church, and those who would like to join.
By signing up to become a member of Sight Loss Friendly Church, you’ll gain access to a wealth of help, support and advice from Torch; experts with over 60 year’s experience.
“It was visually impaired people coming to our church which prompted us to call Torch to see how we could best include them.”
Training & Support
Training Sessions
SLFC Training
Our interactive, fun and engaging training sessions last 90 minutes and usually take place on Zoom. They offer an overview of the wealth of things you can do to make people with sight loss feel part of your church community. The sessions are offered in the daytime or evening, and can be personalised for your specific circumstances. We explore what it’s like to have sight loss; how it impacts people before, during and after a service; and where you can go for more information.
Focus On Sessions
Focus On Sessions
In addition, our 60-minute Focus On… sessions take a closer look at some of the specific problems faced by people with sight loss and what you can do to make things better at your church. They take place monthly, are open to anyone in your church who would like to learn more, offered during a weekday lunchtime, and recorded for later review.
Sight Loss Friendly Churches will have free access to Torch’s advice and guidance, the opportunity to book personal consultations or workshops for your church and access the Torch catalogue of accessible Christian literature. Your church will then feature on our map to encourage people with sight loss in your area to your congregation.
You’ll also receive a free members’ pack with a booklet, poster and window sticker for your church! Best of all, Torch does not charge for any of these fantastic services.
SLFC GUIDES
Short Guides
As an SLFC, you will gain exclusive access to our helpful and insightful sight loss friendly church guides. These cover all areas of church life to enable you to welcome and include people with sight loss in your church.
SLFC NEWSLETTERS
Sight Loss Friendly Church Newsletters
Receive our quarterly newsletter straight to your inbox. Filled with news, Top Tips, the latest training dates and new resources from Torch, the SLFC Newsletter is great to share with your congregation to keep them up-to-date.
Worship For All
Worship For All
If you need to produce documents in large print or Braille, we have a free online tool that can help, available exclusively to our Sight Loss Friendly Churches.
Torch Shop
Accessible Christian literature from Torch
As a registered Sight Loss Friendly Church, you will be able to purchase a wealth of Christian literature in accessible formats such as Braille, Audio and Large Print. Included in our catalogue are Bibles, hymn books, Bible commentaries, Christian discipleship courses, biographies, Christian fiction and much more. SLFC’s can purchase these resources from Torch at the print price so that those in your congregation with sight loss can be fully included into the life of your church.
Join our UK-wide network and meet other churches in our monthly online Catch Up sessions. They offer a forum for church representatives to share experiences amongst themselves and provide an opportunity to find out the latest news from Torch. They take place on a weekday evening (usually a Tuesday or Thursday) and last about half an hour.
You can also discover other Sight Loss Friendly Churches in your area and get listed on our Sight Loss Friendly Church finder.
This button will open a form that can then be completed
Sight Loss Friendly Church Resources
All of the resources on this page are free to download and use however your church would like to. We hope that they inspire, interest and engage your congregation – some are great for interactive activities, some for raising awareness and others for helping people to understand what it is to be sight loss friendly.
Virtual Church Top Tips
Advice from Torch on how to ensure your virtual church events are accessible to those with Sight Loss.
What can be more excluding for a person with sight loss than when everyone else in church is singing but they can’t? With more and more churches using projectors and screens, the problem is getting worse. There’s now a vast choice of songs, with new ones being quickly adopted on a regular basis.
Worship for All is a free, online, automated transcription service from Torch Trust which enables churches and Christian organisations to provide resources for people with sight loss. Hymns and songs, liturgies and other church handouts can be converted to large print – and made ready for braille at the click of a button.
Asked how it impacts his experience of church, braille reader Colin says, ‘It transforms it – I can join in all the worship. I really feel part of it’.
Becks, thrilled with the results, said,
“It was great to have the braille and be able to follow the service along with everyone else… It’s lovely to be able to join in with the service rather than just listen… Being able to join in means I feel like I’m taking part, rather than just being there.”
How can I use Worship For All?
The service is suitable for worship songs, Bible readings, church notices, magazines and most other types of document or text-based projector content. It will provide output in PDF format in a range of large print sizes, automatically paginated and indexed, as well as a braille-ready (.brf) file for use with a braille embosser.
The service has been used successfully at Spring Harvest and Keswick Convention to produce handouts on-site each day. These handouts have enabled blind and partially sighted people – and others who were unable to see the screens (including wheelchair users whose sightlines are obstructed by others standing) – to join in with the worship.
Torch’s online service takes input from SongPro, Media Shout, OpenLP and from Word documents. Torch has also developed output transforms for Visual Liturgy, allowing Common Worship services to be processed too.
