Catholic TV network opens first UK studio at Walsingham

International Catholic TV network EWTN has opened its first studio and office in theUK in Walsingham.

The facility is located in a converted home in the village of Walsingham, home of one of the most important pilgrimage sites inEurope, the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.

The formal dedication took place onTuesday, August 29in aceremony attended by EWTN Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive OfficerMichael Warsaw; Shrine Rector MgrJohn Armitage, Rector of the Shrine and Bishop Alan Hopes.

“This is a particularly important step for the continued development of EWTN in the UK,” said Michael Warsaw. “This new facility will allow us to greatly expand our capacity to produce programming for our European channels as well as to more easily incorporate content from the UK into our other channels around the world.

“It is also appropriate that this new facility is located close to the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham, which for centuries has been one of the most important centres of Catholicism inBritain. Every year hundreds of thousands of people come to Walsingham on pilgrimage,” said Warsaw. “I’m very happy that EWTN now has a presence in this extraordinary place and can share what happens here with our audience around the globe.”

The three-story building named “Annunciation House” contains EWTN’s studio and a street-level reception and welcome centre that introduces the Network to visitors. The facility allows Shrine pilgrims to enjoy clips from EWTN’s most popular television shows, original films, documentaries and more.

In addition to producing programmes with leading Catholics from across the UK, Warsaw said EWTN hopes to form a strategic collaboration with the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham that will help the Shrine carry out its mission to evangelize.

In a letter of congratulations read at the dedication, CardinalVincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster wrote: “Over the last 950 years Walsingham has been a place of pilgrimage, proclaiming the joy of the Annunciation; in this new chapter of its history, I welcome the opportunity for the Shrine and EWTN to work together as servants of the New Evangelization.”

MgrJohn Armitagesaid: “Walsingham is very much the crossroads of the Catholic Church inEngland. The Church needs to be at the crossroads, particularly an organization in communications. So we are delighted as a shrine to be able to welcome EWTN to come here as an organization in their own right, but at this place where so many pilgrims come from all over the world.”

Bishop Alan said the facility: "will certainly be a centre for evangelization."

EWTN transmits dedicated television and radio channels for the U.K. andIreland. Those services are available on the Sky satellite platform, cable and video streaming platforms throughout the region. The Network also transmits two additional television channels for the European continent.

Pictured above is EWTN UK Michael Warsaw opening the new EWTN studios in Walsingham (Credit: Alan Holdren/EWTN).

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