Contents · Church manual

Setting up

Designs, pages and menus

The six designs and seven colour palettes of the Church theme, the pages and menu the kit makes, and how to switch the look.

On this page

The Gradespace Church theme comes with six designs. A design sets the fonts, shapes and mood of the whole website; a colour palette sets the accent colours. Your words, photos, sermons and events stay exactly the same when you switch, so you can try them all without losing anything.

How to choose a design and colours

  1. Go to Site Settings → Design & colours.
  2. Under Design, click the design you like.
  3. Under Colour palette, click a palette, or The design's own colours.
  4. Under Header, leave Keep the menu at the top when scrolling ticked if you want the menu to stay in view as people scroll.
  5. Click Preview on the site. Your homepage opens in a new tab in the new look, just for you.
  6. Happy? Come back and click Save. Nothing changes for visitors until you do.
The Design & colours screen, showing six design cards (Gathering, Heritage, Nave, Parish, Pulse and Sanctuary), the colour palettes from Sky to Heritage navy & red, and the Preview on the site and Save buttons

More about logos, menus and the footer is in Your look.

The six designs

Gathering (default)

Bright and friendly: rounded shapes, bold headings and a colour for every congregation. A good choice if you have several churches.

The Gathering design's home page: white background, big bold "A place to belong" headline, blue rounded buttons, the next service card beside a photo of a congregation, then the week's service times and the latest sermon

Heritage (warm, editorial)

Classic serif headlines on cream, square corners, navy and red. Feels like a well-made parish magazine.

The Heritage design's home page: cream background, the serif headline "A place to belong." in navy, square navy and pale red buttons, red small headings and the service times on a pale pink band

White stone, Roman capitals, a book serif, pointed arch picture frames, thin lines and one liturgical colour. For parishes, cathedrals and churches with a set order of service.

The Nave design's home page: pale stone background, headings in Roman capitals, pictures in pointed arch frames and a deep red accent
The Nave design on a phone: the name in capitals at the top, a menu button and the first section stacked in one column

Parish (warm community, photo-led)

Photos shown as white-bordered prints, a friendly rounded serif, the week at a glance and soft cream. For churches whose life is the whole week, not just Sunday.

The Parish design's home page: a yellow notice bar, the serif headline "There's a seat saved for you on Sunday.", green Plan your first visit and Find your nearest church buttons, this Sunday's times for Central and Riverside, three photos as white-bordered prints, and a Not just Sundays week-at-a-glance from Wednesday to Tuesday, each meeting and event with its church name or All churches
The Parish design on a phone, with its notice bar, the church name and menu button, and the first photo-led section

Pulse (contemporary, video-led)

Tall condensed capitals, sharp rectangles, a scrolling ticker of service times and big play buttons on a bright page with black bands. For churches whose Sunday is streamed and whose sermons come in series.

The Pulse design's home page: a black bar with "Live Sunday" and Watch live, the headline "Come as you are." in tall capitals with a red highlight, the latest message with a red play button, each church's Sunday time and a red ticker of service times
The Pulse design on a phone: the black Live Sunday bar, the church name in capitals and the big headline

Sanctuary (dark, cinematic)

Dark backgrounds, elegant serif headings, full-width pictures and a single glowing accent.

The Sanctuary design's home page: a dark navy page with the elegant serif headline "A place to belong.", gold Plan your visit and Plan a visit buttons, the next service card beside an arched photo, and the service times on a dark band
The Sanctuary design on a phone: dark background, serif headline and gold button stacked in one column

The colour palettes

There are seven palettes: Sky (the default), Gold, Forest, Royal, Burgundy, Sunrise and Heritage navy & red. The design's own colours keeps each design's original colours. On the dark Sanctuary design the background stays dark and the palette colours the buttons, links and highlights.

On phones

Every design works on phones. The menu folds into a button at the top right, and the main button (Plan a visit) stays one tap away.

The Gathering home page on a phone, with the church name, a menu button, the headline "A place to belong", the Plan your visit button and the service times stacked underneath

The pages the kit makes

The setup wizard adds these starter pages (you'll find them under Pages):

PageWhat's on it
HomeWelcome, next service, service times, latest sermon, what's on, ministries, community stories
About usYour story and what you believe
Plan a visitWhat to expect, the Plan a visit form, common questions
Our churchesEach church as a card, and every service time
GiveWays to give, from Church → Settings → Giving
PrayerThe prayer request form (if you take requests)
ContactAddress, phone, email, service times
QuestionsFrequently asked questions
NewsYour blog posts
Privacy policy, Terms and conditions, Cookie policyStarter legal pages filled in from your settings
Photo creditsCredits for the sample photos

Each church also has its own page (for example Grace Church Central), made under Church → Churches. Sermons, events and community stories get their own list pages too: Sermons, Events and Community.

The Pages list in the admin, showing Home, About us, Plan a visit, Our churches, Give, Prayer, Contact, Questions, News, Photo credits and the legal pages

To change a page, open it from Pages, click any text or picture to change it, and click Save. See Pages and content.

The Plan a visit page open in the page editor, with its dark heading section "We'd love to meet you" and the Page sidebar showing its template and the Church panel

If you rename or replace one of these pages, tell the website which page is which under Church → Settings → Business → Pages, so its buttons and footer links still go to the right place. See Church settings.

The menu

The wizard makes a main menu with About, Our churches (only when you have more than one church), Sermons, Events, Community, Give and Contact. Beside it sit two buttons: Watch (your YouTube channel's live page) and Plan a visit. With a church app connected, a small Log in button can sit beside them too (see The staff sign-in page).

To change the menu, see Your look.