The Christian Resources Exhibition (CRE) has commissioned special research into the Roman Catholic sector - with a view to encouraging more Catholics to attend the event.

Although several Roman Catholic organisations already exhibit at CRE, the show tends to attract organisations and Christians from protestant churches. Currently, only one per cent of CRE visitors are Catholic.

"One million Roman Catholics in England and Wales attend church every week. This represents a significant proportion of Britain's churchgoers and we believe there is plenty for them to discover and benefit from at CRE," said Geoff Poulter of Bible Society, the new owners of CRE. "We are keen to develop the event as an ecumenical arena."

Bible Society has three Roman Catholic trustees and works across the denominations.

The research has been commissioned from Quantrill Media, a consultancy set up by Primavera Quantrill.

The project will involve a number of in-depth interviews with representatives of key Roman Catholic organisations as well as a parish questionnaire. The findings of the research will be presented to CRE in January 2008.

The next CRE, Europe's largest series of Christian exhibitions, is to be held in Telford from 21 to 23 February 2008, followed by the National Christian Resources Exhibition at Sandown Park, Surrey, from 13 to 16 May 2008.