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UK News

Church of England could abandon compulsory Sunday services

by Aaron James

The proposal's from the Church's Simplification Task Group, which is aiming to boost declining attendance numbers.

It says the legal requirement for churches to host services on Sundays and other Holy Days should be scrapped.

The change in law would affect rural churches the most, where numbers have declined significantly over the last fifty years.

Country vicars often have several churches within their care and can rarely conduct services at all of them on a Sunday. This means they are breaking church law, despite having sworn to keep it.

Church of England attendance is half what is was in the 1960s

There's been a 12 per cent decline in attendance between 2004 and 2014

Currently 18 in every 1000 regularly attend church

The idea from the task group comes after the controversial proposal to totally close some rural churches except for major celebrations such as Christmas and Easter, as well as funerals and weddings.

Bishop of Willesden Pete Broadbent leads the 'simplification task group' and told Premier's News Hour some churches already don't have a service because vicars are covering multiple parishes: "They already have a rota of services where by the first Sunday you go to one church and the second Sunday you go somewhere else.

"The problem is the law of the Church of England says that every parish church should have a service every Sunday.

"That's clearly not reality.

"Many of our rules and regulations were designed for a time when then was this sense of there being a person in every village church and that's no longer the case.

"So my role is let's make the Church of England fit for purpose and let's do stuff that will allow its mission and worship to operate properly."

Bishop of Willesden Pete Broadbent speaking to Premier's Alex Williams

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