A poll by the research organisation, Ipsos MORI, investigating the most trusted job roles has found trust in clergy has dropped to 67% compared to 85% 30 years ago.
The Veracity Index said professions more trusted than priests include doctors (89%), teachers (86%), judges (80%), scientists (79%), hairdressers (69%), police (68%) and the ordinary person in the street.
It reported that trust in bankers had risen from 29% in 2011, to 37%, while priests are also apparently more trusted than television newsreaders (65%), charity chief executives (47%), business leaders (35%), estate agents (25%), government ministers (22%) and politicians (21%).
Ipsos MORI's findings revealed clergy were the most trusted profession group in 1983, however, they are now the eighth-most trusted.
Revd Canon Jonathan Ford, a vicar in Bury St Edmunds, said: "People have less to do with clergy now than they did 20 [or] 30 years ago because less people are in church and they're less the person that you would turn to, necessarily, but, of course, probably the big one that has affected these figures is the issue around child abuse and the perceived inability of the church to response appropriately.
"Obviously, we're trying to increase our involvement in the community, trying to increase the amount of social engagement but, therefore, it's required each clergy person, male and female, just to be honourable, hard-working [and] straightforward, and then, eventually, people will begin to see that the clergy do these things.
"Clergy are still well-used for signing passports and things like that so I think most people presume them to be trustworthy.
Bobby Duffy, Director of the Social Research Institute at Ipsos MORI, said: "Public trust in politicians remains steadfastly low, at the very bottom of the list of professions alongside Journalists, Government Ministers and Estate Agents.
"But it's good to remind ourselves that this is not a "new crisis of trust" - from this long-running survey we can see that public trust has been an issue for politicians for at least the past 33 years.
"Other professions though have seen a long-term decline in trust, most notably the clergy, who were the most trusted profession when we started the series in 1983 and have fallen behind seven other groups, including scientists and, for the first time in this latest survey, the ordinary man or woman in the street.
"But it's not all bad news - some groups have increased their level of trust, including some who are significantly up over recent years, like civil servants.
"This seems to be driven by younger groups being much more trusting, maybe reflecting the different context they've grown up in - a post-Yes Minister era.
"And perhaps most notably public trust in the ordinary man or woman in the street is at the highest level we've ever recorded.
"All generations have increased their level of trust - which is encouraging and important. We saw a big dip in trust in other people following the terrorist attacks in 2001, but we're not seeing the same impact from recent events."