Age, poverty, lack of interest – Why UK churches are under threat

Tucked away in Tenby, Wales is St. Lawrence's – a church that dates back to the 12th century. The ancient building, a witness of Tenby's prosperous medieval mercantile economy, is rich with architectural interest with many curious features. Yet in 2021 it was designated "at risk" due to a lack of funding for upkeep and repairs. 

Andrew Faulkner has been in charge of restoring this church since last year, and he says around $1 million is needed to return the building to its former glory. 

"We think it's really important. This building is so, so special. It's seen the lives of so many people of the local community here for all those hundreds of years. And it has some really amazing features within it which are rare across the country, particularly the wall paintings," said Faulkner, whose Andrew Faulkner Associates organization specializes in the conservation, adaptation and reuse of historic buildings. 

"It's a shame that we're losing so many churches and that so many more are in very poor condition. It's very difficult to find the funding to look after them." 

Faulkner says the main repair work would finish before the end of the year – but the conservation of the wall paintings discovered underneath layers of plaster is not currently planned, as it may cost even more.

St. Lawrence's has received funding from the National Heritage Memorial Fund and Friends of Friendless Churches. Not many other churches are as lucky. About 3,500 churches across the United Kingdom have been closed over the past decade, according to the UK's National Churches Trust. 

"To my understanding, there is no specific rationale for deciding which churches are saved and which aren't," says Faulkner. "To some extent, it comes down to circumstances when there's money available, when the churches become redundant. But it's being left at the moment to charities to pick up this problem."

Church buildings sold for other purposes

Over the past three decades, about $1.2 billion of funding has been provided by the UK's National Lottery Heritage Fund to save places of worship of all faiths. Despite the effort, there is still a funding gap of at least 94 million dollar a year in England alone, and some churches being sold and repurposed due to lack of funding.

St. David's in Carmarthen, Wales, is a 19th-century church that closed in 2003. In 2014, it was sold for a single pound – less than $2. The building was later converted to an indoor climbing and bouldering center called The Overhang, which opened in 2020.

"If it's not being used as a church, why not use it for something else?" asks John Cole, an Overhang customer. "It's a great activity for adults and children. It still has a lot of values that a church would have anyways, so I personally don't have a problem with it."

'We're making decisions about their future without really knowing everything about them'

Why have such historic places been abandoned? One of the major contributors to the decline is quite simply falling church attendance, says Rachel Morley – a director of the Friends of Friendless Churches, which specializes in rescuing and repairing these historic buildings.

"Really you can trace kind of the beginning of the decline back to the mid-19th century," says Morley. "Before that, parishes and parishioners would have to pay a 'tithe'" – a mandatory tax on earnings of around 10 percent (the word itself means 'tenth'). "That was abolished and donations became voluntary."

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Some churches were also prey to larger socioeconomic forces, such as the long-term reduction of the agricultural workforce.

"In the 20th century, there was a huge migration of people from rural areas to urban areas for work," says Morley. "A lot of buildings were without the same volume of people that they had before."

Furthermore, many faiths are experiencing dwindling popularity. In the 2021 census of England and Wales, for the first time, less than half of the population across the UK said they considered themselves to be Christian. And the ever-increasing cost of living is also believed to have reduced the amount of donation to the maintenance of historic buildings – leaving them in increasing peril.

"Particularly with very ancient churches, we don't really know an awful lot about their history," says Morley. "And we're making decisions about their future without really knowing everything about them. Even though they don't have a communal function, I do think the loss of a community space and a public utility is a real shame."

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