3,500 churches have closed over the last decade. But is this a problem or a path forward?

More than 3,500 churches of various denominations have shut in the last decade, according to the National Churches Trust (NCT). 

When the Daily Mail reported this story, their article was accompanied by images depicting the new identities these buildings have assumed. Where prayers were once shared in pews, there are now pools, pint glasses and pilates.

At the Chapel Nightclub – once a 19th-century Pentecostal church in Salisbury, Wiltshire – a DJ booth now occupies the space the altar once did. In Bournemouth, Sanctum nightclub inhabits what was once St Andrew’s United Reformed Church. Elsewhere, former churches have been converted into restaurants, gyms, food markets and, occasionally, into mosques. 

The crisis of closures

Are these closures a sign of spiritual decline in Britain, or do they represent a natural, perhaps even necessary, evolution in how churches function today?

Writing for Premier Christianity, NCT Chief Executive Claire Walker warned, “Every time a church [building] closes, almost one third of its congregation stops going to church entirely.” A poll commissioned by the NCT found that 22 per cent of churchgoers would be unwilling or unable to worship elsewhere if their own church closed. A further 7 per cent said they would only attend services online. 

The Church of Scotland is reportedly planning to close as many as 40 per cent of its buildings, citing a combination of declining attendance, falling income, and the rising cost of maintaining ageing structures. Following a report to the General Assembly which revealed that in-person worship had dropped to just under 30,000, the Church described the task of maintaining more than 1,000 churches for shrinking congregations as “untenable.”

Speaking on the plans, Rev David Cameron, convener of the General Assembly, said: “The reforms we embark on together are to reconfigure and reshape the church for mission and service around fewer buildings and fewer charges.”

Meanwhile, 959 Christian places of worship are currently listed on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk register. These buildings are considered to be in “poor” or “very bad” condition, or at risk due to neglect, underuse, or a lack of viable future purpose. For many, such statistics validate the fear that the crumbling spiritual infrastructure could symbolise spiritual decline.

The cost of decline

Walker also pointed to the wider impact of church closures, beyond the congregations directly affected. According to the NCT, churches provide essential services for their local communities, such as food banks, parent and toddler groups, mental health support and AA meetings. “Our research shows that UK churches are providing essential services that would relieve the NHS of costs of £8.4 billion every year,” she said.

Rising repair and maintenance costs are widely viewed as the primary factor threatening church closures – an issue exacerbated by recent changes to the Listed Places of Worship Grant Scheme. Introduced in 2001, the scheme enables churches to reclaim VAT on urgent repairs. But the government has now opted against extending it beyond March 2026, and introduced a £25,000 cap.

Walker cited the example of St Mary’s Church in Totnes, where the amendments to the scheme left the church with an unanticipated additional £150,000–£200,000 in costs for a repair project that had been planned for 15 years. “Given that we have already been supported by nearly all the major church heritage funders, it is not clear where this would come from,” said the church’s rector, Jim Barlow. “It is really disheartening for those who have worked so hard – and for the local community. It puts a significant investment in the local heritage fabric at risk.”

There are rules – Church of England buildings can’t be turned into mosques

The Church of England has told Premier that the situation is less dire than it may seem. “Only 15 to 20 church buildings are sold each year – and we are proud to have over 15,000 buildings across the country,” a spokesperson said. If correct, that would mean the vast majority of the 3,500 church buildings closed in the past decade were from other denominations such as Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, United Reformed and independent groups. 

The Church of England’s spokesperson also noted: “There are rules – our buildings can’t be turned into mosques, for example.” That rule was enforced last August in Stoke-on-Trent, when the CofE blocked a disused Grade II listed church built in 1778, St John the Evangelist from being converted into a mosque. 

Nevertheless, conversions of other (non-CofE) church buildings into mosques have become increasingly common in the UK. St Thomas’ United Reformed Church in Watford closed in 2015 and a Muslim charity later purchased the building for £3.5 million. It’s set to reopen as Masjid Al-Ummah in 2026. Clayton Heights Methodist Church in Bradford, had just reached its 150th birthday before it was vacated in 2020 and later confirmed it was to be renovated for use as a mosque.

Holding onto heritage

Steve Langton, a church member whose Methodist congregation shares a building with an Anglican one due to the closure of their building, believes a focus on heritage is misplaced. “You’ve got to distinguish between the heritage aspect of churches and their function as buildings for worshipping communities,” he said. “Many churches have tremendous historic value but they’re not in the right places or the right size for the Church today.” 

When viewed in this context, church closures are not necessarily bad news for the spiritual health of the nation.

You’ve got to distinguish between the heritage aspect of churches and their function as buildings for worshipping communities

Steve, now a Methodist lay preacher, previously served in two neighbouring churches which both required building repairs that were beyond their means. So, in agreement with each other, they sold the building that housed the Methodist congregation and used the proceeds to refurbish the Anglican Church of the Venerable Bede’s building which now accommodates both congregations. 

“Once you get below a certain number of people, it just becomes disproportionately hard to sustain, particularly a historic building. And what you find is instead of the church’s energies being used for the benefit of spreading the gospel and working in the community, it can become narrowly focused on just maintaining that building.”

In this case functionality took precedence over any sentimentality held towards heritage. The decision, Steve says, has greatly eased the financial and physical strain on both the congregations and their clergy. Contrasted with other churches within his area endeavouring to maintain aging churches, Steve believes their approach has been more sustainable.

“The Anglican churches around this area are still holding on, but they’re doing it by one vicar, looking after a far bigger parish. In our case, we’ve got one vicar — who’s not even completely full time — looking after eight churches and that’s quite a strain in itself because you’ve got a worshipping community of 50 people there on Sunday and between them, they’re sustaining eight church buildings.” 

Many large church buildings of deep heritage are located in sparsely populated villages and small towns across the country. As these centuries-old buildings continue to age, they require increasingly diligent — and costly — maintenance that the smaller congregations they house may not have the means to fund. “You can see,” Steve said, “if you were designing the church from scratch, you wouldn’t have a church in every village these days.”

Closing to grow

The conversation surrounding church closures is inherently an unsettling one. There are blatant drawbacks to the loss of a church building  — for both the congregation and the wider community it serves. But with between 3,000 and 5,000 churches either closed or functioning intermittently without a resident vicar, as the National Churches Trust reports, the question, for some, becomes: are we grieving the loss of historic buildings, or the expressions of faith they once housed?

The prospect of 29 per cent of worshippers stopping church attendance entirely if their building were to close is one to be taken seriously — all that can be done to prevent such an outcome should be done. But in instances like Steve Langton’s, where the sale or closure of a church building ultimately strengthened two congregations, heritage may have to fall down the list of priorities.

This same principle is guiding the Church of Scotland’s reforms. Stated intentions to “reconfigure and reshape” around fewer buildings and charges that better enable a financial focus on their mission. Their Growth for Seeds Fund exemplifies this: £25-million dedicated to supporting local missions with a particular emphasis on church planting.  Level 1 grants of up to £1,000 have facilitated Alpha courses run in local coffee shops, while larger grants of £40,000 have funded a pipeline for identifying, equipping and training youth ministers. At level 4 of the grant, churches can apply for the maximum award of £100,000 per year for three years. 

If spiritual decline is what we are trying to combat, then in some cases Christians may be required to fight church closures, and in others, facilitate them.