The Anglican Church is swapping prophets for profits – by selling magnificent places of worship.
Property developers are swooping in with the hope they can convert chapels from houses of God into home sweet homes.
The cheapest of the 19 churches on sale – the impressive St Margaret’s in High Bentham, North Yorks – dates back to 1837 and is on the market for £50,000.
Many more are expected to be flogged as congregations continue to dwindle.
Estate agents selling the closed down Church of St Luke in Stockton-on-Tees say the Grade II-listed building has 7,800 sq ft of floor space, which is seven times the size of a typical home.
Father Harry Hopkins, who was the vicar there, said: “It is sad but the congregation was down. There is another church just five minutes’ walk away, and the parish is no longer big enough for two gothic Victorian churches.”
Estate agents are often accused of stretching the truth but their description of the church as having “high ceilings” would seem to be, if anything, an understatement.
In total, the places of worship on the market are being sold for almost £3million. The most expensive is the St John the Evangelist in Broughton, Salford, at £250,000.
Most of the churches are marketed as being suitable for conversion into housing. They date as far back as the 12th century.
The approximate average price of the holy buildings is £150,000, which is what is being asked for limestone St Anthony church in Cowley, Devon.
Others up for grabs include St George the Martyr in Redditch, Worcs, and St John the Baptist’s, in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
Figures released this year estimated that fewer than 800,000 people worshipped at Anglican Church services on Sundays in 2012.
It was down 9,000 on the previous year and is less than half the number from the 1960s. But attendances at cathedral services are rising.