Rural churches are no longer obliged to hold a weekly Sunday service, according to a report in the Daily Mail.

The Church of England voted to change canon law during a meeting last week. The change was proposed by the Bishop of Willesden who argued that priests now frequently work for multiple churches and cannot hold services in them all.

He said: ‘Most churches can’t manage that and if you’re a priest that looks after about 10 churches you can only do two or three [services] on a Sunday’.

He continued to say that little is likely to change as the change in the law reflects what has actually been happening already for many years. 

The Church of England have issued a press release which fully details the situation and this can be accessed here