A series of drug-related incidents led clergy at St Anthony’s RC Church in Vauxhall, Liverpool to change its open all day policy.
Staff reported witnessing two men fighting over a laptop after bursting into the church moments before a service was about to start.
On another occasion, a man was discovered passed out in a confessional box, with a needle hanging from his arm, the Liverpool Echo reported.
Church administrator Emma Kearns Price told the news website: “We’ve had the problem on and off – the police move them from one area, and they move on to the next one, so it dies down.
“The problem is when they get moved on again, they come back – so we’re just going around in circles.
“Up until September last year we’d had no problems for two years, but now it’s started all over again.”
The church has been serving the local community for more than 200 years, having been founded as a parish in 1804, and opened to worshippers in 1833.
It will now only be open during services or by special request.
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