Its annual review found a growing number of churches are seeking funding for urgent repair, with climate change also having a serious impact on historic buildings.

Eddie Tulasiewicz from the National Churches Trust told Premier what’s behind the increased demand for cash.

“Each parish has to raise the money themselves… if they need to fix the roof or something like that – it costs a lot of money. If you want to fix a roof it’s half a million quid… and in the past there has been funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund but that’s gone down quite substantially in the last couple of years.”

Another contributing factor to the rise in churches seeking funding is linked to the government ending its Listed Places of Worship Roof Repair Fund in 2016.
 
Figures in the Trust’s Annual Review show that it received 480 applications for grants in 2017 – an increase of 26 per cent on 2016.

In 2017, the National Churches Trust awarded £1.7 million to help pay for 230 repair, maintenance and development projects at churches and chapels throughout the United Kingdom.

This was an increase of £300,000 compared to the £1.4 million it awarded in 2016.

Highlighting this, Tulasiewicz added: “We’re finding that a lot of churches are applying to us for grants and we’ve had about a quarter per cent increase in the last year for people applying for funds to keep those churches…

Two Indian priests have been accused of being among four clergymen who raped a woman in South India.

The 34-year-old woman was allegedly raped and blackmailed in Kerala in India. She told one priest about previous sexual abuse she had faced and he allegedly pressurised her into sexual acts in exchange for not telling anyone what she had told him.

She said she was then raped by two other priests who she turned to for help.

Fr Job Matthews handed himself in to police on Thursday, the priest she said she originally told, and Fr Johnson Mathew was arrested on Friday, one of the other four accused.

The priests deny the accusations.

On Wednesday, Kerala High Court dismissed any future option of bail to any of the priests.

The police have intensified the search for the other two priests, Fr Abraham Vargheese and Fr Jaise K George.

The woman’s husband spoke on New Delhi television on Thursday and said: “Even after we got married in 2006, the priest continued to sexually abuse my wife, blackmail her, saying that he would tell me everything. I got to know all this only in February.”

According to Associated Press, her husband told reporters he found out about the abuse in February this year when he noticed a bank statement which included a hotel transaction in his wife’s email inbox.

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Rev Paul Sanderson from Chorley near Preston was also told to undertake 140 hours of unpaid work, pay £85 in costs and handover an £85 victim surcharge.

District Judge John Maxwell was quoted by the Daily Express as telling the 50-year-old: “No disrespect, but if I see you again, I hope it’s at a wedding.”

Burnley Magistrates Court (pictured) had heard how Rev Sanderson was travelling to one of the churches he was overseeing when he pulled up after realising he had drunk too much.

A female motorist felt the clergyman’s bump into hers in the Co-op store car park in Whalley, prosecutor Sarah Cook said. The drive found police at the scene after she had gone to contact her husband.

Using a breathalyser, 0ffficers discovered Rev Sanderson – a married stepfather of two – to be more than three times above the drink-drive limit.

The former Catholic priest admitted driving with excess alcohol in his system in June last year.

According to the Daily Express, defending lawyer Daniel Frazer told the court Sanderson was “of exemplary character” but had post-traumatic stress disorder and “drank to deal with that situation”.

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Sixty-two per-cent of those aged between 18 and 24-years-old would happily tell colleagues what they believe, according to research carried out by ComRes.

Older generations were found to be less willing to talk about Christianity to their fellow workers (between 34 and 56-per-cent, depending on which age bracket they fell into).

The poll found younger adults were more likely to question a perception Christians are a negative force in society (51-per-cent – compared to a range between 38-per-cent and 49-per-cent in other age groups).

One third of young adults belonging to what has been referred to as the post-Millennial generation – or Generation Z – said they attend church services, compared to a range of 22-per-cent and 31-per-cent reported in older age brackets.

Considering Brits of all ages, the research found ten-per-cent of people thought religion is a negative influence on society, while 44-per-cent said they have had a positive experience of Christians and Christianity.

More than 4,000 people took part in the study, which was commissioned by Hodder Faith and Home for Good to coincide with the release of Dr Krish Kandiah’s new book Faitheism.

Click here to listen to Premier Inspirational Breakfast’s Rosie Wright and John Pantry speaking with Dr Krish Kandiah:

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