British Churches May Become Post Offices, Dry Cleaners
English churches are being encouraged to carry more than just the Gospel message. In rural villages where post offices are threatened with closure, churches may become the next home for postal services.
Recently, officials of the Church of England met with the Post Office's rural division to discuss plans on how stamps can be issued from vestries and pensions out of bell towers, reported the Sunday Telegraph.
Other services churches may also add include dry cleaning and a grocery market if the local facility providing the work is in danger of being shut down.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
"The traditional English village is facing hard times and we wanted to do our part to keep the sense of community alive," said the Rev. Sandra Lloyd, the vicar of St. Mary and St. Rhadegund Whitwell, to the Sunday Telegraph.
Some have voiced concern that the required physical changes to the churches would damage the ancient buildings. The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings said some churches are too important to add a post office, but that each church should be considered on a case-by-case basis.
Local bank branches, village shops and pubs, and local bus services have also diminished in number in rural areas, according to Simon Hart, chief executive of the Countryside Alliance in the daily U.K. newspaper Western Mail.
"The local post office is the last bastion of community support and acts as a social hub," noted Hart. "It is simply not good enough to claim that branches have to be closed due to their lack of financial viability."
Some 2,500 post office branches are endangered of closure, according to Britain's Sunday Telegraph.
In addition to churches, post office branches are being proposed to run from civic centers, leisure centers and libraries, according to 24dash.com, a U.K. social housing and public sector news site.
