Church burdened by upkeep of historic buildings

LONDON — The Church of England is finding maintaining its historic churches increasingly burdensome, according to Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey.

Speaking at a meeting of the Archbishops’ Council — the equivalent of the Church of England’s cabinet — Carey pointed out $170 million out of a total expenditure of $1.1 billion went to maintenance of church buildings.

It is an issue Carey has been pressing the British government on in an effort to see if the church might be relieved from this “crushing burden.”

According to Carey’s figures, 16 percent of the Church of England’s expenditure goes toward maintaining its buildings. A good half of the 17,000 or so Anglican churches in England date from before the Reformation — and these days are serving increasingly smaller congregations in rural England.