CHURCH buildings have withstood the elements, sometimes, for centuries. But many are now struggling to weather the effects of climate change, which broke records in 2024. Scientists expect it to turn out, in the final analysis, to be the hottest year since records began.
Storms, heatwaves, floods, and droughts have had a devastating effect in many parts of the world. But the UK, too, is already experiencing wetter winters and hotter summers. These new conditions are taking their toll on the country’s churches.
Staff at York Minster say that climate change poses a huge threat. “The Minster may look imposing and unchanging, but this medieval building is fragile and in need of constant care,” the director of works and precinct, Alex McCallion, said.
“This has been a challenge for generations, but, because of the impact of climate change, the challenge has never been greater than that facing our current team of craftspeople. It is a challenge that is likely to get worse before it gets better.”
Crumbling stonework and other forms of erosion are one thing, but Mr McCallion says that the increased frequency and severity of rainfall, high winds, and storms affects the minster, as does the increasing uncertainty related to global freak weather events.
“This year, we have been battered by several named storms that required significant clear-up from our team, and we have sadly lost trees from our seven-hectare estate because of the high winds. Medieval guttering, fit for purpose for generations, is now being overwhelmed and unable to shift the vast volumes of water fast enough, leading to increased leaking and erosion.”
The problem is imposing significant costs and disrupting ministry elsewhere, too. The Team Rector of St Mary’s, Walthamstow, in east London, the Revd Vanessa Conant, and her congregation have had to deal with a series of floods. She said: “In the past several years, torrential rains have not only flooded our church school, St Mary’s Primary, in Walthamstow, but also our church hall.
“Our ancient church building has also struggled to handle the changing weather, with an extremely high level of maintenance now required for us to prevent serious leaks, something we’ve seen more of, despite a major renovation of our church building two years ago — a renovation which included a new roof.”
Church buildings were not built to withstand the new conditions, she says. “Ancient and even modern church buildings and facilities are simply not designed to handle the amount of rain that can now fall in short periods of time as a result of a warming climate. Drainage systems that were designed for the climate we once had are often no longer fit for purpose.”
CHRIS WALSH, of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, Manchester, was seconded for a year to the Church of England’s Cathedral and Church Buildings Team, documenting the effects of climate change and helping churches to become more resilient.
“Cost was front-of-mind for a lot of the churches I was speaking to. Down the road, this is going to become a huge issue, and one that many heritage organisations haven’t been taking seriously. But, if we get our house in order now, we can avoid a lot of these potential costs later on,” he says.
The main problems, he says, are related to wind, rain, and flooding. “Churches that are exposed or don’t have a good maintenance regime are most vulnerable. It’s about protecting the building’s ‘thermal envelope’. This involves wind-proofing, filling in gaps, making sure doors fit properly, and fixing window cracks. All these little weaknesses can let in water.”
Mr Walsh describes damp as a “threat-multiplier”. “As soon as churches become damp, they get cold and uncomfortable, and attendance drops,” he says. “That is why regular maintenance of small areas of damage is so important.”
Sky NewsThe aftermath of the fire at Wennington
During his year at Church House, Mr Walsh found that churches fell into two groups when it came to dealing with climate change. In one group, the churches were themselves affected. In the other, churches were able to offer refuge to others in the community during extreme weather events.
St Laurence Priory, Snaith, in the diocese of Sheffield, is an example of the latter. Churches built on high ground, as they often were, make ideal havens from flooding. After heavy rains in February 2021, the lower part of Snaith was flooded, and the church became the centre of the emergency response. Despite being an old building with pews, it had enough space to act as a relief centre.
Local people and emergency-service workers slept in the nave, while the pews were used to store clothes and food. In total, 500 people were supported over three weeks. Mr Walsh says: “Being involved with emergency-response plans can be important for the community, and it’s also an evangelism opportunity. In Snaith, people still talk about the role the church played, and it’s now seen as a more inviting space. Wardens and people in the church have found the experience has helped to recentre the church in the community.”
WHILE flooding may be the commonest issue, wildfires are also a growing threat, Mr Walsh says, referring to what happened at St Mary and St Peter, Wennington, in the diocese of Chelmsford, when a wildfire destroyed 19 homes in the village in 2022 (News, 29 July 2022). A heatwave that lasted weeks meant that the fire spread rapidly. Aerial footage showed the burned-out houses, but the church survived, like an oasis, in its charred graveyard.
The Rector of Rainham with Wennington, the Revd Elise Peterson, says: “I have described the day as ‘a perfect storm of horrible things’. It was a traumatic event for all the residents in the village, as everyone was evacuated, and, for most of that day, no one was sure if any of the buildings in the village had survived. It was one of the hottest days on record after an already very dry summer, and all the grass and vegetation around the village was tinder dry.
“Despite valiant efforts by the local residents to fight the initial fire, it quickly took hold and progressed down the village, ultimately destroying 19 homes. From the stories residents have told me, it was chaotic as they did their best to alert their neighbours and encourage them to evacuate. The smoke was so thick no one could really see what was happening, and there were reports that the whole village had burned. I received a number of calls on the day from people certain they’d seen overhead footage showing the church destroyed.”
Although the TV cameras have long since left, the consequences remain. “For those whose homes and all their belongings were destroyed by the fire, the fire was absolutely devastating, and, two and a half years on, very few of those homes have been rebuilt. Some haven’t even been restarted,” Ms Peterson says.
“The impact on their emotional and mental health continues as they deal with all the issues of planning permissions, insurance coverage, and rebuilding. It’s hard to put into words just how difficult this has been for those residents.”
Ms Peterson believes that one of the reasons that the church was spared was that a churchwarden, whose home was destroyed, had cut the churchyard grass just days before. A large area of glebe land behind the church was covered in dry vegetation, however, which created a pathway for the fire to move down the village. The congregation are now more diligent in ensuring that this is kept under control.
The church itself escaped significant harm: insurance covered the smoke damage, and fire cadets helped to clean up the churchyard.
The fire came just as the congregation had recovered from flooding, Ms Peterson recalls: “We had completed repairs from a flood into the church that happened in August 2020, just two weeks before the fire. On the day of the fire, our parish architect rang and said, ‘Well, Elise, you are getting to see both ends of climate change in your short tenure.”
She continues: “People may not think that climate change will affect them personally, and, whilst some may be sceptical that this particular fire was caused by climate change, regardless of what all the contributing factors might have been, the reality is that is has had a significant impact on the whole village. It takes a long time to rebuild after a fire, and the emotional and mental toil it has taken on those whose homes were destroyed is immeasurable.”
Scientists from the World Weather Attribution initiative, connected with Imperial College, London, calculated that the heatwave of 2022 was made ten times more likely by human-caused climate change.
HAVING often to pick up the bill for climate-related damage, insurance firms are some of the businesses most alert to problems caused by global warming. On the international stage, they are often among the most vocal corporate advocates of action to reduce carbon emissions.
A spokesperson for Ecclesiastical, which specialises in insurance for churches, says that the company has noticed a worrying pattern. “One of the most notable trends we’ve seen is severe, sudden downpours leading to water ingress,” he explains. “Often, these are as a result of the existing drains and guttering becoming overwhelmed by increasingly severe deluges, leading to water entering the property and causing substantial damage.
“Local drains can also be overwhelmed, leading to churches being inaccessible, as well as rivers bursting their banks — as with St Michael and All Angels’ Church, in Tirley, Gloucestershire, which can regularly be cut off by rising floodwaters, despite taking practical steps [to protect the building].”
Eleanor RobertshawFlood damage at Snaith
The spokesperson says that, in 2024, there was a record number of named storms, many of which brought high winds that are a danger to church roofs. In 2021, Storm Arwen caused part of Worcester Cathedral’s pinnacle to fall, damaging the roof of the north quire aisle. Storm Eunice, in 2022, caused the spire at St Thomas’s, Wells, to fall (News, 25 February 2022).
Another organisation that knows about the problem facing UK churches is the National Churches Trust, which provides grants to restore and maintain church buildings. Its chief executive, Claire Walker, says that requests for help are increasing.
“During the Covid-19 pandemic, many church repairs had to be delayed, and we saw a drop in applications. But, since 2022, we are now seeing an increase year-on-year in requests for our grants. As a charity, we rely on philanthropic donations to keep churches open and in use. But the demand for our funding is really huge, and, sadly, we are only able to fund one in four churches that apply for our large and medium grants.
“Climate change is having a major impact right here in the UK on our church buildings. Droughts, floods, and storms are increasing in frequency and intensity, and the heavier and more frequent rainfall and stronger winds are causing all sorts of problems for church buildings, which were just not built to withstand such intense weather.”
She explains that it is important to keep buildings wind-tight and waterproof to ensure that church activities aren’t disrupted, and also to keep bills down. “A dry church is much easier to heat than a damp church,” she says.
Ms Walker is supportive of the Church of England’s plans to cut its emissions and reach net zero. She says: “One of the things we ask in our grant applications is how a project contributes to environmental sustainability, or helps to reduce a building’s carbon footprint. This helps to ensure that churches consider environmental sustainability as a central part of any repair work they carry out.
“Making sure that churches become more energy-efficient and use more climate-friendly technologies is an important contribution to the broader national agenda of accelerating the UK to net zero in the coming years.”
This is echoed by Mr McCallion, who says that York Minster is backing the push for net zero through its fourth solar-panel installation, its largest to date: 184 roof-mounted panels.
The Minster has also set up a Centre of Excellence for Heritage Skills and Estate Management, designed to help the sector to respond to these changes. It will have on-site accommodation and a conferencing suite, allowing the cathedral to host overseas heritage professionals and convene training events.
These initiatives are part of a new Neighbourhood Plan, which includes the retrofitting of existing buildings to improve their energy efficiency, the creation of new green spaces for the public and for nature, and the installation of electric-car chargers and improved cycling infrastructure.
Mr McCallion says: “The impacts of climate change are the single biggest threat to the survival of our buildings, and we know how much these buildings mean to the people who work, worship, volunteer, and pray within them.”
For Mr Walsh, there is also an important witness in churches’ helping to reduce carbon emissions. “It’s part of being able to show what the church can do for its community,” he says. “Cutting emissions to net zero is part of that, and crucial to any kind of evangelism to anyone who has even a passing understanding of climate change.”