LONDON — The Church of England is considering installing cash-dispensing machines in rural churches to help fill the gap left by bank closures, a newspaper reported on Sunday.
Senior church officials hope the plan will restore churches to their medieval status as the center of communities and fill the vacuum left by the closure of post offices and bank branches around the country, the Sunday Telegraph said.
The Right Reverend Graham James, Bishop of Norwich, said he came up with the idea for installing automatic teller machines in naves and church halls after talking to bank executives about dwindling banking services in rural areas.
"There is nothing wrong with money per se. After all, we make collections during services," James told the Sunday Telegraph. "It is the way money is used that is moral or immoral."
But the idea has provoked horror among traditionalists, who reminded those in favor of it that the Bible tells of how Jesus threw money lenders out of the temple.
Lord St. John of Fawsley, a former Conservative minister and chairman of the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust, said his trust would lodge a formal objection if the plan went ahead.
"It is an appalling idea, madness," he told the newspaper. "The interiors of churches are sacred places. I don't mind them being used for appropriate events such as concerts, but certainly not cash machines."