The Church gives its blessing to the contactless collection plate

Church collection plates are going contactless as the Church of England targets christening and wedding parties.

As of today, the Cofe is making portable card readers available to more than 16,000 churches, cathedrals and religious sites with the aim of making donations and transactions faster and easier for congregations.

The readers can take contactless payments, Apple Pay and Google Pay, as well as chip and pin transactions.

Each reader, whose technology is run by the London-based fintech company Sumup, needs a “merchant”, most likely a church worker, to input each transaction, and a probable scenario will see members of the congregation walking past a manned device as they enter or leave a service.

The readers, which were tested during a trial involving 40 churches last year, are capable of supporting 500 transactions without recharging.

The Church said it had been looking at how to update how congregations make donations, to a total of around £580 million every year. It has also been investigating how to offer payment options to visitors at weddings, funerals, christenings, church fetes and concerts.

John Preston, national stewardship officer at the Church of England, said: “We want all generations to make the most of their place of worship.”