The Church in Wales will spend £10m trying to “breathe new life” into its churches.
In the wake of dwindling numbers, the Evangelism Fund will fund “ambitious projects” to get more people engaging with churches.
Between 1996 and 2016 the number of signed-up Church in Wales members dropped from 91,247 to 45,759.
Now, grants of between £250,000 and £3m will be available for new projects.
Ideas include getting people from different age groups into churches, creating new forms of ‘church’ to appeal to people not currently going, and teaching and learning projects. They will focus on people rather than buildings, the church said.
Bishop of Bangor Andy John is a member of the fund’s committee, said: “This is an incredibly exciting opportunity for the whole church and will enable us to think big and change our culture.
“For too long, churches have been hampered in their outreach because the money simply hasn’t been there or it has all gone into propping up buildings. This is now our chance to act on imaginative ideas for growth, centred around people, not property.”
The Archbishop of Wales John Davies said: “We are putting our money where our mouth is. We have long talked about growing the church and now we want to invest in projects across the country to enable that to happen.
“It is a radical answer to the decline we are experiencing in many places, and £10m is a transforming amount. I am looking forward to seeing some really creative and inspiring projects that will breathe new life into some of our churches and into our mission in Wales.”
James Turner, chair of the Representative Body said: “This is about investing in the future of the Church. The Bishops have made evangelism and church growth their very clear priority and we are delighted to be able to respond to that by creating this substantial fund.”
The committee overseeing the Fund is chaired by Jane Heard, an accountant and member of the Representative Body, who said the money would be carefully spent: “We are keen to give grants to effective, well-constructed projects and to ensure the church’s money is well spent.
“We will be looking for ideas, for example, that create growth among people in age groups under-represented in our churches, create new forms of ‘church’ to appeal to people not currently going, and projects which lead to changes in culture or provide teaching and learning in faith all over Wales.”
All the bids submitted will be professionally put together and will include the cost of employing a project manager.
Launching the fund, the church said in a statement: “The Church in Wales is launching its first ever Evangelism Fund to engage Welsh society with the claims of the Christian faith in vibrant and exciting ways.”
The money for the fund is being released from Church’s investments which are overseen by its Representative Body.
How many go to church in Wales?
More than 10 churches a year are closing in Wales.
Data from the Church in Wales last year revealed 115 Anglican churches have closed over a 10-year period, with 1,319 still in use.
The National Churches Trust said the rate of closures in Wales was relatively higher than England, given relative population size, where about 20 close each year.
The last census revealed Wales had the highest number of people with no religion in the UK.
Nearly one third of people in Wales have no religion, according to census data.
A total of 58% (1.8m) give Christianity as their belief in the 2011 census data, a 14% drop since 2001, a larger fall than any English region. A total of 32% in Wales said they had no religion.
