Open for Prayer & Visitors, proclaims a notice outside the Roman Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity and St George at New Road, Kendal.

Though they range from simple chapels and meeting rooms to sprawling edifices like Kendal’s Parish Church, the most valuable function of any ecclesiastical building is to be a House of Prayer.

Once they get through the doors, even ‘non-religious’ people may experience an unworldly feeling, which can be deemed to be ‘spiritual’. Yet those very doors are often locked.

More people go to church on Sundays than go to football matches on Saturdays. But if churches are closed, except for an hour or two on Sundays, worship will seem to be reserved for a minority of ‘holy folk’ because everyone else is literally shut out.

If, however, visitors are allowed inside at non-worship times, a glance at the notice boards would reveal a menu of services, ranging from choral Eucharists based on ancient rites to ‘messy church’ gatherings for teenagers, where not a dog collar will be in sight.

Leaflets just inside the doors will demonstrate the Church’s role of serving everybody, of all ages and backgrounds.

Above all, no-one has to be religious to be served by a church - let alone to enter it. Hence, ‘locked up’ equals ‘locked-out’ and mocks the church’s mission of ‘outreach’.

Locked churches also fail to promote our heritage, which underpins our culture and, locally, the tourist trade.

Externally, many churches are architectural beacons. The swivelled round top tier of Cartmel Priory’s tower is unique; Ambleside’s steeple was replicated by that of New Zealand’s Christchurch Cathedral, while Milnthorpe’s St Thomas’ church presides (according to poet Norman Nicholson) over the market Square like a strict governess.

Frequently, our churches reveal that, historically, ours is one of Christendom’s most enduring areas. Kirkby Thore church contains Roman remains; Heversham has an Anglo-Saxon cross shaft, Burton a Viking sculpture while Beetham Church Tower may be 1,000 years old. Kirkby Lonsdale’s Norman pillars seem almost as massive as those in Durham Cathedral while Preston Patrick’s Church boasts a fourteenth century carving of a devilish ‘Green Man’.

Lesser gems abound like Beetham's Christmas Crib made by German Prisoners of War, Georgian marble paving at Ings and delightful pre-Raphaelite glass at Staveley and Troutbeck.

Newer trends are revealed in the striking late twentieth structures of Parr Street Evangelical Church in Kendal. Some churches like St. Thomas’, Kendal, seem always to display an invigorating bustle around them. On the other hand, Kendal’s Unitarian Chapel and the United Reform Church’s Zion Chapel, approached through ginnels, are havens of peace.

All the churches I’ve mentioned are often open at non-service times. As Milnthorpe Methodist Church’s ‘Welcome’ sign asserts, they are, openly, ‘working for God and the Community’. But, if they were closed, local people and visitors alike would be spiritually and culturally the poorer.

The targeting of many churches by metal thieves and vandals has inevitably alarmed congregations. Yet, I understand, except in the most vulnerable (but not necessarily the most isolated) areas, insurers and the National Churches Trust contend that open churches can be safer.

If the doors are unlocked potential thieves may fear their activities will be observed and will, therefore, slink away. Thus, I believe that more churches should be unlocked so that we can value and enjoy them.

Roger Bingham