Manchester, England - Once the chimes summoned the faithful in their multitudes. Now few heed the call.
Instead, new chimes, the clicks and beeps of the checkout line, prove an irresistible lure to the new religion of shopping. CBS News Correspondent Mark Phillips reports.
Church attendance in Britain has dropped to a low; barely 5 percent of the population are regular churchgoers. So that means that priestly ministering must now be done where the people are, which is in the stores.
Religion has become another product, in a brand new wrapper, to compete with all the rest.
Says the Rev. Edward Gorniak of the Congregationalist Church, "When I come in here, it's as though the package is changing. I'm coming to the people, and I'm showing what Christianity is really all about."
One major American-owned chain in Great Britain now provides regular chaplain service in about two-thirds of its stores. Muslim Imams are also being recruited, and the program is being considered by other chains. For the Church, it's like a gift from heaven.
Says Canon Brian Stevenson of the Church of England, "It's a way of just reminding people what church is about, and there's a need to think of spiritual things as well as food!" He smiles and adds, "And consuming things."
This might seem like a little harmless religious retailing, taking the shepherd to the flock or the mountain to Mohammed. You can choose your religious metaphor. But it's really about saving souls of whatever type, wherever you can find them.
Often the appearance of a man of the cloth at the checkout is welcomed. Sometimes, it's downright hostile.
Like the doorstep Jehovah's Witness at dinnertime or the airport Hare Krishna, the supermarket savior has not been universally welcomed. Some would rather see a priest only at the end of the aisle on their wedding day.
"There is a genuine kind of resentment that they can't go anywhere without religion intruding itself on to people," says Terry Sanderson of the British National Secular Society.
That old-time religion is having to market itself in new ways. And Rev. Gorniak is the latest version of "new and improved, 20 percent more, at the same price"?
Replies the cleric, with a laugh, "I'm afraid so, yes."