Congregants who are feeling a shiver – and not just from the Holy Spirit – will be encouraged to wrap up with blankets in church, to save money and energy.

Heated pews are also being brought in as an alternative to central heating in vacuous church buildings.

“The mantra now is: heat the people not the space,” Rev Giles Goddard of St John’s, Waterloo, told The Times.

“You can’t warm up a 13th-century building for an hour and a half a week — it’s just not worth it."

St John’s is one of the CofE’s “pioneer churches”, adopting measures to reduce their carbon emissions as part of its net zero strategy.

Baddesley Clinton, a Grade II listed medieval chapel in Warwickshire, is opting for electrically heated pews, which can be switched on just half an hour before the service. Worshippers can warm their fingers on the benches, helping elderly congregants turn the pages in hymn books more easily. The total cost was £3,780.

The church’s previous heating system had to be switched on three hours in advance.

Another method is heated seating, which can switch off when weight is removed.

Warming people, not space, is working at St Peter’s in Chester, which has adopted under-seat heating.

“People are feeling much warmer, more welcomed, and much more engaged,” said Rev David Page.