A Christian, a Muslim, a Jew and a Hindu have come together to develop a free service for places of worship who are looking to reopen for public gatherings.

Prayin.io has been created to allow churches, temples, synagogues and mosques to implement a booking system as they look to ensure they keep to their capacities which have been reduced because of social distancing measures.

Places of worship can register then create 'events' in just one minute allowing members to sign up to say they're attending a particular service.

Explaining the thinking behind the project to Premier, developer Patrick Dobinson said: "We were all furloughed, so we thought, we've got the time to do something. 

"We're actually all from totally different backgrounds and religions so we've tried to make it as inclusive as possible so that any place of worship can use it and it's totally free for everyone to use."

The site already has dozens of places of worship signed up and it's hoped that the booking system will aid them as they plan to reopen for services.

Dobinson worked with local churches to see what they wanted from the site.

"For me it was a project to help my local churches," he said. "From speaking to them, they were blown away by it. They loved it and it fit perfectly for what they needed. From seeing that we really saw that there was a need for it."

The additional benefit of the booking system is that it allows places of worship to adhere to new government guidelines on track and trace in light of coronavirus.

"If there's been a service which was taking place and someone tests positive for the virus, and they alert the church - the church will have a list of all the attendees and they can very easily alert track and trace and can get in contact with everyone else to alert them to the issue."

Despite starting from scratch. Prayin.io is already getting new sign ups every day and hopes to be able to serve hundreds of places of worship in the coming weeks.