“The aim is to adapt to changing spending habits, with younger congregants being more and more unlikely to have cash on hand.”

The Church of England is getting ready to accept contactless payments including Apple Pay and Google Pay.

It isn’t a new form of indulgences. As the BBC reports, the aim is to facilitate payments for services like weddings and christenings. It could also ultimately be used for collection services, though such functionality is still being trialed.

The plans are the product of trials conducted by about 40 churches last summer, with the Church now saying that contactless payment support will come to more than 16,000 churches later in the year. The aim is to adapt to changing spending habits, with younger congregants being more and more unlikely to have cash on hand.

The Church of England’s embrace of contactless payments offers a highly symbolic example of the way payments are evolving the world over, and the speed with which this process has been occurring. Two years ago, many would have found the idea of using a smartphone to make a contribution for the collection plate at church laughable; but with platforms like Apple Pay and Google Pay increasingly prominent as payment mechanisms alongside contactless payment cards, one of the most prominent churches in Christendom is now on the cusp of it. Money will always have an important role in church, but its form is changing.

Source: BBC News