More and more of England's historic parish churches are to become home for telecommunications antennae as phone companies set up the third-generation mobile phone network which allows internet access.
One in four of the Church of England's 16,000 parishes have expressed interest in hosting masts or aerials on church spires for the line-of-sight network needed for the mobile phones.
Well-publicized, although disputed, safety fears have not dampened the enthusiasm of many churches, although some parishes are likely to be disappointed as church leaders adopt a cautious approach to radiation risks.
The Church of England's Archbishops' Council has received an initial 4,353 positive replies from churches interested in hosting mobile phone antennae, in contrast to 228 negative responses. The council now expects many churches to take part.
Some medieval cathedrals and churches already have antennae for the present, second-generation mobile phone network, but William Beaver, a spokesman for the Archbishops' Council, said they numbered "hundreds rather than thousands."
Churches have a powerful financial incentive to install antenna. Annual rental paid to parishes by telecoms companies may be 7000 to 8000 pounds sterling ($10 5000-12,000), according to Father Beaver. "It can make the difference between maintenance and mission," he told ENI.
The Archbishops' Council is a co-ordinating body for the Church of England headed by the church's two most senior prelates, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York. It is inviting licensed third-generation telecommunications operators to tender for "approved status" to work with individual parishes, requiring a commitment to the Church of England's standards of conservation, access, environment and health and safety.
Beaver explained that conservation needs would vary from church to church. Work had to be sensitive to the character of ancient buildings. "Cabling will often be hidden, for example. The work might also involve the diocesan archivist because you might be digging into something you shouldn't."
He criticized the British government for failing to convince the public that telecommunications masts were safe. "With conflicting reports, people don't know what to think. But there are always conflicting reports. Years ago I could have found a report arguing that refrigerators were unsafe!"
He stressed, however, that the church would follow a precautionary approach to health and safety. "How close to housing is one of the issues. We're not too worried about the dead people [in the churchyard]."
Father Beaver said the decision on whether to host the antennae would be made by parochial church councils, although the diocese would have the final say.
The Church of England's approach is broadly supported by the pressure group Mast Action U.K., although joint co-ordinator Julie Matthew suggested that many churches would fail to clear the safety hurdle.
She told ENI: "We accept that the mobile phone network is here to stay, and we want a sensible location of transmitters. It's all right if a building is well enough away from housing and tall enough.
"The problem for churches is that the majority are in the middle of towns and villages, and many are next to schools."
She said Mast Action U.K. had contacted the Church of England's Telecommunications Working Party after learning of two cases where church plans to install antennae were causing friction with the local community. Mast Action and the working party had since been co-operating. (Mast Action, which is affiliated with Friends of the Earth and has links to Greenpeace, tries to secure legislative and regulatory assurances that all vulnerable groups will be protected from possible health and environment risks by transmitters.)
For Tim Parker, the Church of Scotland's specialist on mobile phone networks, the issue is less about where antennae are sited than about the strength of the signal being put out.
The Presbyterian Church, which is the established church in Scotland, has more than 1,500 congregations. Between 24 and 30 churches are understood to host telecommunications antennae at the moment, but more applications are expected as the third-generation network gets underway.
Parker, who is deputy secretary of the church's general trustees, told ENI: "Any application from a telecoms company must be made through our department. We will process it if the presbytery [district] and local congregation supports it.
"The strength of the proposed transmission is what matters. We will carefully monitor the situation, and that takes time. It's quite likely that in many cases the telecoms company will go to another building where they can get a quicker decision."
The issue of safety and possible harmful effects of the antennae continues to cause debate and controversy. The authoritative Stewart Report, published in Britain in May last year and accepted by the British government, said: "There is some preliminary evidence that outputs from mobile phone technologies may cause, in some cases, subtle biological effects although, importantly, these do not necessarily mean that health is affected."
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It said there was no general risk to the health of people living near the cell network transmitters because radiation exposures were expected to be a small fraction of the guideline figures, although "there can be indirect adverse effects on their wellbeing in some cases."
Scientists have taken this to mean that children and old people in particular are exposed to added risk of cancer and other diseases.
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