The credit crunch is having one unexpected side-effect: the floating church at Canary Wharf, East London, has added an extra lunchtime service to cope with demand from worshippers seeking respite from market gloom.

Nestled in a dock at West India Quay, under the shadow of the Credit Suisse building, St Peter's Anglican church has increased the number of services from two to three, with upwards of 150 people attending.

Bibles and BlackBerrys may not be not an obvious combination but Jeremy Marshall, chief executive officer of private banking at Credit Suisse, who often takes the service, thinks the growing congregation may have something to do with the credit crunch.

“When times get tougher people think more about why they are here and they may ask themselves if there is more to life than making money,” he said. The streamlined services skip the hymns. “We stick to half an hour because many of our congregation have quite significant time constraints,” Mr Marshall explained.

St Peter's was founded six years ago by City Christians looking for somewhere to worship in their lunch break. A former Dutch freight barge, it was renovated and moved to London in 2003. John Percival, the associate Pastor, welcomes the newcomers: “We are always getting new faces in the congregation, though we have lost a few to redundancies recently.”

He is one of three full-time staff employed by the church, which relies on donations to meet its annual costs of £180,000. “Staff and British Waterways rent are our biggest expenses; fortunately some of our members are very generous with their donations.”

And for those who cannot spare even 30 minutes? Sermons can be downloaded in MP3 format from the church's website.

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