The interdenominational Church of the Snows at McMurdo Station in Antarctica lives up to its name.

If hell freezes over in Antarctica this summer, the Catholic Church will not have priests on hand to witness it.

The National Science Foundation, the group behind the US Antarctic Programme, has asked the New Zealand diocese to cut a decades-old link to the ice.

A Protestant chaplain from the US Military and a Catholic priest from Christchurch had been posted at Antarctica for 57 consecutive summers, staying from October until February.

One of the reasons for the withdrawal was a decline in church-going, the diocese said.

Father Dan Doyle, who first went to Antarctica 40 years ago, said attendance at the Chapel of the Snows at McMurdo had been in steady decline, as had the number of residents using the chaplaincy.

There had been a decline in "religiosity" but the continent's summer population had also fallen sharply. This was mainly because the Americans had cut budgets for its scientists and support staff and wanted to reduce their environmental footprint.

The Catholic Church had once offered religious services, personal counselling and support for as many as 2000 men and women stationed at McMurdo and Amundsen-Scott Stations and Scott Base.

The peak population was now about 1200 – a sharp fall from even 10 years ago.

Doyle said the call for religious services at the bases had also changed. When he first went to the ice in the mid 1970s, a ham radio was a vital link to the outside world, whereas now the staff could easily keep in touch by internet and email.

People no longer felt so isolated and the need for services like grief counselling was not so acute, he said.

The diocese had a "sense of sadness" about leaving the ice after so many summers but serving in Antarctica had been a "magnificent experience" for diocese priests.

McMurdo Station would continue to have a military chaplain for inter-denominational religious services and personal support to the population, Doyle said.