Pick your prayer: Converted photo booth with 300 pre-recorded blessings in 65 languages offers worshippers a place to say 'Amen'

Christians, Buddhists and Scientologists can now worship in the same place

People scroll through a touch-screen menu before selecting a blessing

The 'Pray-o-mat' has opened in the University of Manchester

Instead of waiting for a service at a local church or temple, worshippers can now pop into a 'Pray-o-mat' and pick up a blessing.

Believers can follow their faiths in a whole new frame of mind by saying their prayers in this 'church' made from an old photo booth.

Instead of paying £5 for a set of four passport snaps, people can now use the touch screen inside the converted booth to listen to up 300 pre-recorded prayers and incantations in 65 different languages.

Scroll down to hear some of the prayers



Prayers on the go: Created by German artist Oliver Sturm, the specially converted photo booth gives Manchester's citizens somewhere to pray

Pick up a prayer: A 'church' has been installed on the grounds of The University of Manchester, home of a large, three-year research project on multi-faith spaces

As well as the Lords Prayer, there are Buddhist and Islamic benedictions; Aborigine devotional songs,Voodoo blessings and s olemn chanting of an orthodox Jewish congregation.



Even Tom Cruise is catered for, with five minutes of Scientology prayers included too in the booth.



Users will step into the booth named the 'Pray-o-mat', scroll through a menu and make the selection on the touch-screen - before donating money in a nearby slot.

It has opened at the University in Manchester as part of a £500,000 three year research project into prayer rooms and 'multi faith spaces' across the world.

Dr Ralf Brand, Senior Lecturer in Architectural Studies at the University's Manchester Architecture Research Centre who is leading the project said: 'Though the Pray-o-mat is a bit tongue-in-cheek, there is a serious message to what we're doing.

'Successful multi-faith spaces do not need to be flashy or expensive.



Pray-o-mat: The project is described as being 'tongue in cheek' but has a serious message and will allow people of different faiths to worship in the same place



'In many places a small, clean and largely unadorned space can serve adequately.'

The conversion of the German 'Gebetomat' into an English 'Pray-o-mat' was partly supported by the Goethe-Institut, London and was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Created by German artist Oliver Sturm, the booth is free to use and offers prayers via a touch screen - after Sturm collected them mainly from radio archives including a recording of missionaries singing church songs in 1903 .

The university research team have visited almost 250 multi-faith spaces in the UK and abroad including those at airports, universities, hospitals and shopping malls.

Rearchers say multi faith spaces are presently viewed in Britain as 'tangible manifestations of tolerance and pluralism, within a socio-religious landscape characterised by a certain degree of fragmentation.'

After choosing a blessing, people can then pick up a snack at the vending machine next to the Pray-o-mat in the University of Manchester

They saw charting the emergence and scope of the spaces has been difficult because many are concealed from public view, the team estimate over 1,500 exist in the UK.

They are hoping to investigate the multi faith spaces in terms of architecture, how they might be built and whether they can be places of historical interest.

Researcher Dr Chris Hewson said: 'It is clear that a universal, off-the-shelf space can never adequately serve locally specific purposes.

'While multi faith spaces - and multi-faith issues in general - have received attention from a theological perspective, less is known around practical themes, such as design, architecture and ornamentation. '