Churches should open their doors to provide a safe haven for young people at risk of knife crime during after-school flashpoints, the Church of England’s governing body will be told next month.

Rosemarie Mallett, a vicar in Angell Town, Brixton, south London, will urge churches to offer themselves as sanctuaries, both for young people in need of a quiet, safe place and those urgently fleeing violent attacks.

“In every place where there is a problem of serious youth violence, there is a church. Too often the doors are shut,” said Mallett, setting out her proposals before next month’s General Synod in York. “Is there a way that churches can be open, particularly between the hours of 3pm and 6pm, to be places of safety, of welcome, where young people can go?”

She said Angell Town, where she has been vicar for 12 years, was “an area blighted by serious youth violence. Certainly my time there has been punctuated by too many deaths, too many young people. I’ve been involved in too many funerals.”

But knife crime was not just a problem for inner cities, she added. Gang-related “county line” activity meant serious youth violence had spread. “It’s become a national problem.”

In 2018 there were 40,000 knife crime offences in the UK, “the highest number since any kind of data was collected,” said Mallett.

Churches should become part of a nexus of support along with other community groups and agencies, she said. Knife amnesty bins could be situated in churches, where young people might feel more inclined to take weapons than police stations.

The C of E, which is the second largest provider of state education in the country, should monitor exclusions and develop strategies to minimise their number, Mallett said. There was a proven link between school exclusions, young people being sent to pupil referral units, and becoming involved in serious violence, she said.

Training and resources should be provided to clergy and church leaders to increase awareness of the signs of vulnerability to gang exploitation.

Mallett said youth provision in her area had been hit by government funding cuts, but she stressed that the church did not play the same role as the state. Young people came to her church “to use the space to have quiet time, to think about the situation they find themselves in.”

At next month’s five-day synod session, members will also hear C of E plans to invest up to £63m to train the increasing number of people applying to become priests.

In the past two years there has been a 23% increase in people training for ordination. David Walker, the bishop of Manchester, said in his diocese there had been particular growth in female and minority ethnic candidates for the priesthood.

“The growth will help us deal with the demographic challenge of many existing clergy coming to retirement. It won’t necessarily mean a net increase in the number of stipendiary clergy, but it will stem the decline,” he said.