The Church of England has dropped a centuries-old requirement for all churches to hold weekly Sunday services.

Its general synod, meeting in London this week, formally approved a change to canon law to relax the requirement for morning and evening prayer in every parish church every Sunday.

The change, which will also apply to services of Holy Communion, will mainly affect parishes with small and declining congregations in rural areas.

Most rural priests have multiple benefices, with some in charge of up to 20 churches, but were required to maintain regular services even if only a handful of worshippers turned up.

The synod voted overwhelmingly in favour of of the change. Instead of Sunday services in “every parish church”, the rule will now say “morning and evening prayer shall be said or sung in at least one church in each benefice”.

It adds: “Each service shall be said or sung distinctly, reverently, and in an audible voice.”

Pete Broadbent, the bishop of Willesden, who leads a task group simplifying and modernising the rules governing daily church life, said the move was intended to bring canon law in line with practice.

“At the moment if you have 12 parishes you need a special dispensation [from the bishop] not to hold morning and evening prayers in every church,” he said. The change would make “honest people” of clergy, who were already flouting the technicality of the law.

“People can’t look after loads of parishes, but [canon] law doesn’t recognise that reality.”

In 1960, only 17% of churches were in multi-parish groups, but by 2011 the proportion had swollen to 71%, clustered in rural areas, according to C of E data.

Some dioceses covering rural areas where there are shortages of priests are looking at ways to increase the role of lay members in services.

The legal change was unanimously supported by bishops and clergy. Among lay members of the synod, two people voted against it and one abstained. It will now be sent to the Queen for royal assent.

A C of E spokesperson said: “Sunday worship continues to be central to the Church of England’s ministry. The recent adaptation is designed to make it easier for multi-church parishes who rotate services between a group of churches.

“This is often already the case in rural parishes where it is impractical to hold weekly services in every church. This reflects the movement over the past 200 years of people from the country to cities.

“The Church of England now has a great variety of services throughout the week, with midweek services increasing in popularity.”