New contactless collection plates have been used in York Minster for the first time as the Church of England General Synod met for a Sunday service delivered by both the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop of York.

At the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of St Peter in York, better known as York Minster, four bronze digital plates were offered to the congregation before, during and after the morning worship, attended by hundreds.

It offered the congregation the opportunity to give to the Church in denominations of £5 and £10 by contactless card donations, alongside their typical offerings of cash.

The official launch of the plates, designed in bronze metal to resemble traditional offertory, follows a wider roll out of contactless payments across English at special events such as weddings and Christenings, which has led to 97 percent more donations.

Similar technology has also increased charitable revenue at institutions like the Natural History Museum in London.

During the Sunday morning worship, the Archbishop of York John Sentamu delivered his final General Synod Service before his retirement next year.

Ahead of the blessing, Dr Sentamu encouraged a prayer ahead of the IICSA hearings this week and offered a thought for any survivors of abuse.

He was joined by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby who returned to the five-day meeting of the C of E in York following the Royal Christening in Windsor on Saturday.

In his seminal sermon, Mr Welby encouraged members of the York congregations and the General Synod to recognise a crisis of division, highlighting the assualt of a lesbian couple on a London bus last month.

“We appear to be stuck in our divisions,” he said.

“The passion of different positions is good, to express it is the privilege of democracy, a hard won, wonderful privilege that we enjoy, but the hatred we have seen is not good, especially directed at minorities, other faiths, at a couple of women who love each other on a bus, at a bus driver who looks Muslim, and wasn’t, at people walking in the streets, at synagogues, at foreigners and people who even ‘look like foreigners’”.