Millionaire businessman and philanthropist Samuel Leeds is on a mission to preserve U.K. churches that are being put up for sale and repurposed: “When something was built as a church to honor God, it cannot end up being something else,” he said.
His story made headlines in much of the British press in 2023 when, at age 25, he had amassed a fortune in the real estate market. After founding his first investment firm, he now gives educational talks on investing and is the author of several bestsellers.
The Christian businessman informed his hundreds of thousands of social media followers last week that he was willing to buy churches in the U.K. that were up for sale before they were demolished or sold to investors to be converted for other uses.
“If a building was built for God and for the work of generations, it shouldn’t be sold for profit,” he stressed in one of his Instagram posts.
In his view, the U.K. is experiencing “a revival of faith among younger generations,” emphasizing that “we need our historic churches of Great Britain open.”
“I am proud of the rich history of the U.K.’s churches and I want to transform our streets, minister to the poor, and build a better country with the church at its heart,” he said, insisting that England “needs open churches” and that his plan is to preserve them because “we need them alive.”
In one of his most recent posts, he mentioned that on March 11 he made a 225,000-pound (about $300,540) offer for a Methodist church in Darlaston.
He also said he will buy churches that have already been converted into businesses such as shops, restaurants, or shopping centers to return them to their original purpose. “We need places to worship God,” he emphasized.
Despite the demolition of numerous churches in the U.K. in recent years due to lack of funding, the Catholic Church in London recently recorded its highest number of Easter converts since 2011.
In a statement, the Archdiocese of Westminster indicated that the 2026 group is the “fourth largest since diocesan records began in 1993 and the highest level of participation in 15 years.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.