AN East Lancashire Methodist church has been re-built stone by stone in Japan - to be used as a wedding chapel!

In a bizarre twist the massive stone-built Higherford Methodist Church will be reopened in the autumn in a suburb of Tokyo.

The chapel, dismantled in 1991 to make way for a modern church, has been bought in a £200,000 plus deal by a top Japanese businessman.

When Keiji Takeuchi, the president of Japan's Sun Life Corporation, heard about the traditional Victorian chapel he was determined to buy it.

And in a complex deal involving Martin Rice, of Tadcaster firm European Connections Ltd, he shipped the entire chapel stone by stone to Tokyo.

Now the chapel has been resurrected in Hachioji, a suburb of Tokyo, and is set to be a wedding chapel.

The Rev Alan Fretwell, current minister at Higherford Methodist Church, could not believe it when he heard the news. "Are you sure?" he asked. "I'm really very surprised. It's quite a strange story isn't it?

"It was just a pile of stones. It's the people who are the Church, not the building. But there are people who were attached to the old building and they were sorry to see it demolished." Christian weddings are all the rage in Japan at the moment taking over from the traditional Shinto religion.

It is expected that the chapel will host between 500 and 600 weddings a year.

The appeal of the chapel has been vastly increased by the fact that it will be the first genuine English church building to be built in Japan since the craze started.

All the current wedding chapels are replicas built by the Japanese.

Mr Takeuchi and his son, Keisuke, met Pendle MP Gordon Prentice at the Commons yesterday to express their thanks for the arrival of the chapel in Japan and also to say they hope to see a flood of Japanese tourists into East Lancashire.

Mr Takeuchi said he had always been a big fan of Britain. And when he discovered that the chapel was available he was determined to rebuild it next to his hotel.

He said: "It is a lovely chapel. I have always been a fan of England.

"I am delighted to have this chapel next to my hotel in Tokyo. Every married couple who comes through it will want to know where it has come from.

"We will tell them that it has come from Lancashire and will encourage them to go and visit there."

Mr Prentice said: "I am delighted by the deal. This is not a listed building. It had been demolished by the Methodist church and they were paid for the building.

"There is a new church and new housing there. The Methodist church is happy, the Japanese are happy. I am delighted that this church from my constituency will have a new life in Japan."

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