The Church in Brighton and Hove is set to be overhauled to meet the needs of the new city.

Church leaders have formed a review panel, chaired by former city council chief executive Glynn Jones, to look at a major reorganisation of how it operates.

In a letter read out to all congregations in the city yesterday, the new Bishop of Chichester, the Right Rev John Hind, said the group was likely to recommend changes which might be hard for some to accept.

He said: "City status raises new possibilities and challenges and many people have expressed to me the need of the Church to revise its own structures in order to meet them. The history of the parishes in the area and their present situation means few of these questions will be easily resolved.

"Nevertheless, it is essential that rationally well-founded plans be made for the future if we are to make the most of the resources we have for mission and ministry in the area. That this will involve some changes, some of which may be difficult, is unavoidable."

The Bishop described Brighton and Hove as a special area within Sussex.

He said the city was not being singled out for attention but it did have significant influence over parishes in the rest of the Chichester diocese.

Consultants will be drafted in to help examine all aspects of the church, from its finances and buildings to pastoral care.

In a joint statement, panel members of the rural deans of Brighton and Hove, Canon Douglas McKittrick and Reverend Chris Terry, said: "This review does not mean a number of our churches will be closing tomorrow but it does give us the great opportunity to look at different styles of ministry in the context of increasing financial burdens being placed on congregations."

Mr Terry said the St Patrick's night shelter in Hove was one of the many positive ways the church was already involved in the community and could be extended.

The Bishop has suspended the appointment of new clergy to empty positions in the city during the review, which could last up to two years.

Instead parishes will have a stand-in priest-in-charge or will be looked after by clergy from another church.