A burial plan was among documents from a safe stolen during a church break-in – made after a wooden cross was carefully moved to prevent it from being damaged.

A volunteer minister at the Chapel and School Room Church, in Woodham Ferrers, near Chelmsford, said the loss of the plan would make “the funeral” difficult.

During the break-in at the weekend, thieves broke into the sacristy before ripping out a “very old safe”.

Eric Fenwick, who has been a volunteer minister at the church for 25 years, said: “It’s really upsetting – it’s like someone invading your personal space at home.”

He added: “Maybe they thought we had a silver chalice and plate there, but we don’t, so I can only think that the people who did it are not very bright.”

The safe taken had “significant” funeral and marriage records, certificates for the burial of ashes, baptismal records and a small money box with “about £20 in it”.

The burial document helped the church decide where to lay someone to rest.

Mr Fenwick added: “There are a number of vacant lots but not a lot of them so it’s something we really need to be aware of – it’s more difficult to do burials.

“But one interesting thing is that there was a wooden cross on a small cabinet and it was very carefully removed from the other side of the room.

“So whether the people who did it have some kind of Christian history or not, I don’t know, but there was a reason to move it while they did what they did.”

Essex Police appealed for information about the burglary, which took place on Main Road between 12:00 GMT on November 9 and 08:00 GMT on November 11.

A spokesman said there was a “messy” search before the safe was taken.