Cash fears prompt return to faith

The Bishop's diocese covers a wide area of the West Midlands

More people have faith in the resurrection than the stock market, the Bishop of Lichfield has said.

In his Easter speech, the Bishop said there was "a kind of longing in the air for a return to real Christianity".

The "financial crisis" was encouraging more Christians to go back to religion, the Rt Rev Jonathan Gledhill said.

England was no longer as secular as it used to be, as financial problems prompted people to rediscover their faith, the Bishop went on.

Secular world

"With a new financial crisis in our nation, the bubble of borrowing on the never never collapsing, people are coming to their senses," he added.

"The brave new secular world where everyone is meant to have choices has proved unworkable without values that come from somewhere."

Mr Gledhill said devout worshippers of other prominent faiths in modern Britain had encouraged Christians to "dust down our own Christian faith".

He said: "I think there's a kind of longing in the air in our country for a return to real Christianity, for people to rediscover how much they are loved by God and how much He wants to set us free to be the kind of people He made us to be."

The Lichfield diocese covers Staffordshire, most of Shropshire and part of the Black Country and West Midlands.