By Victoria Bone
BBC News website
The Bishop of Sherwood takes spreading the word of God to new heights - and depths.
Last year, Right Reverend Tony Porter flew 150 miles from Nottingham to Northumberland in a light aircraft to promote church to the masses.
This time, he has gone underground to take the message of faith to miners.
"They're underground but not invisible," Bishop Porter told the BBC News website. "They deserve to know that God is interested in them."
The bishop took a trip down Welbeck Colliery in Nottinghamshire as part of Back to Church Sunday.
This is a nationwide effort to extend personal invitations to potential new worshippers - and in particular to those who once attended regularly but no longer do.
'Reconnect'
But why miners?
"I grew up in Doncaster and all of my friends' fathers were miners so I've always had a big heart for them," Bishop Porter said.
"Men like them are the reason I can turn on the lights or the radio on in the morning, so in return I think I owe this to them.
"After the strikes in the 1980s, many miners were very disillusioned, they didn't feel valued. I wanted to respond to that.
"As a church we've got to reconnect with these people - ordinary, hard-working people - but we've got to go to them.
"We can't expect them to come to us."
Bishop Porter said he wanted the miners to feel valued by the Church whether or not they chose to turn up on Sunday.
"They were great, they couldn't have been warmer towards me," he said.
"When they'd finished taking the Mickey a bit, they starting coming over one by one to talk about serious things, faith among them.
"If they decide to come on Sunday, great, but the most important thing is that they know we're here for them if they need us. What matters is they think, 'God's people care about me.'"
Bishop Porter said some people might feel nervous about coming to church, so it was important to put them at ease.
"We've got to give people the opportunity to join the party," he said.
"We don't want to change the Gospel of course, but it's 2008, we've got to deliver the message with some warmth, some humour."
"I think of it like this. In three weeks my daughter is getting married and lots of people will be there. But they wouldn't be there if we hadn't invited them.
"It's like if someone told me to go to a betting shop. I wouldn't have a clue what to. But if someone took me with them, showed me the ropes, it would be easier."
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