July 3 - Church services need to be shorter, says bishop

"One of the reasons for our recent decline in churchgoing is we are not making the occasional worshipper feel welcome," he said. "You have got to be quite tough to come to some of our services if you are not a regular attender.

He said services, which used to last for 50 minutes are now taking an hour and a half, adding: "Sometimes I find myself thinking that this is a good way of saying 'Go away' to young people who come to visit us." The bishop said that clergy need to make sure that their sermons are not too long, arguing that people's "attention spans aren't what they used to be".

He said that an added problem was that many churches are now holding Holy Communion services, which can last for as long as two hours. "Holy Communion is very important, but you need a lot of stamina to get through these. If you're trying to attract newcomers, these services need to be much shorter. We are excluding people who we should be welcoming."

Last year the Vatican last year told Catholic clergy to keep their sermons under eight minutes to cater for people who found it hard to concentrate for long periods.