The former Archbishop of Canterbury said that society has been badly damaged by “strident secularism” and urged Christians to be stronger in defence of their faith.

Delivering the Spital sermon, Dr Carey stressed that the Church must become more united in its evangelism and give greater recognition to the success of growing churches.

He urged that bishops needed to pay more attention to the role of strong churches, but said that too many do not understand how to be “missionary bishops”.

“If bishops have not had a decent record as ordinary parish priests how may they truly be leaders in mission? How may they manage growth?”

Speaking at Christ Church Spitalfields, he questioned whether they could understand the pressures placed on clergy today if they have not spent “substantial time at the coal face of ministry and mission”.

He argued that a missionary church must have a majority of bishops who have had proven success in growth, although he said that his successor as Archbishop, Dr Rowan Williams, and the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Tom Wright, were exceptions as they “exercise a significant role as missionary theologians”.

There has been an increasing separation and independence in the growth of networks alongside the structures of the national church, which almost exclude the diocese.

This failure to pull together has worrying implications, Lord Carey commented.

He said that the Church must be strong in its mission if it is to challenge the rise of secularism, but blamed General Synod for failing to support his vision for the Decade of Evangelism.

Over #6 million was raised from wealthy donors to the Lambeth Partnership in setting up Springboard. “Sadly, the Church through General Synod never matched this in any way and thus we never fully grasped the opportunity that the Decade of Evangelism presented,” he said.”

Dr Williams has established a new mission board, Fresh Expressions, but Lord Carey warned this could also fail if it is limited to interest groups or age and culture-specific groups and neglects the regular ministry of the Church on Sundays. Being ‘in thrall’ to the pursuit of novelty is a graver danger than being trapped by the past, he said.

“We Christians have been weak in our defence of the Christian faith in the face of such forms of secularism.”

He said that the weakening of faith had consequentially led to more crime, broken families, the acceptance of cohabitation instead of marriage and less social cohesion. “I am very worried by secular assumptions that undermine the very values that have underpinned our nation.”

Lord Carey’s sermon marked the return of the tradition of The Spital sermon to Christ Church for the first time since its Pulpit Cross was destroyed in the days of Charles I.
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