Christianity at risk of dying out in a generation, warns Lord Carey He called for an ambitious campaign aimed at the "re-evangelisation of England," on a par with the ministry of the northern saints such as Cuthbert, Hilda and Aidan who spread Christianity in Anglo-Saxon times. The Synod responded by voting to set up a committee. Lord Carey's warning came as he addressed the Shropshire Light Conference at Holy Trinity Church in Shrewsbury at the weekend discussing how the church could be "re-imagined." The former Archbishop said while the church is doing much important work, it faces an existential challenge. In many parts of Britain churches are struggling, some priests are diffident and lack confidence; a feeling of defeat is around. The burden seems heavy and joy in ministry has been replaced by a feeling of heaviness. He said that the reaction from the public was not so much hostile as dismissive. The viewpoint could be expressed in a variety of non -verbal ways: the shrug of indifference, the rolled eyes of embarrassment, the yawn of boredom. So many people do not see the average church as a place where great things happen. "To sit in a cold church looking at the back of other peoples" heads is surely not the best place to meet exciting people and to hear prophetic words." He added: "It is still the case that people are essentially looking for spiritual fulfilment. He warned against relying on "more gimmicks" to revive the Church's fortunes adding: "The most urgent and worrying gap is in young peoples work. So many churches have no ministry to young people and that means they have no interest in the future. As I have repeated many times in the past we are one generation away from extinction. We have to give cogent reasons to young people why the Christian faith is relevant to them. His comments came as a report was laid before the Church England's General Synod warning that plunging congregations now threaten its ability to "sustain a nationwide presence." Typical Sunday congregations have almost halved since 1970 to just 807,000 in the most recent figures. Archbishop Sentamu told the Synod: "Compared with evangelism everything else is like rearranging furniture when the house is on fire. Tragically too often that is what we are doing - reorganising the structures, arguing over words and phrases, while the people of England are left floundering amid meaningless anxiety and despair.