A conservative thinktank has called on the bishops of the Church of England to apologise and suggests they should resign en masse for allegedly failing to take responsibility for falling church attendances.
In a pamphlet entitled Called to Account, published to coincide with the enthronement of Rowan Williams as archbishop of Canterbury this week, the social affairs unit claims - using figures largely published by the church itself - that the C of E's leaders have scarcely acknowledged that it is on the road to disaster.
The pamphlet claims the church has lost half its members, children's attendance has collapsed and the only thing expanding is bureaucracy.
It suggests the new archbishop should call for an audit of the state of the church and argues that the drop in attendance is largely due to an alleged espousal of liberalism. It also appears to call for a return to the stigmatisation of illegitimacy and homosexuality.
Digby Anderson, the unit's director, claims: "As late as the 1960s the dominant ideal of marriage in Britain was a Christian one ... Children born out of wedlock were illegitimate. Indissolubility was an ideal of marriage; adultery frowned upon; premarital pregnancy a cause for scandal and often for marriage. One-parent families were few and far between. Homosexuality was both illegal and stigmatised, abortion largely illegal.
"All manner of what were considered perversions and infidelities are now recommended by counsellors as self-affirming. This huge revolution has never been systematically attacked by the C of E. Bishops and other leaders have not been shy of courting publicity for all sorts of political stances but have never in any body taken a firm stance on this betrayal of the essence of Christian morality."