THE Bishop of Burnley Philip North has stepped up his campaign for the Church of England to launch a mission to help deprived housing estates on the outskirts of towns

In February 2016 he told its General Synod Anglican clergy must ‘rediscover’ their passion for deprived neighbourhoods often built by councils after the Second World War such as East Lancashire’s Stoops and Shadsworth estates.

This week the Rt Rev North and his Diocese of Blackburn colleague and Bishop of Lancaster Dr Jill Duff spoke at a major conference on establishing new churches..

He said: "Recently the General Synod of The Church of England voted unanimously to establish a Christian presence on every single significantly-sized social housing estate in the country.

“That was a massive moment because we were committing ourselves publicly to renew the church, starting on the edges in our most deprived communities and amongst the poor.

“If we are going to achieve that goal church planting is absolutely essential so I am looking forward to being at the conference and reflecting together on how we can plant onto our social housing estates.”

The Rt Rev Duff said: "For me church planting is a way God seems to be using increasingly across our nation, for people to encounter Jesus."