Carey's church is too preachy, says Runcie

Lord Runcie, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has warned of dangers in the "Preachy Church" which he sees emerging under his successor, Dr George Carey.

Speaking in the last of the BBC Radio 4 programs The Purple, the blue and the red, Lord Runcie said : "The danger of the management Church, and the sort of preachy Church, is that it is able, much more effectively, to address a much narrower constituency."

Lord Runcie's fear that the Church is becoming more distant from the centres of power and debate in England as it becomes better managed and more streamlined is bound to renew the controversy over reforms in the Church.

His remarks echo concerns expressed in the autumn when the Church's General Synod debated the report of a committee chaired by the bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Michael Turnbull, which proposed the establishment of a central committee to govern the Church of England and unite the powers of the General Synod and the two archbishops.

"We are creating a Church which is better organised financially, better governed synodically, better promoted by its enthusiastic and specialist ministries, but actually it is addressing a smaller and smaller constituency," said Lord Runcie.

His interpretation was disputed by a spokesman for the General Synod, who said that it was wrong to speak of a smaller and smaller constituency when Church attendance has been stable for the last five years. "The Church of England remains totally committed to its outward-looking mission to the whole nation. The Church's involvement in evangelism, in social action in deprived urban areas and elsewhere, and in debate about moral issues affecting the whole of society is as strong as ever," the spokesman said.

However, the Bishop of Worcester, the Rt Rev Phillip Goodrich, was more sympathetic to the former Archbishop. "It's a very interesting way of putting the problem," he said. But he thought the reorganisation of the Church was inevitable after the Church Commissioners, who manage its pounds 3bn assets, lost pounds 800m in property speculation land.

"It is all very well Lord Runcie saying this, but the Church which he is really wanting was, of course, based on the fact that it was pretty much provided for by the Church Commissioners," said Bishop Goodrich.

"We are having to be better organised, because after all, our stipendiary clergy are paid for by the laity. All the professions are finding this - everything has to be brought under management teams."