The Archbishop of York has warned that the Church of England is failing in its duty to spread the message of Christ because it is preoccupied by issues like the ordination of homosexual priests.

The Church has been engaged in "endless debates" about matters which had little to do with the Christian faith, Dr John Sentamu noted.

He further commented that there had been a "corporate failure" in the Church, and that Britain was in danger of falling into a culture of "illiberal secularism", which was producing a "very cynical" culture.

"The Church has not been very good at clearly spelling out what the message of Jesus is about," he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"We have been indulging into a lot of debates which I don't think really have much to do sometimes with the Christian faith."

Meanwhile, Dr Sentamu denied his comments were intended as a criticism of the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

However, he acknowledged that one of his concerns was the debate over whether to ordain homosexual priests and bishops, which is threatening to split the worldwide Anglican Communion.

"It is a corporate failure of the Church, not actually doing the ministry of Jesus Christ out in the world. All of us as members of the body of Christ need to do more," he said.

"What we should be about is telling people that God in Jesus has come in a human form, died, rose again and his presence, in terms of the spirit, actually transforms lives."

Dr Sentamu described the fall in of average attendances at church services as "worrying", and warned that the decline of traditional faith was having a damaging effect on society.

"The trouble you have got is that there is a desire for self-fulfilment," he said.

"Unfortunately, as we see it in this country, it turns out to turn into self-assertiveness and very little self-examination and we end up with a culture which is very cynical, blaming somebody else, constantly endeavouring to put other people down.

"The culture we have got in this country has been shaped by the Christian faith.

"If you really want to continue to have the same sort of culture and the same sort of reality, you really need to turn back to what it is that shaped you."