In response to the controversial statement made by the second most senior Anglican which said Britain was "no longer a Christian nation", a bishop within the Church of England has argued that Britain is clearly still Christian, despite the great cultural diversity that can now be seen there.

The Bishop of Lichfield, Rev Jonathan Gledhill, reported that he acknowledged the secularisation of many of the historical institutions in the UK. He even said that some schools had decided to abandon traditional nativity plays and carol services for multi-faith "holiday" celebrations.

Gledhill said, "We are told it is to protect people of other faiths, which is strange, because you will rarely hear people of other faiths complaining about Christmas. The other reason we are given is that Britain is no longer a Christian country. I just don't buy that."

Last week, it was the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope that made comments that Britain could no longer be called a Christian country. Hope, who is leaving his post to serve as a Parish priest next year, said he felt that the British are less committed to the church and "secularist" tendencies were on the increase.

When asked whether he thought Britain was a Christian country he replied, "I think I really want to question that. Large numbers of people describe themselves as believing in God. Large numbers still would say that they are Christian. How they then express that Christianity has changed enormously."

However, Gledhill has disagreed with these comments, and he expressed his beliefs that while there have been attacks on the Christian definition of Christmas; the UK was still most definitely a Christian nation.

He highlighted the results of the 2001 national census, which found that 71% of the population identified themselves as Christian, and just 5% stated that they were of a different faith.

"I'm not trying to denigrate people of other faiths; I give thanks for all the good things that people of other cultures bring to our country; I'm committed to a multi-cultural Britain and to working with the leaders of other faith communities."

"I'm not saying it is okay to ignore their feelings, their aspirations and needs. I am saying that, even if our legislators don't always know about it, Britain is clearly not a multi-faith country, but a Christian one."

"I suspect that some people will find this statement offensive, but it will not be offensive to people of other faiths who, when I meet with them, often describe Britain as a Christian country," he said. "What puzzles them is how we have allowed Christian standards of morality and justice to be swamped by a superficial consumerism."

Gledhill is a member of the Church of England, in the UK which is the home to the worldwide 77 million member Anglican Communion.