Christian is a "generation away from extinction" in Britain, the former Archbishop of Canterbury has warned.

Lord Carey warned of the death of Christianity unless the church takes drastic action to attract young people to the faith.

Speaking at the Shropshire Light Conference at Holy Trinity Church in Shrewsbury at the weekend, he said people responded to the church with a "shrug of indifference", "rolled eyes and a yawn of boredom".

While people are still "looking for spiritual fulfilment", they are failing to find it in the Church, especially young people, he warned.

He described some priests as "diffident and lacking confidence", adding that a "feeling of defeat is around".

"The burden seems heavy and joy in ministry has been replaced by a feeling of heaviness," he said.

"So many people do not see the average church as a place where great things happen.

"To sit in a cold church looking at the back of other peoples' heads is surely not the best place to meet exciting people and to hear prophetic words."

One of the most "urgent" groups in need of the Church's investment is the young, he continued.

"We ought to be ashamed of ourselves.

"So many churches have no ministry to young people and that means they have no interest in the future.

"As I have repeated many times in the past we are one generation away from extinction.

"We have to give cogent reasons to young people why the Christian faith is relevant to them."