|PIC1|God can mend all of the social problems afflicting Britain, but it might not necessarily happen in the way some people expect, says the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Speaking to around 50 young people at the Solace pub church in Cardiff at the weekend, Dr Rowan Williams said God’s way to mend Broken Britain “is through us”.

“God doesn’t step down out of the sky, shooting thunderbolts out of his fingers. He comes down at a human level and says ‘You are going to do this, I trust you’,” he was quoted as saying by the South Wales Echo.

“That’s how God mends – through you and me.”

Solace has been meeting weekly in Edwards Bar in Cardiff city centre since it was launched one year ago by Church Army officer Wendy Sanderson and the Baptist Rev James Karren to reach people seeking a spiritual dimension to their lives but who are put off by traditional forms of church.

Dr Williams was invited to the pub church to answer the question, “Can God mend broken Britain?”.

A presentation by Solace highlighted the many social challenges facing the UK, including prostitution, poverty and immigration.

The Archbishop said Solace’s presentation had depicted a nation “that doesn’t seem to like itself very much”.

“We are not very happy, we look around for people to blame and we are always at risk of collapse and our jobs going down the tubes. When society is that unhappy then society has a problem,” he said.

He reminded the young audience, however, of God’s care and concern for them.

“[Christianity is] the story of a God whose first priority is to take people seriously, a God who treats human beings like adults, who treats them as precious and valuable, who is devastated when they damage themselves and is prepared to do anything possible to get through to them the message they are worth taking trouble with,” he said.