Bishop John Sentamu, the to-be Archbishop of York who was appointed last week to succeed Dr David Hope, said the Church has only itself to blame for the rise in secularism because it has become afraid to proclaim its message and too enslaved to materialism.

The Church’s withdrawal from the public square left the country open to be taken over by "ghastly forces", Sentamu said in an interview with The Church of England Newspaper. The Church potentially faces a similar fate to the era of communism that "consumed the Soviet Union".

He said that British society was marked by "a bankruptcy of relationships" as its Christian foundations had been eroded. He argued that the climate of mistrust is being created in Britain, just as it was created because the Soviet Union was a Godless society. "Husbands and wives never knew whether one was spying on the other."

"For quite a long time people have wanted to emulate love, fairness, justice without ever returning to the source that actually gives this.

"And in the long run it runs out – the well has run dry in a number of places and so we are seeing symptoms of the fact that there is a bankruptcy of relationships." All these are evident through the rise of teenage pregnancies, crimes and divorces.

"All these things have stepped into place because the turf has been vacated by the Gospel and we have allowed ourselves to not say anything."

Bishop Sentamu said that the Church has been too timid and that Christians are too concerned with materialism. It is time for the Church to reclaim its land, he said. "I want the same zeal of the missionary enterprise that went out to Africa because at the heart of it was the core message of the gospel, and that is good news and it is exciting and it is life-giving."

He strongly condemned the American Church’s decision to consecrate an openly gay homosexual, saying, "They need to explain how dare they behave like that," but acknowledged that the Church had become too preoccupied with sex.

However, he stated that the Africans had been guilty of offensive behaviour in the "crude" language they have used to describe homosexuals.

He called out for the Church to resolve its quarrel over homosexuality and learn to be more inclusive. "What I hope is that when people violently disagree with one another in the same family, they will find a language for living together and ways of talking to one another."

Bishop Sentamu is the Church of England’s first black Archbishop. His appointment was warmly welcomed by those campaigning for racial equality.

"He is a natural leader who will take on the mantle of leading the church’s Northern province and re-connecting the church with the people of the York diocese," said Liz Carnelley, policy officer of the Churches Regional Commission for Yorkshire and the Humber. .