A SENIOR clergyman has launched a scathing attack on Prime Minister David Cameron over the disgrace of "food-bank Britain" in his Easter sermon.
Scottish Episcopal leader the Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, Provost at St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow, also raised concerns over the Archbishop of Canterbury's comments over gay people in Christian churches.
Mr Holdsworth said instead of a Big Society the UK now has a Broken Society. He told worshippers: "This week, the Prime Minister has been courting Christian opinion by speaking about his own faith. I'm pleased Mr Cameron can speak of his own connections with church life.
"But, Mr Cameron, if you want to court Christian opinion and make Christian people think better of you then help this country build a society far, far away, a resurrection world away, from the food-bank Britain we currently seem to find ourselves living in.
"I believe in love. I believe in compassion. I believe in resurrection. And I believe we can build a better world than this."
His sermon came after Mr Cameron spoke of the "healing power" of religion in his own life and insisted Christianity could transform the "spiritual, physical, and moral" state of Britain and even the world.
Mr Holdsworth said: "It is good to have a Prime Minister who feels able to speak about his faith in public life. However, it is important to remember that faith leads to compassion. The rise in the need for food banks is a disgrace and doesn't represent the growth of the Big Society but represents a Broken Society."
Mr Holdsworth also spoke on the issue of gay Christians, saying Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby had rejected calls for greater acceptance of gay people in Anglican Churches on the grounds that such acceptance might lead to violence against Christians in Africa.
He said: "God's people stand against the tyrant, the bomber and the bully. And, this week, the Archbishop of Canterbury has once again tried to link in the public mind the action of terrorists in Africa with the acceptance of gay and lesbian people in the West.
"Such careless disregard for gay lives has the stench of Good Friday all over it. Love wins in the end. And love will win an end to discrimination in the church just as we've been winning it in the life of the state."
In his Easter sermon, the Archbishop of Canterbury highlighted the hardship of people suffering from conflict around the world and in Britain. Mr Welby said: "In Syria mothers cry for their children and husbands. In the Ukraine neighbours cry because the future is precarious and dangerous. In Rwanda tears are still shed each day as the horror of genocide is remembered.
"In this country, there is weeping in broken families, in people ashamed to seek help from food banks, or frightened by debt. Asylum seekers weep with loneliness and missing far-away families. Mary continues to weep across the world."
The Archbishop said earlier the Anglican Church should not give up the debate about whether to accept gay marriage, despite the matter leading to the mass killings of Christians in other countries.
He said: "There are different groups around the place that the church can do - or has done -- great harm to. You look at some of the gay, lesbian, LGBT groups in this country and around the world - Africa included, actually - and their experience of abuse, hatred, all kinds of things. We must both respond to what we've done in the past and listen to those voices extremely carefully."
Human trafficking, child sex abuse and violence across war-torn countries are the "fruit" of "wilful senility" in society, the Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu said in his sermon at York Minster
The Right Rev Lorna Hood is the first Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland to issue an Easter message on social media. She highlighted the need for more young people to answer the call to ministry.
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