ON the topic of church attendance, I smiled at the tongue-in-cheek comment in your editorial (LET, May 9): "Is Mr Stevenson advocating the cancellation of Sunday night television?"

But I have to disagree with your heading that "It's up to churches to compete with TV."

The church exists to worship and serve God, not to compete with anything or anyone.

I was simply trying to point out the many distractions, including TV, which there are these days.

For example, last week there were two Premier League matches at Ewood Park, ironically one on Ascension Day and one on Sunday which would in the past have been unthinkable. The other side of the coin has to do with "duty": not a very popular word these days.

Yes, it is true that the clergy should try to ensure that worship is worthy and meaningful (and I admit there is much to answer for on that score).

But the fact remains that the unfaithfulness, apathy and fickleness of church folk over many years, along with immense social changes, have led to falling congregations, and the closure of churches of which, I am sorry to say, there are more to come during the next four years.

Lapsed churchgoers only emerge and complain when "their" parish church closes, by which time it is, alas, too late.

The REV BRIAN STEVENSON, St Silas' Vicarage, Preston New Road, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.