Former Archbishop of Canterbury warns Christianity at risk of dying out in a generation

Could Christianity die out in a generation?

Father Morris reacts to shocking proclamation

Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, has a warning for Christian churches: Attract young people to the faith or risk losing it forever.

According to The Telegraph, Carey said Christianity is just a “generation away from extinction” in Britain unless churches have a breakthrough in attracting young people.

Clergy are gripped by a “feeling of defeat” and congregations are worn down by “heaviness," he said.

Carey said the public greets both with “rolled eyes and a yawn of boredom," according to The Telegraph.

Carey made his remarks at a Shrewsbury conference discussing how the church could be "re-imagined."

“So many people do not see the average church as a place where great things happen," he said. “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.”

According to The Telegraph, Carey cited a lack of youth ministries as one of the sources of the problem.

“So many churches have no ministry to young people and that means they have no interest in the future," he said. “We have to give cogent reasons to young people why the Christian faith is relevant to them.”

Sunday congregations in the U.K. have almost halved since 1970 to just 807,000 in the most recent figures, The Telegraph reported.