TELEVISION and football are worshipped more than God in many homes in Blackburn, according to a retiring vicar.

The Rev Brian Stevenson, vicar of St Silas' church, in Preston New Road, conducts his final services on Sunday after 12 years in the parish.

Although congregations have grown since his arrival and he has witnessed £230,000 of repairs and improvements to the church building, he believes God now plays second fiddle to soap operas and soccer.

Mr Stevenson, 67, said: "We are living in a completely different society to what it was 50 years ago in terms of visiting parishioners. Now, nobody wants to see you unless you are called for a specific purpose such as illness or bereavement. Who wants the vicar in when they are watching Coronation Street or Emmerdale?

"Today's god is in everybody's living room -- it's called the television. People actually say they can't come to events because Emmerdale is on that night -- and they mean it. The other pull is soccer. Whether some people come to the autumn fair depends on whether Blackburn Rovers are playing at home or not. The whole sense of priorities has been stood on its head."

Mr Stevenson said following last week's terrorist attack in America many people had turned to God for comfort. "The churches were fuller last Sunday than for a long time. People turn to God in their hour of need and, in the meantime, we put Him back in His box until we need Him again."

Mr Stevenson is now looking forward to his retirement from running a parish, with its associated bureaucracy and financial headaches, while continuing his connections with the Church.

He and his wife, Marion, are retiring to a bungalow in Great Harwood, where they are already receiving invitations to events and Mr Stevenson aims to continue preaching and speaking, when invited to do so.

Mr Stevenson, who served as a magistrate on the Reedley bench for 16 years, is also a former editor of the Padiham Advertiser and had his own building firm before he was ordained.

He was a lay reader for many years and a curate at Padiham, where he was brought up, before becoming vicar of Low Moor, Clitheroe, in 1982 for seven years. Mr and Mrs Stevenson have two sons, Adrian and Peter and three grandsons.

Mr Stevenson's successor has not yet been named, but is likely to arrive in the New Year.