Jim Richards, director of the Roman Catholic diocese of Westminster's Children's Society, has similar fears. We work with families and children of all faiths and none. We don't thump the Bible at them. It is the church's mission to reach out irrespective, not to proselytise. If people have not got a roof over their heads, if they are in extreme distress, you cannot say you have to come to Jesus first.
Churches form an enormous and well-established network supplying education and social care.
By long tradition, church schooling is state-supported. Some 1.7m pupils attend the almost 7,000 schools shown in the pie chart. In addition, church groups are prominent in the movement for social housing, hospices and care for the elderly. Much of the help is inside the community. Jewish Care assists some 5,000 people every day.