EASTER is one of the most important events on the Christian calendar, but according to new research, the majority of people in the UK won't be setting foot in church this weekend.

Even though 53 per cent identified themselves as Christian only one in ten people attend church every week and one in seven goes once a month.

However the poll carried out by Christian charity Tearfund revealed that nearly three million more people would attend regularly if given "the right invitation".

Tearfund president Elaine Storkey said churches could do more to offer encouragement to potential worshippers.

"The church, for a lot of people, is a very strange place these days. They're not familiar with what's going on inside the building, with the form of service, with the way people gather, with what they say, how they pray.

"So the first thing they have really got to wake up to is that there is this big cultural gap between churched and non-churched."

The Daily Echo's religious affairs correspondent Ruth Oliver says she wasn't surprised by the report.

"I am coming across more and more people who are committed Christians but who struggle with the concept of church," she said.

"For those people who haven't been brought up in the church, it is quite an alien culture. I interviewed a group of young Christians last summer who had completely opted out of church life.

"They meet up to encourage each other in their faith but their meeting place was usually a Bournemouth pub!

"One of them told me that he had never sung before in his life so the singing of hymns in church was completely foreign to him," she added. "There are also more single people than ever before but a lot of church services are geared up for families so church can be a very lonely place for a single person.

"The other issue is that people can get their spiritual input from many other sources these days via the internet, through satellite television, through books and local Christian radio stations like Hope FM.

"But it isn't easy for church leaders as they have to be all things to all people catering for a wide variety of different age groups and tastes."

Laura Booth, a committed Christian who worships at The House of Destiny, a Christian outreach centre at West Howe, says Christianity and church go hand in hand.

"If you're a football fanatic you like to go and watch the match with other football fans. In the same way, if you are a Christian, you want to be with people who feel the same way to share the experience.

"I'm not saying that because I go to church it makes me a better Christian, but I think it is important to share, contribute with others and fuel your faith.

"Someone once told me that Christian's are like pieces of coal - if you take them out of the fire they will grow cold."