A CHURCH has turned to the soaps in a bid to boost its congregation.

Instead of the traditional scriptures it is using the gospel according to Coronation Street and Eastenders and analysing their Christian values.

As a result Burley Methodist Church could be on to a winner.

The attendance doubled on Sunday when they studied an hour-long Coronation Street special featuring the funeral of gentle giant Dennis Stringer.

And now they plan three more services at Salem United Reformed Church Hall, Main Street Burley where they are worshipping while their own church undergoes a £630,000 refurbishment.

The demise of Stringer and the moving tributes paid by Les and Janice Battersby at his funeral were focused on.

Methodist preacher Michael Hardstaffe said: "The attendance figure doubled and when we studied Dennis's funeral we saw how the gift of forgiveness was visible in Les, who realised that even though Dennis had run off with his wife, he had saved his life and given him a second chance."

"It shows comparisons to how Christ sacrificed himself for us. The first soap evening was very successful, everyone had something to say about it on their way home.

"It is an unusual way of worshipping but everybody is finding it fun. I occasionally watch Coronation Street but now I'm watching it all the time to prepare for the course.

"I find that the Eastenders characters are more retaliatory than its Coronation Street counterparts.

"Its characters take revenge on each other more than in Coronation Street, which tends to use forgiveness more in its story lines."

This Sunday's lesson will also be based around a Coronation Street story line from this week, but the following two sessions will be looking at Eastenders.

Rev Philip McDonald said: "I don't usually watch soaps but I will be taping them for when I do a talk on Eastenders in a few weeks. It's a very interesting subject and everybody seems to like it.

"It's part of our church policy to approach worship in different ways, and have different styles of service, and I hope this will attract people.''

The idea for the programme came from Mr Hardstaffe, who is leading the services together with Mr McDonald.

Mr Hardstaffe, 60, a retired Ofsted schools inspector who lives in Burley, said: "The idea for the services came out of a study on ethics I did as part of the Christian Studies Diploma I'm doing.

"I chose to study the way TV programmes present a whole range of issues and the extent to which they reflect Christian attitudes.

"Church attendances are in decline but each week you get 12 or 13 million people tuning into Coronation Street and Eastenders. They are almost a religion for some people.

"Our services are open to anyone. Hopefully doing something different but relevant like this will help to attract bigger congregations and result in people going away with a view that Christianity is relevant.''

The next three soap services will be held at 6pm on Sunday, January 20 and February 3 and 10.