This evening the Lord Mayor of Bradford, Councillor Choudhary Rangzeb, is to open an exhibition of paintings by famous artists in the least likely of settings. What significance does this have for the rest of Bradford? JIM GREENHALF reports.

You might expect to see paintings by Graham Sutherland on show at, say, Cartwright Hall. You can certainly see his huge green and gold candle-flame tapestry of Christ above the altar at Coventry Cathedral.

Similarly, you can see marvellous sculptures by Elizabeth Frink at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, near Wakefield; and prints by Eric Gill recently formed a selling exhibition at Harrogate's innovative Gascoigne Gallery.

But in what place would you expect to see an exhibition of 42 paintings by these and other exceptional 20th century artists? Saltaire Methodist Church probably would not be your first guess. But for the next fortnight that is precisely where you can see them.

Up to 100 guests have been invited to attend this evening's formal opening by Bradford's Lord Mayor. Again, this is not usual for a conventional art exhibition; so what is the broader significance of this one, which has the title of Seeing the Story?

The Reverend Geoff Reid is team leader of the Methodist Touchstone Centre in Bradford and West Yorkshire representative on the national Methodist Council.

"I think that Bradford being a multi-faith city is relevant to this. My starting point is the poet Stevie Smith who spoke of poor little talkative Christianity'.

"How do we promote our Christian faith while offering a welcome to those of other faiths? Words are not always the most effective way of doing that. People are tired of words from Churches in many respects; that was what Stevie Smith was saying.

"In my view we need fewer words that are more effective. These pictures are putting across a message without preaching at people, and that's a good trick.

"People are free to make their own response; they are not under any pressure: they are simply seeing something before their own eyes," he explained.

"Methodists have decided that Bradford is a priority. There is serious work to do and people are doing it. This exhibition is about saying that we are serious about this city and serious about making a cultural contribution to a city of many cultures.

"Here is a Christian exhibition that we have no problem sharing with the rest of you."

Sir Titus Salt, famously was a man of few words - in two years as a Liberal MP he hardly uttered a sound. Land for the original Saltaire Methodist Church was acquired from Salts Mill's textile magnate in the 1860s. The original building - pillars on the outside, a polished baronial interior - was demolished about 100 years later. The present homely church on Saltaire Road was built in 1971. It has a regular Sunday congregation of up to 50.

For the last nine years the Minister has been the Rev Sarah Jemison.

"It is really exciting. For many of us it's the first time we have arranged an art exhibition of this magnitude. Many of the paintings of the 1950s and 1960s were influenced by what was happening on the world stage. World War II influenced many of the painters.

"We are concerned to invite people to think about some of the issues raised by the paintings: justice, healing, how people of different faiths get on with each other," she said.

Hundreds of Bradford school children have already been booked in to see the exhibition and do work based on the experience. Many other people will doubtless come by during the Saltaire Festival.

The Rev Jemison is quick to attribute the presence of the exhibition to a host of other people, from the Trustees for Methodist Church Purposes to the fund-raisers who help helped to amass the £10,000 necessary to pay for the show and its subsidiary activities.

Geoff Reid is equally quick to pay tribute to his colleague's hard work.

"Sarah came into the ministry in middle-age. She's gained in confidence in the nine years she's been at Saltaire; she knows what she's doing. I think she needs congratulating for pulling off this exhibition in this particular city," he said.

It's an open secret that the practice of orthodox Christianity is in decline in Bradford. The Roman Catholic Church, once a bastion of working-class life, is closing ten churches and amalgamating others.

Bradford's changing demography has led to an exodus of indigenous Bradfordians to the outer suburbs - at least 12,000 from 1991 to the Millennium according to figures by the former Bradford Training and Enterprise Council. This in turn has led to a decline in church attendance. And yet since 2001 Bradford Council research and consultation service estimates that the city's population has rocketed by nearly 10,000 to a total in excess of 481,000.

I have heard stalwart Church of England members discuss the possibility of the Diocese of Bradford disappearing in the future, divided between Wakefield and Ripon. In which case what would happen to historic Bradford Cathedral as an entity and as a building?

Geoff Reid acknowledged that the Christian churches had a fight on their hands.

"The Methodist Church has more of a tradition of taking things to people than the Church of England. In the current climate people are not automatically going to come to us.

"The issues raised by many of these pictures are raw material for Christian Apologetics - answering questions, doubts and criticisms about Christianity - because the pictures are saying, Whatever you make of them you have to take the themes seriously'," he added.

The 42 paintings consist of a collection begun by two Methodists in the 1960s.

"Dr John Gibbs was a Methodist layman. He started the collection with the Rev Douglas Wollen. They scoured contemporary exhibitions to buy paintings," said the Rev Jemison.

When not touring the country the paintings are based at Oxford's Brookes University which began life in 1865 as the Oxford School of Art. It has greatly expanded since then - the School of Architecture celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2002, the year when Brookes was named the top new university in The Times league tables for the seventh consecutive year.

  • Seeing the Story is at Saltaire Methodist Church, Saltaire Road, until September 22, Saturdays from 10am to 4pm, Sundays from 2pm to 4pm and from Tuesday to Friday from 2pm to 4pm. Admission is free.