I have lived most of my life in the country, and during that time I have seen many changes in the country way of life – mainly for the worst. There is an unhealthy concentration of population in the cities, which has led most politicians from all political parties to campaign for things which please city people, so that it is almost as if the votes of people who live in the countryside don’t count.

Our schools are closed; our local hospitals are under threat – yes, the future of Malton Hospital is rumoured to be in doubt yet again; our farmers are ruthlessly exploited and are leaving the land; our rural traditions are despised and banned; our churches are neglected and our church parishes are amalgamated into ever wider benefices, and there are many people in high places who seriously believe that our countryside should be no more than a vast recreation ground for city dwellers to roam freely over. Only a few see the countryside, and the country way of life that goes with it, as an asset which should be treasured, protected and respected.

One of the symbols which characterise the English countryside is the village church. These ancient buildings, some of them older than the conquest, stand out from all other buildings. Their stone construction sets the architectural style and character of many villages. No village would be the same without its church. Many public footpaths came into being in the Middle Ages as ways for people living outside the village to get to church. Churches used to be the centre of village life, and the parish priest was once almost as important as the local squire.

Nowadays, this is no more. Except at Christmas and Harvest, village churches are kept alive by a small handful of worshippers, and the task of maintaining church buildings and paying the vicar’s salary gets harder, as the value of the Church Commissioners’ investments declines. In some parts of the country, some of the oldest churches have closed. Even York Minster is having to raise huge sums of money for essential repairs to stay open and maintain its beautiful and unique masterpieces of mediaeval stained glass. No government grant is available.

Now many people think they can be good Christians without going to church, and that it is the way we live which is important and not the formal ritual of church services. Most people think Christianity is a good religion, and value its teachings – but see churchgoing as largely irrelevant to their busy every day life.

The trouble is that neither the Christian way of life nor Christian morality can exist without teaching, and the only trained teachers are the clergy. Vicars have to be paid, and the fewer the churchgoers the fewer the clergy, and the fewer the clergy, the less Christian values will be taught, and the less Christian values are taught, the less they will be respected.

Religion is far from irrelevant. Christianity, for example, has absorbed not only Jewish traditions, but also the wisdom of the ancient world and has developed over two millennia. It provides a moral basis for elementary civilised values, such as family life and obedience to the law. Is it just a coincidence that, as the influence of the church has declined, so crime has increased, drugs have become a huge problem – particularly among the young and the impressionable; acting in one’s self-interest has become regarded as a virtue; people are encouraged to stand on their rights, no matter how much that might hurt others and the words “duty” and “honour” have almost disappeared from the spoken language; family breakdown has reached epic proportions, and our trust in our political leaders has plunged to an all time low?

Easter is at hand. It celebrates spring – the rising of life out of the dead soil; the triumph of good over evil. If we want our children to grow up in way which avoids many of the traps and snares of modern life, it might help if we could support our local church regularly, and keep the local vicar.