Easter Sunday is a time for staying in bed, eating chocolate and having sex.

But that’s not our opinion. It’s not even the view of the Brighton and Hove Humanist Society.

That’s the opinion of Father Phil Ritchie from All Saints Church in Hove.

He added: “The problem with the church is that we stay inside our building and occasionally come out and say ‘Why don’t you come to our church, it’s cool and funky’.

“To be honest, it’s not.

“I would love more people to come at 10am on Sunday and I would welcome them to All Saints.

“For Christians this is the most important day of the year. All life and all hope flows from it.

“But there are plenty of ways to celebrate without coming to a draughty Victorian building. So why not stay at home, have a lie in, have sex and eat some chocolate.”

Father Phil’s fresh take on the religion’s holiest day comes as congregations continue to fall across the area.

Annual figures for Sunday worship in the county show a steady decline of about two per cent.

For the Church of England’s Diocese of Chichester, which includes Brighton and Hove, Worthing, Arundel, Bognor and Chichester, an average of 39,100 attended each Sunday in 2008.

In 2009 that went down to 38,100 before falling again to 37,300 in 2010.