THE Bishop of Blackburn will call for a ‘year of Christian protest’ against coalition cuts and the bankers who caused the economic crisis.

The Rt Rev Nicholas Reade, in his Christmas Day sermon in Blackburn Cathedral tomorrow, will say the community has to unite in anger at the situation.

In an outspoken attack he will say the Church needs to show solidarity with the large numbers of people who are suffering as a result of government cutbacks.

And he will pledge to use his influence, including his seat in the House of Lords, to stand up for the poor and vulnerable in Lancashire that are hit most.

He will say: “Perhaps it will need to be the note of anger in Our Lord’s voice that we hear, and proclaim, in the coming year.

“We will raise legitimate Christian protest on behalf of those losing their jobs, seeing their public services undermined, their hopes for higher education jeopardised, or their fears realised through the creation of what increasingly seems like a less caring, more brutalised society, and where vast bonuses form the contemptuous retort to any mention of restraint, and the black economy of the super-tax dodger is seen as a legitimate moral code.

“Perhaps it really will have to be Mary’s great hymn to the God of justice, her Magnificat, that we will need to echo in all its radical honour and intention, in the face of the continuing injustice we encounter in the coming year?”

Christmas is a time to support those who have been marginalised and have their needs ignored, the Bishop will say.

He will add: “Our calling in the Church may be sometimes to be a critic, but above all it is to be a companion support to those in need of healing and hope.”