A controversial North-East vicar is calling for the return of the death penalty and an end to the National Lottery.

The Rev George Curry, vicar at Evangelical church St Stephen's and St Paul's, in Newcastle, made the comments in a TV interview due to be shown on Sunday.

In it, he bemoaned what he sees as the decline in moral standards across the country - a view that includes the lottery, Sunday shopping, the abolition of capital punishment, and tolerance of lax sexual standards.

"We are under the judgement of God," he said. " We were in the gutter, now we are in the sewer, soon we will be in the sewage works."

A study by Christian Research showed the Church of England lost another 100,000 worshippers between 2000 and 2002, with weekly attendances now down to around 1,600,000. Any growth is largely confined to Evangelical churches, like St Stephen's and St Paul's.

Rev Curry believes this is because vicars are no longer teaching what is in the Bible.

"We recognise sadly, very sadly indeed, that in the Church there are people who want to re-interpret or mould the Bible to suit themselves," he said.

" In the end we have to ask ourselves 'Is what I am asserting in tune with the Bible?' "If it's not, it's not in tune with God's word and it ought to be ditched."

He appears in the The Sunday Interview, to be shown at noon tomorrow on Tyne Tees Television.