The Archbishop of Canterbury this week urged the Church of England to continue to adapt and innovate in order to connect more effectively with the spiritual needs of millions of people who feel estranged from organised religion. The Archbishop used his Ashe Lecture in St Helen's Church, Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire, to set out an agenda for continuing change around the themes of confidence, mission and unity.

"Let me stress again that I am not advocating the wholesale rejection of the traditional and well loved from the past", said the Archbishop, "But I do plead for a vigorous diversification as we try to make the glories of the faith accessible to people where they are, now, and not where we might prefer them to be."

Drawing heavily on lessons from "the humbling, astonishing reaction to the death of Diana, Princess of Wales", the Archbishop argued that the decline in formal religious observance in Western Europe clearly did not imply wholesale abandonment of belief in the religious and spiritual significance of life. He praised the manner in which Westminster Abbey, and many other cathedrals and churches, had made themselves available in a sensitive and inclusive way to so many people in their grief and perplexity. Many people wanted to participate in simple rituals such as lighting candles, laying wreaths or praying quietly on their own way. "I hope many churches will take this much further, in imaginative new ways. We must make more space for people to open their hearts to God and express themselves - and not be content simply to offer our own established rituals on a take it or leave it basis." The Archbishop praised the creative use of special services touching people at points of joy or sorrow or concern, and helping them to come nearer to Christ. Nor, he stressed, should the effort to engage estranged people be confined to church services.

In producing revised liturgies for worship, the Church should aim for simplicity, beauty and brevity, with space left for spontaneity and variation within a firm framework. Whilst for many people, "the great cadences of the Book of Common Prayer or the tradition of religious poetry" had a special power and should remain as an important, live part of the Church's tradition, it was also possible for modern and simple ways of talking about out faith to be beautiful:"let us bring to our aid novelists, poets, musicians and artists who from their explorations touch the world of the spirit."

Further key agenda points in reaching out to people in modern society were

• renewed commitment to dynamic Christian social action and ministry to marginalised and needy people
• developing more confidence, skills and good practice in mission and evangelism
• reaffirming the importance of living out the Gospel in all aspects of life, not just in church on Sundays
• fresh emphasis on the Church's role in serving all parishioners, not just regular worshippers, and sustaining the strength of our comprehensive parochial system
• embracing the diversity of different people within and beyond the Church, but also searching constantly to uphold what binds us together - as Christians, and more broadly as human beings made in the image of God.

The Archbishop pointed to signs of growing confidence within the Church of England, with ordinations up by fifteen per cent this year. "And our capacity for reform and self-renewal has been demonstrated again and again. Profound changes in patterns of ministry. The empowerment of lay people. Burgeoning numbers of non-stipendiary ministers. The reforms in the Church Commissioners and our national institutions. The ordination of thousands of women to the diaconate and priesthood. Dynamic evangelising initiatives and church planting. "The Church of English is on the move", declared the Archbishop, "trusting not in our own capacities alone but in the radical power of God's Holy Spirit."