Cathedrals must not "pounce on people” as they walk through the door, Bishop says, as he argues people want to pray in peace.

The Bishop of Chelmsford told the National Cathedrals Conference in Manchester that cathedrals were popular with the young because they were more likely to be left alone during services.

The Right Revd Stephen Cottrell said: "I think there are thousands and thousands of people who want to come quietly, who even want to come secretly, and it's getting harder and harder to do that in the modern-day bouncy and accessible Church of England.

"So cathedrals have a special vocation and opportunity to be be somewhere that you can slip into unseen and slip out of unseen."

Attendance at cathedrals rose by 17 per cent between 2006 and 2016, the most recent Church of England figures show.

In 2016 37,000 people a week attended services in cathedrals, and a total of 11.3m people attended at least one cathedral service a year, which is more than a quarter of the UK population.

Events such as choral evensong have been particularly popular, with some arguing that millennials more likely to attend these as they take place in a city centre on midweek evenings.