A bishop is calling on Christians to wear crosses in public to demonstrate they "aren't going to disappear quietly from the market place".

The Bishop of Lichfield, the Rt Rev Jonathan Gledhill, said Christians should wear them at work and not be intimidated into putting them away.

He also criticised councils which tried to "rebrand Christmas" for fear of offending other religions.

Such decisions were made out of "sheer ignorance," he said.

"Ethnic minorities are far more anxious about the rampant secularism and commercialism that erodes all Christian standards than they are about their host country properly celebrating its Christian foundations," he said.

The Lichfield Diocese serves Staffordshire, north Shropshire, and parts of the West Midlands.