The news that the Archbishop of Canterbury has decided to retire from his post, and to retire a little earlier than archbishops traditionally do, should come as no surprise. Running the Church of England must be like trying to push a pea uphill with your nose.

Most people, when filling in forms, will absentmindedly put C of E in the religion slot.

That is about as near as they normally come to admitting any affiliation at all.

We live in an increasingly secular society. Many claim to believe in 'something' but never actually do anything about it.

They look curiously at the magnificent buildings scattered about the country, but only go inside when their parents get them christened, family pressure gets them married there or they are carried in by an undertaker.

Even that pattern is breaking down. Civil ceremonies are becoming much more common.

The church is, to a great extent, now reliant on the assistance of volunteers. It can afford fewer and fewer paid clergy. The days when every town and village had at least one clergyman, for then they were always men, are now long gone. Amalgamation of livings, if not of parishes, is constantly on the agenda.

The structures of the church, in a management and organisational sense, rather than a physical sense, were set up in another age. The physical ones were certainly set up in another age. There are not all that many new church buildings. Anything set up more than about 20 years ago is in another age for these purposes. There are just not enough volunteers to go round.

The same applies to money. Those who have made huge fortunes out of industry or commerce no longer spend it on endowing livings. It is much more likely to be on secular pursuits.

In the countryside, by tradition, there was a close connection between the major landowner and the local church.

The landowner would have a very big say in who was appointed to the various livings and would frequently endow the churches and provide running expenses.

As that structure broke down, to a large extent because the landowners became relatively poorer because of death duties and because larger proportions of the population were living in urban rather than rural areas, nothing ever really replaced it.

Attendance at church was still good. The traditional festivals, especially Christmas and Easter saw many churches full to overflowing, but weekly attendance was common and swelled the congregation, as well as the coffers.

In country areas almost every farmer, together with his family, and often his staff, would attend the Harvest Festival and sing the wonderful harvest hymns. They would bring the best of their produce to decorate the church. Plough Sunday, when prayers would be said for the forthcoming farming year, and at which the plough would be blessed, also saw excellent attendance.

Much of this now is gone. Even in the rural East Riding the churches do not seem to celebrate the farming life around them. They would, no doubt, say that they would if there was a demand. There never will be a demand if there seems no chance of a supply.

Activities such as church attendance are a matter of habit. Once the habit is broken then it is very difficult to restore it, especially in the context of the busy lives which many people lead, or claim they lead, these days.

I suppose that the surprise is not that Archbishop Carey has decided to retire. It is more that there are so many apparently sane individuals who want to succeed him.

Updated: 10:16 Tuesday, January 15, 2002