The Church of England is publishing a guide advising youth workers how to use Harry Potter to spread the Christian message.

Days before the release of J K Rowling’s seventh novel about the boy wizard, they were being told yesterday that they could use the popularity of the books and films to debate Christian themes. The guide, Mixing it up with Harry Potter, is published this week by Church House Publishing.

The Potter books and films have been attacked by evangelicals for allegedly glamorising the occult. But the Rt Rev John Pritchard, the Bishop of Oxford, said yesterday: “Jesus used storytelling to engage and challenge his listeners.

“There’s nothing better than a good story to make people think, and there’s plenty in the Harry Potter books to make young people think about the choices they make in their everyday lives and their place in the world.”

The guide’s suggested 12 sessions introduce short clips from the films to provide discussion among 9 to 13-year-olds.

Owen Smith, its 24-year-old author and a youth worker at St Margaret’s Church in Rainham, Kent, said: “To say, as some have, that these books draw younger readers towards the occult seems to me both to malign JK Rowling and to vastly underestimate the ability of children to separate the real from the imaginary.” Asda has apologised “unreservedly” for having criticised Bloomsbury, the Harry Potter publisher, in a dispute over money owed. The supermarket chain will now be selling the books.