Church leaders throughout Britain used their Christmas sermons today to try and reassure congregations facing uncertain financial futures as the economic climate worsens and many worshippers face a New Year with worries about jobs and homes.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, said it was common in hard times to look for a "saviour" who would bring back the age of prosperity. President-elect Barack Obama was being loaded with many such messianic expectations, Dr Williams said.

But he warned that lessons must be learnt for today's crisis from the way Jesus came to the world, born in a stable, unrecognised and displaced, and how he heralded not a golden age of peace but conflict, a trial and the Cross.

The Archbishop, who has in the run-up to Christmas been outspokenly critical of Gordon Brown's handling of the economic downturn, indicated that he was girding his loins for more clashes with the Government in the coming year.

He made clear that it was the duty of all practising Christians to become personally involved in helping and fighting on behalf of those worse affected by the crisis.

Dr Williams, preaching at Canterbury, said: "In the months ahead it will mean in our own country asking repeatedly what is asked of us locally to care for those who bear the heaviest burdens in the wake of our economic crisis – without waiting for the magical solution, let alone the return of the good times. Internationally, it is remembering that our personal involvement in prayer and giving is utterly essential, whatever pressure we may rightly want to bring to bear on governments and organisations."

Being a Christian means being prepared to make history, not to sit around waiting for it to stop and some magical golden age to dawn, he said.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, warned against the "ruthless gain" of banks tempted to indulge in exploitative lending and “enrich themselves at their poor neighbours' expense."

Preaching at York Minster, where David Cameron, the Conservative leader and his family were among worshippers, he said: “If I enrich myself at my poor neighbour’s expense, when they are in financial straits, I certainly have the wrong attitude on the matter. True charity repudiates the idea of personal gain as a result of lending money to make ruthless gain – usury – bringing about permanent disappropriation and enslavement. Clearly the way to come closer to God is to be generous and honest towards our fellow human beings.”

The Archbishop also urged the country to rediscover the spirit of wartime solidarity in an attempt to see its way through the current economic turmoil: “In the present economic crisis we need to re-discover that spirit of togetherness, that helped the British people during the Second World War to stand together in the face of food rationing and the Blitz. And conquer this crisis we will! We had better stand together or we will all hang separately economically.”

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, said the crisis had caused a breakdown of trust.

Calling for a society rooted in care and compassion for one’s neighbour, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, Archbishop of Westminster, said he hoped the celebration of Christmas will allow “people everywhere …to build communities based on trust…where neighbours have names and faces, where their concerns gradually become our concerns. My dream is of a society that becomes more deeply human, more satisfying, more hopeful.”