The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu on Tuesday urged Christians to take their faith with them into the workplace at the launch of the God at Work course at Holy Trinity Church in Brompton, southwest London.

He said that Christians are regarded as “mad” by the rest of the world, but that they must use their values and ethics to pursue “common good” rather than “selfish gain” to help rebuild a country ravaged by recession.

In his attack he criticised the mindset of those who stopped considering debt to be a bad thing and “the gambling casino in the basement of banking, for ever stoking the fires of speculation and the invention of illusory products.”

He stressed the need to affirm the church as a “force for good in the world”.

The Archbishop said that people were “[addicted] to growth, fuelled by over-borrowing” and that debt had become “a means to an end” that was forgotten “until it finally kicked us in the face”.

“The unfettered pursuit of profit was never going to deliver. It is this idolatrous love of money, pursuing profit without regard for ethic, risk or consequence, which led us to our current situation."

He went on to say that good values and ethics need to be brought into the workplace to make life more sustainable and ensure the wellbeing of all.

The Archbishop said that he believed the nation would pull through these difficult times and said that the financial crisis was “a crisis of what really matters in life”.

He said that the nation should call upon the Blitz spirit to carry the nation through, and said that there are difficult times ahead, but that this was a time for change: “I believe we urgently need to rediscover what it is to rebuild the city in our day, and now, in this time of transition, we need to learn how to build it."