THE Archbishop of Canterbury’s Easter message to the faithful this year comes courtesy of the parable of Footballers’ Wives.

Tanya, Amber, Jason, Chardonnay and Kyle of the racy television soap, renowned in theological circles for their selfish debauchery, portray a lifestyle that contrasts with the Christian creed, says Rowan Williams.

Greed, treachery, adultery, fast money, fast cars, a bling-bling lifestyle — don’t even mention the white stilettos — encapsulate the mercenary, irreligious nature of society, says his grace.

“The works of the flesh are what you see on Footballers’ Wives on television and what you read on lots of websites (including Christian ones) . . . a world in which charity and fairness, generosity, a sense of perspective about yourself are all swept aside,” Williams writes in Outlook, the Canterbury diocese’s newspaper.

He cites the example of St Paul’s comments in Corinthians to look beyond a material world that is “almost all to do with different kinds of selfish behaviour”.

His words will likely resonate around the fictional Earl’s Park terraces, where fans are still mourning the untimely death of topless model Chardonnay, a character so compelling to the British public that 65 baby girls were named after her last year.

Williams’s message — far from storylines which have included the recent Juventus signing Conrad Gates’s penchant for group sex; and Jason, prior to his murder, taking his team-mate’s sister-in-law into the gents’ — is that the death and resurrection of Christ should make Christians treat everyone in a careful and considerate way.

“The challenge is there at so many levels — how we regard foreigners and refugees in our midst; how we manage conflicts in the church; how we build trust between ancient enemies in the holy land or in the context of newer conflicts in Iraq or Zimbabwe,” he writes.

While Williams is an internationally respected theologian, he is still able to communicate simple Christian teaching from the pulpit. He delights in reconnecting Christianity to modern culture, is a fan of The Simpsons, and enjoys regular visits to the theatre and cinema.

He recently tackled the difficult subject of Philip Pullman’s work His Dark Materials, in which the death of God is depicted.

Last night the makers of Footballers’ Wives said they shared the archbishop’s views on the parlous moral state of modern Britain.

“I think he has made a good point,” said Eileen Gallagher, head of Shed Productions. “We wanted to make Footballers’ Wives as basically an antidote to all the overblown celebrity we now see in society.

“I wouldn’t want to paint all footballers and their wives with the same brush, but when we were doing our research, we found a world that was shallow and money-obsessed. It comes from having far more money than is good for anybody at such a young age.”

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