Three undercover reporters from The Sentinel went out to test church services as "mystery worshippers" after an attack from a senior clergyman on the way the Church of England gets its message across.

Here's what Nick Coligan wrote in his review of St James's at Audley.

Only 20 hardy souls joined me in scraping themselves out of bed and trudging off to church on what was a bright, but bitterly cold morning.

Ratings: Just seeing the deserted centre of Audley at 8.45am was something of a novelty, never mind going to Holy Communion - prior to last weekend, the only thing I considered sacred about Sunday mornings was my lie-in.

The 9am service at St James' The Great was the first of three opportunities to worship, so I wasn't particularly shocked the congregation was sparse.

And what I didn't know until speaking to the Reverend Peter Davies afterwards was it was the most formal of the Sunday services, geared towards those preferring a more traditional form of worship - which explained the lack of music.

But traditional does not always mean dull, and this service proved both accessible and relatively light, lasting just 45 minutes.

Mr Davies' style was ideally suited to a first-time churchgoer - he was relaxed and cheerful.

He carefully dissected a prayer he had earlier read which discussed putting on "armour" before facing the world. Mr Davies related it back to real life, saying that simply getting ready to go out in the morning was a form of putting on armour.

"Who has cleaned their teeth this morning? Who washed their face?" he asked the congregation as I sank into my pew in embarrassment. Neither had been top of my list of priorities as I rushed out of the house.

Mr Davies kept his sermon brief, but that didn't really matter because what he was saying was so easy on the ear. You didn't feel lectured or preached at - it was more of a friendly chat.

Apart from that, there was a prayer reading from a member of the congregation, which rather passed me by, and the actual giving of communion, in which everyone, apart from me, participated.

As someone walking in off the street, the only real downside I could see was that I stuck out like a sore thumb - I was the only person there under the age of 45 - and as a result felt rather conspicuous.

But there was a flipside. I was immediately made to feel extremely welcome - Mr Davies firmly shook my hand as I left and said he hoped he would see me again.

All in all, the service wasn't enough to change my personal stance on attending church. But if I was seriously considering regular worship, it would have been enough to persuade me to find out more.

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