Church groups across the country have reacted in anger to a new campaign launched this week which aims to extend shopping hours on Sunday, reports The Church of England Newspaper.

|TOP|The church Keep Sunday Special Campaign has been set up in opposition to ‘Deregulate’, led by the major retail giants Tesco, B&Q and Asda.

Keep Sunday Special denounced retail campaign as fundamentally ‘anti-children’ and ‘anti-social’ and voiced fears that any change in trading laws might require parents to work on Sunday, limiting the time they can spend with their children.

The church campaign aims to restore Sunday as the traditional day of rest and argues the proposed extension to Sunday shopping hours will disrupt a stable society where children are able to grow up with full parental support and input.

“Christianity is a relational religion. Relationships are the most important thing in people’s lives and are key to self-worth, identity and security,” said Dr Michael Schluter, Chairman of KSS.

“If you take away children’s close relationship with their families you are undermining all these things that constitute their long-term well-being.”

|QUOTE|Dr Schluter highlighted a recent NOP poll in which 75 per cent of respondents said they would prefer a shared day off with only smaller shops open on Sunday as opposed to round-the-clock shopping hours.

The Keep Time For Children initiative also found 1.4 million parents with dependent children in regular work on both Saturday and Sunday, meaning they spend less than one full day with their children during the school week, reported The Church of England Newspaper.

A Church of England spokesman said: “We don’t seriously see there’s a need for people to have more time for shopping. However, retailers insist Sunday is their busiest day and customers frequently complain stores are not open long enough.”

The KSS website reads: “God cares deeply about family and community life. A day in the week when almost everybody is free from work is an important way to help family life and friendships to flourish, by giving people time to spend together.”