Tens of thousands of people have been impacted by an evangelistic mission in Durham this weekend.

As many as 25 Church of England bishops plus their teams took part in the four-day programme across the diocese.

Summing up the event the Bishop of Durham said 'many tens of thousands' had engaged with the gospel across 450 events from pie and peas suppers to semaphore flag flying, conversations in pubs, cafes and drop in centres.

Led by the Archbishop of York, the bishops joined parishes across the area aiming to spark a wave of evangelism.

'Go and talk about Jesus this week and in the weeks after,' Dr John Sentamu said in a sermon closing the weekend.

He told Christian Today at the start of the event: 'If people in the United Kingdom talked more about Jesus than they talked about weather we might get some traction.

'For me the greatest thing is that in Jesus Christ God invites us to be his friend, invites us to get to know him to get to love him.'

One event, a flashmob in a supermarket, was live broadcast to Facebook with 3,500 people watching it during and afterwards and more than 7,500 people reached in total.

Opening the weekend on Thursday, the Bishop of Durham Paul Butler, one of the Church of England's top five bishops, warned hundreds of volunteers to resist talking about the institutional church at a launch event in Durham Cathedral on Thursday.

'Avoid wherever possible talking about the Church or however the Archbishop voted [on Brexit],' he said. 'Let's keep to talking about Jesus.'

He told Christian Today: 'I think there is a danger that we get wrapped up in institutional conversations. Whereas the heart of what we are about is we are followers of Jesus. It is God's kingdom. Jesus is the Lord and Saviour. Not the Church.'

He said: 'We have unashamedly entitled the four days Talking Jesus. We want to make Jesus the topic of conversation and thought. We want to get people thinking about Jesus. We have opportunities galore to meet people face to face. Our focus throughout is to share Jesus.'