Catholic comedian Frank Skinner will chat with the Archbishop of Canterbury as part of The Gathering, a two day festival of spiritual talks. He spoke to Mike Field about why Christianity has sold out and getting Dr Rowan Williams to join him at a West Brom match.

Is it difficult to relate comedy and religion?

There’s been a long tradition of religious comedy – certainly Jewish comedy – and lots of jokes about different cultures. But I do wish Jesus had told just one big joke just to say it’s all right to laugh. And just because he never laughs there’s a feeling that Christians should be quite po-faced and I think that’s a shame.

Why do you think we have become a more secular society?

I think the church, not just yours but mine, in this country has made the mistake of trying to compromise with secular society, instead of saying: Look, the stuff we believe in is supernatural and there’s quite a lot of magic and weirdness involved. Just get over it! I think there’s been a bit more of a Bishop of Durham approach, like maybe there wasn’t a virgin birth and maybe there wasn’t a resurrection – and we have sold out. But strangely many people are desperate to get into Harry Potter and Feng Shui and watch Most Haunted on the telly because we have a sense that there’s something different and odder than what we call 'real life’ and I think that was a mistake. I think that religion should try to reclaim its magic.

Let’s move on to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Would you have got embroiled with the government over the Big Society as he did?

I think it’s important he says what he thinks. There’s a danger when there’s a marriage of church and state that the Archbishop just toes the line and becomes a secondary part of the government. He needs to be above that and I’m sure Archbishop Rowan thinks the same. What is the point of having the leader of English Anglicans watching his Ps and Qs when he’s talking about the big issues?

So he should get stuck into the big controversies?

I think he should be 'a voice in the wilderness’. The Pope has been happy to upset governments all over the world saying what he thinks. I find it hard to accept that the Anglican church is so close to the state. You have to be careful. When I go to football matches at West Brom I buy my own season ticket even though I could sit in the directors’ box for nothing. So if ever the board is doing anything I disagree with I feel free to dispute it because I don’t owe anything. I think it’s the same with the archbishop.

Do you feel the archbishop should join you on the terraces at The Hawthorns to get a feeling of the real British identity? Mind you he is, of course, a rugby man.

I’ve had friends who’ve tried to get me into rugby and it hasn’t happened. If the archbishop succeeded it could be his greatest conversion. I think football and religion have a lot in common. Trying to explain to someone why I love football if they don’t is very, very difficult. They often associate it with tribalism, with trouble, with people behaving in a strange way, screaming and shouting and leaping around. I think religion has all those same problems. I would love to take Rowan onto the terraces. I could give him a lift as I only live next door.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams and Frank Skinner In Conversation takes place at Canterbury Cathedral on Friday, September 16 from 7.30pm. Details atwww.canterburydiocese.org/thegathering.