Young people these days don't seem to bother much about marriage any more, but more often than not their children, born out of wedlock, get christened. Does this show that faith still abounds? Or is it just that a christening is a good time to bring family and friends together to celebrate the existence of this new child?

My parents were married in church and had my siblings and I christened as Church of England, although one parent was agnostic, with no belief in anything, and the other an atheist, believed in some power, but not God.

My neighbours used to take us to church, but my memories of that are hazy I guess it didn't last too long. I remember being faintly bored, and the only interesting thing being the tiny glasses of blackcurrant juice and soft bread bought to us when the adults were having communion. I now know that the church was Methodist. Later we attended a Sunday school, but that was not attached to a church. I do not know what denomination that was for, but I recall colouring in pictures of Mary on her donkey, so it was Christian based. That building now houses a synagogue. My religious life only really took off when my parents decided to send my siblings and me to private school, and the school they chose happened to be Catholic.

Although my sister and I frightened my mother initially by insisting on grace before meals and dressing up as Nuns, I cannot recall any stirrings of belief at this time. The children who were Catholics at the school were required to attend certain masses, and confession. The remainder of us, and there were Baptists, Methodists and Salvation Army members in my class, were free to attend, or not. I attended one confession, and several masses out of curiosity, and then skipped the rest.

I well recall in my teens talking to one friend who did believe, and who was telling me what a comfort religion was. I am sure it is, I replied, but I just don't get it. And then, aged fifteen I was converted.

Don't ask me how it started, I cannot recall, but I know that I began to get the idea that God was stalking me. When I turned the tv to a different channel, or flicked on the radio there seemed to be someone on there talking in some way about being converted, or praising a life of belief, or Nuns. I would pick up a book, magazine, or newspaper, and there would be something similar. I began to feel harassed, and wondered why no-one around me could see what was happening.

I remember one day thinking that

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