A SIX-MONTH project to recruit more ordained ministers to the Church of England will be launched at a cathedral service next week.

The Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, the Right Reverend John Packer, will tell clergy and lay people on Monday that, despite a rise in ordinations over the past seven years, the diocese is still lagging behind the rest of the country.

The Vocations to Ordained Ministry project, which gets under way at Ripon Cathedral, is aiming to encourage more men and women across the Ripon and Leeds diocese to consider becoming ordained Anglican ministers.

Canon Penny Driver, diocesan director of ordinands, said that, despite an increase in ordinations nationally, numbers were still falling due to the high number of priests who were of retirement age.

"Within five years, the Church of England predicts it will have 250 priests less than it has now," she said.

"The aim of the project is to help church congregations to promote, identify, affirm and support vocations to the ordained ministry. As part of the project we will also be holding training for clergy and church leaders looking at how to encourage vocations."

In 1993, 364 people across the country were recommended for ordination and that figure rose to 537 last year.

In Ripon and Leeds, the diocese committed itself two years ago to doubling the number of non-stipendiary ministers.

That target, from five to the present ten, has been reached but the figure is still the lowest in the country.