The Church has always stood against extending Sunday trading hours and says its opposition comes from three main factors: protecting vulnerable members of society, the balance of work and leisure and family time.
The Church of England says it is against proposals to extend Sunday trading hours because:
* We are not persuaded that the claimed economic benefits can be realised.
* We believe that the economies envisaged as a result of longer opening hours will be more than offset by the diseconomies caused by local variations - and that the idea of devolving decision making is either an economic disincentive or a sham.
* We do not believe that the protection for workers who do not wish to work on Sunday is sufficient to protect their need for family and leisure time.
* We are concerned that the minimal protection of smaller shops in the 1994 Act will be lost to the detriment of competition and consumer choice.
* We believe that extended shopping hours will damage community resilience.
The Church says its objection stems from: "our commitment as Christians, and as the national church, to the common good of all the communities of this country.
"We believe that a shared day of leisure for a critical mass of the population is a necessity if people are to be able to work together for the common good and that this will be damaged by further extending shop opening hours."
At present bigger stores are allowed to open for 6 hours on a Sunday, between the hours of 10am and 6pm, and smaller shops do not have any restrictions on their opening times.
The Church has stressed that it is not motivated by its own interest to encourage participation in Sunday activities but wants to build stronger communities and build social cohesion.
It states: "Sunday shopping hours are directly contradictory to the Government's desire to build more resilient local communities and to encourage social capital to take the place of the state in creating good neighbourhoods.
"It runs counter to the whole philosophy of The Big Society which the Prime Minister championed and which the Church of England supports strongly."
Those that want to extend Sunday opening hours say it will hold economic benefits for both the traders and those that work in shops.
However, speaking in April, Tony Ashcroft, from the Keep Sunday Special campaign, told Premier people not have enough disposable income to spend money on a Sunday and that giving people a day for faith and family is important: we "need to recognise the impact on people and find the right balance between the benefit of convenient access to services and the protection both of family life, and also religious observance for those for whom it is important."
The Church of England says that: "the fact that the common day of leisure in Britain is Sunday reflects the Christian heritage of the nation.
"For those who are not Christians, the protection of one day of the week as a time of shared leisure remains important."
The bill, the Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill, was discussed on Wednesday in the House of Commons.
