If Jesus Christ makes a return trip to earth for the Millennium he'll do well to avoid a visit to London.

Design guru Sir Terence Conran has left the borough's church leaders bemused with his outspoken views that the Millennium Dome should avoid any whiff of Christian celebrations.

Asked for his thoughts on the dome at the weekend, Sir Terence said: "It's a Millennium celebration, it is not an event that has very much to do with Christianity. It's to do with time."

He went on to say that any overriding Christian theme would be "absolutely inappropriate" adding: "God knows how many religions there are in this world. If we tried to cater for all of them, we would have to divide the dome up into 2,846 segments or somesuch."

Reverend Peter Baker from Golders Green Parish Church questioned how any celebration of the year 2000 could exist without a strong reference to Christianity. "The Millennium Dome is not about the Millennium of Buddha or any other religion apart from Christianity. It marks the birth of Christ."

For Reverend Peter Roberts from Golders Green Unitarian Church, failing to incorporate a Christian theme within the dome would be a "big financial and political debacle".

He said: "The Millennium, the year 2000, is only meaningful because it is based on the Christian calender, it's a Christian concept."

Outside of the dome the church is planning to distribute candles to every household in the country to burn on Millennium Eve to mark the dying moments of the century.

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