DARKEST:

Missionaries desert the Dark Continent to convert the secular French (Jonathan Petre, 19/09/2005, Daily Telegraph)

The traditional image of the British missionary simmering in a cannibal's cooking pot or trekking through the African bush can finally be laid to rest.

New figures show that the modern missionary is eschewing countries such as Nigeria, Papua New Guinea or India in favour of that unlikely heart of darkness: France. The latest edition of Religious Trends, a compilation of Christian statistics published last week, shows that France overtook Kenya last year as the leading destination for British mission agencies.

In further evidence that Europe is increasingly seen as more spiritually needy than Africa or Asia, in third place is another country with strong Roman Catholic roots, Spain.