Every Sunday, the Diocese of Portsmouth's city centre pioneer minister Mark Rodel hosts a social gathering at the Isambard Kingdom Brunel pub for people to meet and discuss faith and life.

He explained: 'It's a chance for people who might not feel comfortable going to a church to talk about belief and their faith - or even to discover whether they have faith.

'Church can seem like a big step to some.

'It can be an expression of belief some may not be ready for, so we meet in a pub, which I hope anyone can drop into and feel comfortable.'

The group, called Sanctuary, meets every Sunday from 8pm to 10pm at the 'bookcase' table in the pub. Since it started last month, it has attracted 10 people on average per week, but Rev Rodel hopes more will join as they hear about it.

He said: 'A smallish group is good, as we can all talk together, but at the minute it's me and some friends and we want more people along to share their ideas.

'It's a way for everyone, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, undecided, even those who are interested but think they may not believe in anything, to share their ideas, maybe gaining inspiration from others' thoughts.'

Sanctuary isn't the first unusual spiritual idea put into operation by Rev Rodel, associate priest at St Luke's Church in Greetham Street.

Last November, he and the congregation started Sunday morning meetings in Wilmcote House, a nearby tower block, to encourage more locals to come along. Like that initiative, Rev Rodel hopes one of Sanctuary's strengths will be to encourage people to take part in a community activity outside of church.

He said: 'It's not church in a pub, there's no worship or preaching.

'We just meet to talk. And we hope people will come along and find what we are doing interesting and helpful.'