A plea for more easily understood language to help baffled non-churchgoers at baptismal services will be considered by the Church of England.

Additional texts should be prepared as alternatives for passages in the Common Worship baptismal services used at the overwhelming majority of the 139,000 Church of England baptisms every year, the Liverpool Diocese has said.

Rev. Tim Stratford, of Kirkby, Liverpool, said a group of clergy from deprived parishes in the Liverpool diocese had discussed their misgivings about some of the language in the baptismal service.

He said the tension between understandability and historic theological references was “as sharp as ever” in rites such as baptism involving large numbers of people, including parents and godparents who sometimes are “unchurched”.

One of the passages highlighted by the group was the Prayer over Water during the baptismal service, which speaks of the children of Israel being led from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land.

Dr Stratford said there had been a “strong plea” from clergy in deprived areas of the Liverpool diocese for a shorter prayer in direct but poetic language to allow the Gospel to “resonate better” with people’s experience of life.

“This was not a plea for a prayer in Scouse, but for a prayer that the majority of non-theologically-versed Britons would understand,” he said in a briefing document for the General Synod next month.

“It was a common experience of clergy to feel they were losing touch with congregations at important moments in the service,” he added.