THE Lord may well provide but, failing divine intervention, the potential return on capital employed is a reasonable alternative belief system. And it is on this criteria that a proposed Christian TV service for Britain, ARK2, has temporarily come to grief.April but it now aiming to beam out its messages of love and peace in the autumn after only Pounds 200,000 of the required Pounds 2 million start up funding was pledged.

A spokesman said the established churches, constrained by their own funding crisis, were not convinced that ARK2 was a profitable investment." They told us to go to . . . err, the parishes". It is now appealing to rich Christians to join its "Founders Table " at Pounds 25,000 a time. Hallelujah.