The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has accused courts in Britain of showing “insensitivity to the interests and needs of the Christian community” and starkly warned that this could lead to “civil unrest” in the future.

His comments were made as a relationship counsellor appeals a decision by his employer to sack him after he refused to counsel a same-sex couple.

The man, Gary McFarlane, wants a special panel of five judges under the Lord Chief Justice to hear his case instead of judges who have displayed a “lack of understanding of Christian beliefs.”

Lord Carey supports Mr McFarlane’s appeal. He said a series of recent decisions by the courts against Christians showed it was “but a short step from the dismissal of a sincere Christian from employment to a ‘religious bar’ to any employment by Christians.”

Recent decisions in Britain have seen a nurse suspended from work for offering to pray for a patient, a civil registrar sacked for refusing to officiate at a same-sex civil partnership ceremony, and a ground hostess banned from wearing a cross at work.

Lord Carey said these decisions showed a “worrying lack of awareness of Christian religious and cultural manifestations.”

He continued: “This type of ‘reasoning’ is dangerous to the social order and represents clear animus to Christian beliefs. The fact that senior clerics of the Church of England and other faiths feel compelled to intervene directly in judicial decisions and cases is illuminative of a future civil unrest.

“The effect of these decisions is to undermine the religious liberties that have existed in the United Kingdom for centuries. If there is to be a limitation of Christian liberties in Britain, this should be a matter for Parliament.”

Religious rights barrister, Paul Diamond, representing Mr McFarlane, said the case was a “seminal” one “not just for the law but for the direction of the United Kingdon, and whether we are going to be a secular state or neutral state holding the ring between competing values.”

Recently another Christian, nurse Shirley Chaplin, lost her battle for the right wear a cross to work as she had done every day for the previous 38 years.

Following her case she said: “I have just lost my case in the Employment Tribunal. It was held that I had not been discriminated against, even though I was not allowed to wear my cross whilst other colleagues were allowed to wear their religious symbols. I hope that the judges make it clear that Christians are to be protected from discrimination, just like anybody else.”