The Association of Christian Counsellors said clergy should anticipate the phenomena, which culminates in what has been dubbed Divorce Day – which falls on 8th January this year.

Vice chair, Sue Monckton-Rickett told Premier: “It is a fact; I think that lots of counselling agencies across the country in January do start to see people coming in – perhaps more than at any other time in the year – with relationship issues.”

The Association encouraged church leaders to organise talks by experts and themed sermons which address relationship issues, in the months prior to Christmas.

Listing other ways churches can support couples facing difficult times, Sue Monckton-Rickett said: “Being there for people, listening to their pain, listening to their sadness, being practically very much on the ground, trying to help people, sign-posting them to where they get other support.”

Money pressures, long work hours, domestic duties, not spending enough time together and a lack of physical intimacy are among the issues most commonly-cited by couples seeking to split.

A poll of more than 2,000 British people by the legal firm Slater and Gordon found financial strains could drive one in ten married couples to split this year.

Click here to listen to Premier’s Marcus Jones speaking with Sue Monckton-Rickett at the Association of Christian Counsellors:

Theresa John, who has been clean of drink and drugs for four years, said the Alcohol Health Alliance’s findings highlight how churches should help raise awareness of the issue.

Theresa, who works as an administrator at Victory Outreach Manchester – a church which operates recovery homes for those affected by alcoholism – told Premier: “Even within our own circles, whether it’s in work or church, we need to be training people that these guidelines are actually quite stringent.”

The poll of 2,000 people fond 84 per cent of people were unaware of the Chief Medical Officer’s advice that both men and women should keep their drinking to a “low” level, not exceeding more than 14 units per week.

The research, which the Alliance commissioned from the national polling firm OnePoll also found only three per cent of people were aware that an alcohol-free childhood is considered best.

Theresa John went on to say: “With my own personal experience, one of the things that I recognise is I didn’t know the guidelines.

“Some of the drinks I was consuming, although it may have been one can, the percentage of alcohol in them was far exceeding the units you were meant to have in one day.”

Fourteen units of alcohol is approximately equivalent to 6 pints of four per cent beer, six glasses of 13 per cent wine or 14 glasses (25ml) of 40 per cent spirits.

When asked, only ten per cent of the respondents named cancer when they were asked…

The former London taxi driver, who was convicted in 2009 of 19 offences including rape, is also said to be reading his Bible every day.

A prison source told the Daily Star: “Worboys is seriously misguided and I believe is potentially still a danger to women.

“He thinks he is born again since embracing religion and that he has been forgiven.

“He says he is a changed man – but how can this be proved?”

According to the newspaper, the 60-year-old became a believer after attending Church of England services at the maximum security Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire.

The source went on to say: “A cynical person might think he’s done this as the best way of getting parole.

“He then shows remorse, admits his guilt and fulfils the requirements of the Parole Board.”

Worboys could be free within weeks after a three-person panel at the Parole Board approved his release, concluding he no longer posed a risk to the public.

On Sunday, it emerged a review by the Justice Secretary David Lidington will investigate how the Parole Board for England and Wales makes its decisions, following shock among some of Worboys’ victims at news he will be released so soon.