January 4, 2012

The return to religion – Telegraph

“Church attendances, in freefall for so long, have started to rise again, particularly in Britain’s capital city. Numbers on the electoral rolls are increasing by well over two per cent every year, while some churches have seen truly dramatic rises in numbers.” (The electoral roll of a church is the only way the C of E has of recording membership: they don’t really go in for the formal process of the free churches, as it’s an established church).

This is interesting, though not sure how good the evidence of a revival is: you’ve got a couple of anecdotes plus evidence of a positive second derivative (decline is slowing). It’s interesting that this is always presented as being about an alternative to shopping and a search for meaning rather than being about the evidence. I suspect that’s the way it actually works though, depressingly.
(tags: christianity church-of-england anglican c-of-e telegraph uk religion)