Young people are the future of Christianity in Britain, quite literally.
The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales reported this week that in 2023, Mass attendance grew from 503,008 in 2022 to 554,913 in 2023. Before we get too excited, that is still a marked decrease from pre-Covid levels of 701,902 in 2019. Christianity in Britain is still at record lows, but it is hopeful to see an increase instead of yet another decrease.
Cross-reference this with recent polling results from the Bible Society and we see even more positive news in that the percentage of 18-to-24-year-olds attending church once a month has quadrupled in 6 years. They are now the most churchgoing demographic in the country after over 65s. [Hat tip to Fr Hegan for highlighting this.]
While the numbers still expose that Christianity is no longer the predominant faith amongst the majority of Britons, there has been an increase of nearly half since 2018. Let us pray this trend continues.
It was also interesting to see that amongst the age bracket of young adults aged between 18 and 34 in 2024, Church of England attendance makes up only 20 per cent, while Catholics are in the majority with 41 per cent. Generation Z are not only returning to the faith, but they are avoiding the morally corrupt Church of England and latching onto the fullness of the faith in the unchanging Truth through the teachings of the Church. God’s hand must be at work in this.
In the broader picture, across all age brackets, Church of England attendance has fallen another ten per cent since 2018, and Catholicism has gained that same ten percentage points.
There may be a number of reasons for this. Generally, there seems to be a seeking of orthodoxy and a rejection of woke liberal churchianity, and amongst young people in particular, there seems to be a seeking of tradition. If the end result is more visible unity in the Body of Christ, this should be seen as a good thing.
Could this mean Britain is on track to becoming Catholic again? Could Catholicism become the predominant faith in Britain for the first time since Queen Mary I? Is Henry VIII’s work in creating one of the most significant schisms in the history of the Chuch about to be corrected?
It is also safe to say that the Church of England is no longer seen by many as a Christian institution. That is not to say there aren’t still plenty of good and faithful Christians stuck within the dying entity, but that its core mission is clearly no longer the discipline of the nation.
Readers of this site and followers of my work will be more than familiar with the many ways the Church of England has gone woke in recent years, from finding “Our Father” problematic to supporting same-sex ‘marriage’ in the Church, promoting the first “Trans” Archdeacon, and an unnecessarily confusing stance on Abortion, and proclamations that the Church is institutionally racist, etc.
As a result of this drifting away from Church doctrine, the rest of the Anglican Communion recently called the Church of England to repentance. Church leaders representing the vast majority of Anglicans – 85 million around the world – met in Rwanda in 2023 at GAFCON IV. The Primates first repented of their own sins and then rebuked the Archbishop of Canterbury and called the leadership of the Church of England to repentance.
I had a conversation with the then Archbishop Foley Beach on my Common Sense Crusade, in which he demonstrated charity yet a firm stance on the Catholic faith through Anglican patrimony.
God is moving throughout His earthly kingdom. It seems there is hope for Britain yet. Keep praying for a revival. It is the only way to turn things around. There is no political, democratic or diplomatic solution. People keep looking for a saviour, but our Saviour has already been. Returning to Christ is the only way to make Britain great again.