To find it interesting how the UK is apparently having a 'Christian revival'?

[BonxBonx]

I was watching the news the other day and they were talking about how there has been a big increase in church attendance over the past couple of years, particularly among Gen Z. Anecdotally, I have seen a few friends (in our mid-to-late 20s) 'find God' and start going to church over the past couple of years. Not just passively attending either; actively engaging in Bible classes and retreats. My TikTok is also showing me a lot of this - British 20-somethings talking about their Christianity.

I find it really interesting, especially the timing of it. With the advances in science and us having been a pretty atheist society for a while now, I am surprised. Is it a consequence of being on the back end of the pandemic followed by a cost-of-living crisis that people are looking for answers outside of themselves? I know when things get hard I find myself praying, even when I don't believe in God. Is this an example of that kind of thinking but on a bigger scale?

Science doesn’t actually disprove God. It’s a totally different field. It’s perfectly possible to understand science yet still believe there is more to life than the concrete.

Perhaps they're looking for answers to the hollow vacuousness of capitalism.

Who are you praying to if you don’t believe in God? It’s interesting that people turn to God yet deny him

We are, which is terrifying for me

Single mums, sen children are all the target of this lots hatred, and they're getting louder and more powerful, with their 'good family values'

It's interesting. I am 32 but converted to liberal judaism in my 20s. One big reason I think was due to my visa (had to wait for 8 months to get issued a residence card), dh then job searching for several months after leaving a new job, my anxiety about the housing crisis (which meant i stayed longer than i should to get my deposit together) and the difficulty of buying a london flat (took a year and got gazumped twice), I stayed with my orthodox jewish MIL for 3 years in my 20s and only left when I was 26 and we bought our London flat. I started going to a liberal synagogue as it was an acceptable way of getting out of the house and sitting through long winded shabbat dinners. Bonus was that it was located in central London so it took an hour to get home.

I eventually converted as I liked the congregation.

A gen z proselyte at my synagogue who had previously gone to church told me gen z was searching for authenticity whatever that means.

I’m not surprised. Adherence to a religion is still strong in most countries. I’ve always been surprised at how increasingly irreligious Britain is; or rather, how decreasingly Christian.
So many disused and converted churches.
Im atheist myself, though, and have no idea what’s driving the upswing in Christianity.

We've definitely got more young families/teens at my CofE church than we did a few years ago. Not sure what's caused it, but it's lovely to see.

I didn't know this actually. I'm a Christian and have been really surprised over the last few years by how many other Christians I've met through am dram/musical theatre groups. I'm in 2 different groups and they seem to be about 25% practising Christian in one and 40% in the other. Which is very high compared to the population. But they aren't generally 'new' Christians and aren't all young so that's not necessarily related.

Personally, I think it's good for the younger generation to have something to believe in and belong to. But then I don't see faith as a bad thing so that's easy for me to say.

There is also a swing to the right politically
Religions like to put straight males at the top of the pyramid. It’s not their actions or choices that will be condemned.

But it shows a significant change in the number of young people who are active Christians, with the Bible Society concluding that young people are longing for community and for meaning in their lives. It shows that 80 per cent of churchgoing young people see their life as meaningful, compared with just 52 per cent of non-churchgoers.
“Full-fat Christianity is back,” says Professor Paul Williams, chief executive of Bible Society. “Anecdotally, we are finding young people reporting Jesus appearing in their dreams. We have never heard of this before.”.

Something is definitely happening. My atheist dh (who has secretly eaten pork since age 10 and stopped wearing kippot at 13 despite growing up orthodox jewish and going to an ultra orthodox jewish primary school) has recently started going to reform synagogue services after he decided to join to get our unborn son into nursery. My ex Muslim atheist friend who had told me for years he is a firm atheist and has a lesbian sister he is very close to, told me he is considering converting to Christianity. Like I said in PP, I converted to liberal judaism in my 20s.

We are all '90 to '93 babies, all very socially liberal, pro choice, pro gay marriage etc

From what I’ve read it’s mostly high church Roman Catholic, not Anglican. The Church of England continues to destroy itself from the top down. They are missing a trick by not engaging with young people interested in high church Christianity.

As it happens, my village parish is blessed with an excellent vicar and an extraordinary voluntary Director of Music, so we have a superb choir and a lot going on. But we are isolated from the politics snd trends of the age group you mention (not many 20 somethings in our village other than a few young men working for the local estate as foresters etc and they are all local multi-generational estate workers who live with their parents in estate cottages).

Er, it may not disprove ‘God’ but it disproves a lot of the Bible.

My church is mostly women: the vicar, the the churchwardens, the organist, most of the choir (a pity!) and about three-quarters of the congregation are women. The vicar preaches a lot about love and acceptance. There are some young families too, although I don't think as many as a few years ago.

There's increasingly archaeological evidence for the OT kings and battles though.

I’d imagine the statistical increase is driven quite significantly by immigration: many Central and Eastern Europeans are still quite religious, and there are a good number of Baptist / Methodist / Unitarian churches with large West African congregations in my part of London.

I don’t personally know anybody of my demographic taking part in a Christian revival, and have never seen it come up on my reels in the UK.

I don't really see evidence of this among the people I know. If anything there are fewer and fewer practising christians. The local vicar told me rather sadly he hasn't had a child in the congregation at all since covid & most of his regular worshippers are over 70.

It’s not the history I’m talking about. The bible isn’t a history book though. Science disproves practically all of the ‘magical’ stuff (read ‘God’ stuff) though.

The church which has gained a huge following near us is part of the four12 church. I'm not a fan, but Google is very much dominated by their propaganda, so it's difficult to find dissent. They seem to have very "traditional" values.

A lot of the increase in urban areas is strongly driven by migration, ethnic minority communities from countries with either strong evangelical cultural traditions, RC or eastern European orthodox.

A factor is the religious freedom we have in the UK. People who's faith isn't accepted somewhere else choose the uk to come to because they know that we accept "any faith and none".

One of my dc is doing their holy communion this year & it's the biggest ever group & the widest group (lots of different schools) they have had. It's a young congregation & pretty diverse, cynically I assumed it was due to schools. Traditionally a lot in my area would go private for secondary but even before VAT high housing costs & stagnant wages make that hard.

nfkl · Today 11:17

10% of gen pop is stanning for another, foreign religion with very conspicuous behaviours, clothing, rules etc.

Christianity is also a foreign religion, from the same part of the world and it also originated from Judaism, like Islam.

I guess it's consistent with people generally tapping into irrational explanations - see also the rise in conspiracy theorists - and with the increasingly broadly puritanical aspect of public discourse - eg calling people out for saying/doing the wrong thing/ social media shaming. Depressing though.

Are there hard stats on this or is it just perrception of increased church attendance? Because perception and perceived fashionability is very easily confected and amplified by social media. Plus lots of the more evangelical outfits are very monied and tech savvy.