A change in the weather? A brighter outlook?
More money from the commissioners and evidence of ‘a quiet revival’ are welcome developments for the Church of England
These two very different recent developments may be more linked than they might appear.
My previous blogs could not be described as cheerful in their assessment of the state of the Church of England. But a couple of recent developments suggest a more promising outlook. The first of these is the news that the Church Commissioners are to transfer a total of £1.6bn to dioceses over the next three years, up from £1.2bn over the last three years.[1] Much of this continues to be made available through large grants for mission focused projects requiring a bidding process (SMIIB funds) but some will be allocated to increases in clergy pensions and clergy stipends and improvements in clergy retirement housing provision.
The second development is the publication of the Bible Society’s report on what it calls ‘The Quiet Revival’.[2] This report, based on a poll carried out in partnership with YouGov finds that church attendance in England and Wales is rising, with the numbers of churchgoers increasing from 8% of the population in 2018 to 12% in 2024. Regular churchgoing is defined as at least monthly attendance at services. The increase is strongest amongst the young, the so-called Generation Z, in the report classified as those aged 18-24. It is reported that in this age group church attendance has increased from 4% of the population in 2018 to 16% for young women and 21% for young men in 2024.
I’ll comment on the Quiet Revival first. The claims the report makes are striking and provoke scepticism. Leaving aside the credibility of the basic finding that Christianity is suddenly popular among the age group that has been so hard to reach (or so it has been thought), the numbers claimed seem incredible for the short time period concerned. In a recent article for the Church Times Madeleine Davies surveyed some of the current thinking and evidence around religious decline in the UK and beyond.[3] Several of the academics mentioned in the article argue that the decline in religion in the UK is a deep-rooted socio-cultural phenomenon that no strategy for growth (such as the Renewal and Reform programme of 2015) would be likely to reverse. Referring to the Quiet Revival the dean of church-planting at St Hild’s College talks about the ‘overstated claims and poor research as seen in this report’. Nevertheless, as Professor Stefan Paas observes ‘sociologists are right until they aren’t.’ Something can happen that breaks the pattern.
It seems overwhelmingly likely that the Bible Society’s report is overclaiming. But it does not mean it is wrong. Madeleine Davies also states that many Roman Catholic dioceses are reporting numbers of catechumens not seen for a decade. My own (anecdotal) evidence is also that something is happening. One of my parishes has, since covid, lost at least 10-15 older members to death. But our numbers overall are the same or higher than they were pre-covid. We have at least ten young families that attend services reasonably regularly, none of which were present in 2021 when I became incumbent. We have at least two young men who have appeared on their own. In my other parish we have a teenage girl and her father who come because the daughter decided she wanted to. They have no churchgoing background. Perhaps more is happening elsewhere – the Quiet Revival report says most growth is being seen in Roman Catholic and Pentecostal settings.
One of the most striking things about this phenomenon, if it is at least somewhat as reported, is that it cannot be attributed directly to anything the church is doing. It has a life of its own. The Quiet Revival report argues that now that the urge to identify nominally with Christian faith and the church is so greatly diminished that the rediscovery of faith as an authentic personal choice has become more possible and this seems plausible. Let us assume this is so for a moment. How should we respond to this change in the weather?
I do not say that what might be happening cannot be helped or hindered by the church’s actions. I suggest we can create the right environment within our churches. The report finds that those coming to church want to study faith seriously and value serving the community. They also tend to be more liberal in social attitudes than some existing churchgoers. On that basis it seems likely that if newcomers find a lack of welcome or judgemental attitudes or inauthentic expressions of faith or a lack of engagement with community needs and with the contemporary world they are unlikely to stay.
We are still likely to need some programmes and innovation and updating to meet the needs of the present time. We will probably still need to go looking for those who might be interested in faith rather than rely on them finding us. I suggest, however, that the key is authentically being the church, that is embodying the spirit of Christ. We probably do that most convincingly by operating creatively within the particular tradition we have inherited rather than by the wholesale adoption of practices that have worked elsewhere. In the Church of England that should mean an emphatic affirmation of the importance of being the church for the whole community.
I’ll turn now to the news of better funding for clergy in service and in retirement. Clearly this is welcome news for the clergy themselves and therefore for me, although my years of non-stipendiary ministry mean that the pension improvements will not affect me a great deal personally. Why do I see these developments as good news for the church more widely? In the first place because it constitutes a significant distribution of power and resource to dioceses and parishes after a long period of accumulation of both at the centre. Secondly because it signals a willingness to use the accumulated wealth of the church to fund its regular ministry without strings attached. Thirdly because it constitutes an affirmation of the role of the church’s priests.
This latter point is highly significant I suggest. The affirmation of priesthood is theologically important in a sacramental church. I do not wish in any way to diminish the importance of lay ministry nor the priesthood of the whole body of Christ, but we are a church that has traditionally valued ordained ministry and placed it at the centre of its polity. It is priests who are authorised to administer the sacraments which remain the heart of the church’s ministry.
The affirmation is practically important too. The reality is that the Church of England depends on its priests. Organisationally it is priests that provide leadership at the local level. Corporations influenced by the human relations school of organisation theory talk about ‘people being their greatest asset’. They mean their employees when they say that. Clergy may be officers rather than employees but the same principle applies. Yet despite the theological, practical and organisational importance of the clergy I do not think I go too far in suggesting that this body of men and women have been exploited by the Church of England in recent years. They have been given impossible jobs with extended hours and responsibility (in fact if not in theory) whilst their stipend and benefits have been eroded. They have also been seen as in some way culpable for the church’s decline. The 2015 report on Resourcing Ministerial Education [4] clearly implied as much when it sought to recruit clergy more suitable for pursuing growth strategies. Yet, as my discussion of the Quiet Revival suggests, it is highly unlikely that anything would have stopped significant decline (though the church as a whole might well have managed it better had we made an effort to understand it). In a crucial sense secularisation is a movement beyond our control, just as the revival that may be happening now among the young is also.
One of the most interesting developments of the last few months is the formation of the Clergy Pensions Action Group. This body attracted about 1500 mostly clergy supporters on Facebook within ten days of launching and has 2,100 supporters now. The group provides evidence that clergy are beginning to organise to improve their conditions. I think, say, a strike, is highly unlikely but that clergy are willing to take corporate action seems to me a useful corrective to the balance of power within the church.
Let me try and put these two developments - the Quiet Revival and clergy funding - together. I support the Church of England developing strategies that are designed to shape the church and its ministry in ways that meet the challenges we face. As I’ve argued previously the different ‘levels’ of the church have important but distinct roles to play in these endeavours. The two recent developments I have discussed, different though they are, both suggest crucial factors that should affect our planning.
Firstly, the Quiet Revival data, to the extent that it is a real reflection of what is doing on, demonstrates how much we need to take account of factors beyond our direct control. We need to hear what God is saying to us though the voices of those around us. We need to be ready to respond to what God is doing.
Secondly, one of the dangers of strategising is that we focus on too much on particular targets (e.g. growth). The result is often that we neglect or distort key aspects of core purpose and values. All organisations must evolve as times and needs change but those that compromise key aspects of their identity tend to fail. The emphasis on growth of the last ten years carries just that risk for the Church of England.
I wonder if I am being too fanciful in seeing these two developments as, in different ways, an affirmation of the core value of authentic Anglican ministry, serving its community and open to the world. It is, in the end, all we really have to offer, in good times and bad.
[1] Church Times, p1 13 June 2025
[2] https://www.biblesociety.org.uk/research/quiet-revival
[3] Church Times, ‘The ship of faith with the wind taken out of its sails’, 23 May 2025. All ensuing quotes are from this article.
[4] Task group, Resourcing Ministerial Education in the Church of England, (London: Church of England,2015).