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Signs of a Post Secular Britain
By the Very Rev. Dr. Justyn Terry
Special to Virtueonline
www.virtueonline.org
March 11, 2015
My visit to the UK in March was a time of great encouragement as I heard evidence of what might be the early signs of a post-secular Britain.
Two clergy friends of mine in London reported that in 2013 they, and many others, had the best Christmas church attendance in many years.
Non-churchgoing people are coming to church, or returning to church, but they come bruised and wounded. It is clear that they will not only need to be converted but also healed of their emotional wounds, and taught what it means to live a Christian life. Both of my friends said that the voices of strident atheists like Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett have become an embarrassment to the secularists. Even the notoriously secular British press is now apparently turning against them because they are making the implications of atheism ever more clear and people are saying: "If that is atheism, we don't want it."
Evidence of a change in the spiritual environment in the UK is not just anecdotal. A recent survey Church Growth in Britain, 1980 to the Present Day, (Farnham, UK: Ashgate 2012), edited by David Goodhew, shows that, although the Church of England remains in decline, the overall Church in England is growing. The report shows that messages from the media and elsewhere about church decline overlook the many examples of church growth. It reveals that much of this growth involves people from ethnic minorities, and suggests that more attention be paid to them. The most effective engine for this growth is church planting, and dioceses are being encouraged to develop church planting strategies. The report also makes clear that church growth is happening especially along the trade routes where populations are growing. That too has important implications for the mission of the Church in the UK and elsewhere.
This is obviously encouraging news for Christians in Britain, who often feel beleaguered. But it also has implications for Europe and for the wider world where secularism appears triumphant. It seems that the old adage applies even to secularism: "this too will pass."
The long secular winter may be coming to an end. Aslan is on the move. So let us not be discouraged, but continue to do faithfully, graciously, and joyfully whatever God has given us to do in His harvest field. May the Church be reformed, renewed and ready for the post-secular age which may be here sooner than we expect.
The Very Rev. Dr. Justyn Terry is Dean and President of Trinity School for Ministry in Ambridge, PA
