Chine McDonald writes about the 2021 Census for the Financial Times. 03/12/2022

If everyone who ticked the “Christian” box in last year’s census were to actually turn up to church on Sunday, there wouldn’t be nearly enough pews, let alone biscuits to go round after the service. This is despite the fact that, according to data released this week, the number of people in England and Wales identifying as Christian has dropped to less than half the population, at 46 per cent, down from 59 per cent a decade ago and 71 per cent in 2001.

The National Secular Society was quick to jump on these figures as evidence of a changing tide. “It’s official,” said its chief executive, “we are no longer a Christian country.” But anyone who needed the census data to show them that has not been paying attention. Christians who mention to colleagues on a Monday morning that they were at church the day before will tell you the look of mild perplexity or indifference with which they are met. Christianity — that is, practising Christianity — is not the norm, but the exception. In the UK, the faith has been perceived to be in decline since at least the 19th century. It was, after all, in 1867 that Matthew Arnold’s poem “Dover Beach” described the “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar” of the “Sea of Faith”, “retreating, to the breath of the night–wind”.

Read the full article here.

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