James Mumford is a well-dressed 27-year-old from the posh London neighborhood of Pimlico. He holds degrees in philosophy from Oxford and Yale and, like many of Britain’s elite, spent a post-graduate stint working in London’s finance industry. But tonight he wants to talk about how he came to accept the Lord Jesus Christ into his heart. “I don’t mind talking about my faith,” he says, sheepishly. “But it’s a touch embarrassing. Just don’t brand me as a mindless evangelical.”
That peculiarly British reticence may be one reason that an unexpected spiritual awakening among London’s high society has gone unnoticed in recent years. Long considered an aggressively secular city, London has quietly become one of Britain’s most Christian areas, going from the least observant region in Britain in 1979 to the second most observant today. Much of that resurgence in piety is the result of the city’s expanding and devout immigrant population. But there is also a growing number of young, highly educated and moneyed Londoners ”” people such as Mumford ”” who are turning to the church.
The focal point for many of these new believers is Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), an evangelical Anglican church in plush Kensington. The church’s 4000-strong congregation has almost tripled in the past 15 years, and its average age is 27 years. While HTB does not keep records of these young converts’ wealth, a look at its bulging collection hat offers some clue: the church raised over $7 million from donations last year alone (An average London parish, by contrast, can expect to raise around $150,000, according to data provided by the Anglican church). The church has become so popular that it recently began encouraging hundreds of its congregation to attend dying churches around London ”” as much to ease its own congestion than anything else.
[i] Finding Jesus in London [/i]
Better than losing Jesus in Newsweek.
I find it ludicrous to believe that HTB is discouraging people from attending there, or encouraging them to “attend dying churches”. There is a reason they are dying. The Law and Gospel are being uncompromisingly preached at HTB…not so in others. Many of the “dying churches” have become tourist attractions, museums, and concert halls. On my last visit in 2003 it seemed rather ironic and almost comical that there are so many dead people buried in their churches. That seems to be the case in many Episcopal churches in the U. S. also, it’s just that they haven’t yet been buried.
#1,
Can I steal that one some time? 🙂
Christopher [#3]: Any time.
#2, Time has actually conflated another component of the HTB story because they have sent out mission teams from the parish to congregations that are dying or are in trouble and have sought to restore them. One example is St. Paul’s, Hammersmith, where 200 HTBers went to a virtually empty church some years ago, and there is now a congregation of over 500. I know this well because we have four or five students at Ridley Hall who come from that parish. I believe there are 12-15 churches that have received this treatment, but someone else may have better numbers than me.
Some of the beacons are gradually being re-lit, one by one. Prayers it may it continue.
Actually I think it is fair to say that something rather extraordinary is happening, particularly in London.
Perhaps there is an opportunity now for another beacon to be lit here
#5, Richard, you have that about right. They send servant-leader type church planting teams to almost redundant churches. They have done this about a dozen times to great effectiveness. It is one of many reasons that HTB, and its leadership,is loved and trusted by the ABC and the Bp of London.
RE: “Time has actually conflated another component of the HTB story because they have sent out mission teams from the parish to congregations that are dying or are in trouble and have sought to restore them.”
Wow — Pageantmaster, that is fantastic. I wish so much that this could have been done in TEC.
HTB and friends
#10 Think the quote was Richard Kew’s, Sarah, but yes no time like the present?
But remember this has mainly happened in a city with good communications, it can be more difficult in the country to plant congregations unless people are willing to travel.
England awaking from a long, dark sleep?
Just to encourage you folks, there is more good news. Right next door to Holy Trinity is the Baroque edifice of Brompton Oratory, an RC church and one of the biggest in London. It too is thriving. Here are the 2007 stats from the Westminster (RC) diocesan yearbook:
ASA 2200
baptisms 141
adults received into the church 14
weddings 30
Interesting that the article says that London is going against the national grain in that faith is growing here. It would be my perception too. Visitors from other areas who come to our church here in West London are amazed at the number of children and young adults. It’s a case of Deo gratias and thanks, too, to the people of faith who work so hard to create a vibrant parish community.
This reminds us of something we tend to forget: The hunger for religion is indwelling, not something one has to be taught. You CAN be taught you are not hungry, or that your hunger can be satisfied by the hard-boiled agenda, but this won’t do. The hunger knows itself for what it is, and what food alone will nourish it. Larry
Britain is hard to figure sometimes like that. When I lived there for about six months, I always expected, when visiting a C of E parish for the first time on any given Sunday that it would be like 5 people older than Moses in attendance.
Sometimes it was like that, but other times, the churches would be packed, and usually in places like London or Cambridge where one would think Church going would be rock bottom. There’s still hope yet!
This is totally awesome! Is this the beginning of the resurrection of the Church of England?