It is more than 130 years since Nietzsche declared that “God is dead”, and forecasts of the demise of organised religion in the UK and elsewhere have been a regular fixture ever since.
But new figures from Britain’s longest-running and most important barometer of general public opinion suggest that reports of the imminent death of Christianity at least may have been greatly exaggerated.
As-yet unpublished findings from this year’s British Social Attitudes Survey (BSA), seen by the Sunday Telegraph, show decades of decline in religious affiliation appearing to level off.
The overall proportion of Britons who described themselves as Christian actually rose one percentage point in the last year from 42 per cent to 43 per cent.
[blockquote] “The biggest change within the different religious groups in recent years has been a drop in the numbers of people identifying themselves as Church of England or Anglican, from 22 per cent in 2006 to 17 per cent when the most recent data were collected last year.”[/blockquote]
Does this indicate the rise of non-established Christian churches?
UP in short the answer to your question is No, but with exceptions. You can find the statistical answer to your question here:
http://www.eauk.org/church/research-and-statistics/church-membership.cfm
based on the research of Peter Brierley, whose fuller account you can find here:
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/54228e0ce4b059910e19e44e/t/54353bf1e4b039dc4b938fce/1412774897001/intro.pdf
Notice, though, that these statistics are for the UK as a whole. Given the differing national communities I think it raises questions to lump together for example the figures from the Church of Ireland in Ulster, the Episcopal Church in Scotland and the Church of England and the Church in Wales (the differing names alone gives us pause for thought about Anglican multiplicity).
Two caveats if I may: first, I take his figures and optimism about Fresh Expressions with a huge pinch of salt. Anecdotal evidence indicates people coming, yes, but not moving into the mainstream and after a bit, moving out.
Second, as a Catholic myself I was dismayed by his prediction of increased decline for the Catholic Church. It is hard for me to believe this because here in London we can hardly keep up with the numbers who come. My own parish is on the small side – but each Sunday we have around 500 people in Mass and in an average year around 30-35 baptisms. However as the Brexit referendum made clear, London is not England, let alone the United Kingdom. In fact Sean Connery, who supports Scottish independence, describes London as a principality on its own. Interesting to note that the C of E diocese of London has been the only one to stem the tide of numerical decline and to a modest extent even reverse it. London seems to be always booming. However I know, again anecdotally, that in the North things are much more difficult for the Catholic Church, so sadly, Peter Brierley may be right.
Finally, I have been neighbour (in my last two assignments as pastor) to two Church of England charismatic evangelical parishes and have been impressed by their vigor and creativity. I suspect that evangelicalism in general will increasingly shape the Church of England.