Jerusalem Builded Here: Why England's Churches are Empty

by Nick Hallett
20 Apr 2014

Easter Sunday may be the holiest day of the year for Christians, but this year more churches than ever will find themselves with empty pews as the British public turn away from organised religion. What went wrong? Why, despite years of liberalisation and modernisation, are churches driving people away?

You will have read James Delingpole's piece on why Christianity is dying in Britain. The statistics back up his analysis, revealing that churchgoers are turned off by trendy liberalism, moral relativism and endless arguments over the modernisers' pet projects such as female clergy.

In 2007, the Tearfund Trust, a Christian charity, published one of the most detailed ever reports on church attendance in the UK. It said that just 15 percent on the UK go to church at least once a month.

Yet it's not as if Britain has suddenly become a secular, atheistic country. According to the same survey, 58 percent of the population still profess to be Christian, while the 2011 Census puts the figure at 59 percent.

Also, a huge proportion of those who don’t attend church have been "de-churched" – that is, they once regularly attended church but no longer go... the rest

So in other words, despite decades of "modernising", of ditching difficult aspects of faith in order to become more "relevant", and of embracing "alternative lifestyles", Britain's churches are actually driving Christians away in record numbers.