The revival of the Church is to be welcomed

Telegraph

20-04-2025

Well over a thousand years of continuous Christianity have left traces deep within the British character and culture in ways that can be hard to perceive. Only 46 per cent of the population would describe themselves as Christian, but many of those who do not subscribe to moral teachings and espouse literary references that are rooted in that faith.
As former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams wrote in these pages recently, the Church has shaped our laws, our music, and our sense of justice even when we may not be fully aware of this inheritance. For those raised with other faiths, England's Christian inheritance has often become a major part of their lives through osmosis and cultural exchange.
Despite this cultural weight, the place of the Church in Britain has for generations been that of the 'melancholy, long, withdrawing roar'; a retreat with no sign of end, a sad sense of what was rather than what will be, and that just as the tides of time have left few physical remnants of the early days of British Christianity, they will leave few hard and fast remains of the faith itself; the linguistic or literary equivalents of the Saxon chancel at Jarrow, buried by the accretions of the centuries since.
As the writer J R R Tolkien once remarked in a letter, as 'a Christian, and indeed a Roman Catholic... I do not expect 'history' to be anything but a 'long defeat' – though it contains (and in a legend may contain more clearly and movingly) some samples or glimpses of final victory'. Yet even the most beautifully phrased pessimism may come unstuck from time to time.
Speak to clergymen the length and breadth of the country, and the response is similar: a mildly stunned air at the rapid pace of growth both in their own congregations, and those of their neighbouring parishes, a phenomenon borne out not only by anecdote but by data. Church attendance across England and Wales is rising sharply, and in particular amongst young people.
As Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, writes overleaf, the resurrection is 'hope for the world and consolation for all who are so deeply afflicted by our wayward searches for futile victories or misplaced greatness'. The crucifixion, and the harrowing of Holy Saturday, have been followed by life. The resurrection of the Church in England, too, should be a source of inspiration to all, both to the Christians whose faith it represents and those of other faiths who value its immeasurable contribution to the common culture of this nation.
Yesterday, as an ancient Christian homily has it, there was 'a great silence over the earth'. But today, on Easter Sunday, hope is rekindled for all mankind.