Church attendance in Greater London grew by 16% between 2005 and 2012.[1] In addition, the latest immigrants to the UK as a whole mean British Christianity is becoming more charismatic and fundamentalist.[2]
In 2022, new churches and Pentecostal churches were growing rapidly in the United Kingdom.[3]
According to a 2016 BBC documentary, pentecostal Christianity is the fastest growing form of Christianity in the UK. In 2016, there were 500,000 pentecostal Christians in the UK according to the documentary.[4] In 2010, the American sociologist Peter L. Berger said of pentecostalism : "One can say with some confidence that modern Pentecostalism must be the fastest growing religion in human history."[5]
Due to religious immigrants, many of whom are evangelical Christians, church attendance in Greater London grew by 16% between 2005 and 2012.[6] In 2013, it was reported that 52% of people who attended church in London attended evangelical churches.[7]
On December 14th, 2009, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported:
| “ | According to the Mail Evangelical Christianity is on the rise.
Some 4.5million of the UK's foreign-born population claim to have a religious affiliation. Of these, around a quarter are Muslim while more than half are Christian – with Polish Catholics and African Pentecostals among the fastest-growing groups. While traditional churchgoing is on the decline in the UK over the past decade, the latest immigrants mean Christianity is becoming more charismatic and fundamentalist. 'Perhaps the most significant change has been the growth of Pentecostal and charismatic Christianity within migrant populations, particularly those from Africa and Latin America,' the report found. 'In Lewisham, there are 65 Pentecostal churches serving the Nigerian community, and others serving the Congolese, Ghanaian and Ivorian communities.' Professor Mike Kenny of IPPR said: 'The research shows that recent waves of inward migration have given a boost to some of the UK's established faith communities at a time when Britain's society and culture are generally more secular, and smaller numbers of the indigenous population are regularly attending churches. 'Recent migration trends are altering the faith map of the UK. Their biggest impact is being felt in some of our largest cities: London above all, where a rich mosaic of different faith communities has come into being.' Evangelical Christianity might be heavily African-influenced but it’s also spreading among the natives as well.[8] |
” |
Mike Gilbart-Smith, the pastor of Twynholm Baptist Church in Fulham, England, wrote in 2014:
| “ | The proportion of churchgoers who would call themselves evangelical has remained remarkably stable at around 2.5% of the population. In addition to this, of those denominations mentioned earlier that had seen 15% increase “apart from the Orthodox Churches and probably some of the Fresh Expressions churches, all are evangelical.” The two largest denominations experiencing such growth, New Frontiers and the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, are both explicitly Reformed in their theology. Those that had seen 15% decline were predominantly liberal or Catholic.[9] | ” |
External links
- Pentecostalism Invades Lambeth Palace by Peter Berger
References
- ↑ London Churchgoing and Other News
- ↑ I'm not surprised Evangelical Christianity is on the rise by Ed West, The Telegraph, December 14th, 2009
- ↑ The Census is Not All Bad News For Christians, The Critic, 2022
- ↑ Life and Death the Pentecostal Way Full BBC Documentary 2016
- ↑ Pentecostalism – Protestant Ethic or Cargo Cult?, Peter Berger, July 29, 2010
- ↑ London Churchgoing and Other News
- ↑ London Churchgoing and Other News
- ↑ I'm not surprised Evangelical Christianity is on the rise by Ed West, The Telegraph, December 14th, 2009
- ↑ [Is Christianity in Britain in Terminal Decline?] by Mike Gilbart-Smith