from Anglican Futures
The New Wine Festival draws over 14,000 people to the Bath and West Showground in Shepton Mallett for a week of events to, “connect with God, connect with one another, and connect with our churches as we collectively seek the Holy Spirit’s power, presence and guidance…”.
The 2025 event ended on Tuesday having basked in a week of (mainly) uninterrupted sunshine.
Those who attend New Wine are (mostly) from Anglican churches and the leadership is (almost entirely) drawn from the Church of England and (mainly) clergy in the CofE and (often) their spouses.
The New Wine Festival attracts (mainly) evangelical Anglicans of one stripe or another with (most) being somewhat charismatically inclined- contemporary worship styles are a big part of the Festival.
About 2,000 children young people join in an extensive programme – meaning about 13% of the gathering is 18 or under – which is a profile (broadly) the same as claimed for the Church of England as a whole. That being said, under 16’s in the Church of England are (highly) concentrated – such that about 38% of parishes have no children or young people at all and 68% have five or fewer.
Young people also means parents- the Church of England’s age profile suggests that about 46% of congregants are between 18 and 70 years of age but, as (again perhaps) at New Wine they must too be (fairly) clustered in certain places- most obviously, those where their children are.
So, the New Wine Festival is, compared with the average parish, disproportionately young and disproportionately evangelical, which is (perhaps) no surprise – maybe the numbers suggest those things go together. To the dismay of some, it is even possible that means, if the Church of England has a future it might be rather more New Wine than Old Hundredth.
So, as a sample of the Church as a whole and particularly the Church of England of the future, New Winers aren’t the worst one.
Anglican Futures (AF) were at New Wine throughout the week- hosting a stall in the “Fun Zone”. In the spirit of fun, AF repeated the straw poll as to who should be the next Archbishop of Canterbury which caused amused interest during the last meeting of General Synod.
The rules were simple- anyone of any age could vote once (in theory) and for anyone they wanted- however unsuitable or unqualified. Any person who garnered even a single vote was added to the voting boards, and from halfway through the Festival, a rolling “top twenty” was posted.