by Marcus Walker, Spectator
‘No one pretends that modern services will fill the churches. But adult converts ought to be able to step naturally into being worshippers. How absurd that a convert should be warned to undergo cultural orientation before he comes to church.’
These words of the arch-reformer Colin Buchanan in 1979 sum up the views of that post-1960s generation, who believed that all the prayer and thought which Anglicans had inherited was alien to the new generation. It was thought so alien, in fact, that a full cultural orientation would be needed to persuade people to come to church. Modernity was the answer to most questions, and most especially: ‘How do we get the young to come to church?’
Fifty years later, I am not sure anyone would call this experiment a success. Two generations of youth have taken one look at our ‘youth-friendly’ church and defriended it, with each new generation less inclined to religion than the last.
Until now. There is much evidence that young adults – and young men in particular – have been returning to church. Most interesting of all is that these young people seem to be craving authenticity and tradition – or ‘full-fat faith’, as many are calling it.
In the Church of England, one of the primary modes of full-fat faith is the old Prayer Book, and although this trend is certainly being manifested in other traditions too, it is to the Prayer Book and the language of the English Renaissance that many of the young are returning.