by Rhys Laverty, The Critic
Churches have been growing in Britain — just not all of them
Well, the results are in. Or rather, out. The Bible Society has been forced to admit that the “Quiet Revival” which it had reported on in 2024, and which has generated reams of op-eds and more one-day conferences than anyone has had time to attend, was based on faulty data from YouGov.
There has been a tug of war over the figures from day one, with many very excited by the findings and others expressing scepticism. Interestingly, the sceptics weren’t just grouchy New Atheists looking for a comeback; they included plenty of committed churchgoers and religious affairs journalists.
The sceptics have more or less been vindicated. Yet anyone who has followed the Quiet Revival discourse will know that one reason it has resonated so much can’t be reduced to bogus statistics but to the fact that many churchgoers, both laypeople and church leaders, have found that it confirms what they are seeing before their eyes as their congregations swell.
So how do we make sense of this disconnect?