Inside the migrant revival of British Christianity

Audio Long Reads, from the New Statesman

According to the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, the face of British Christianity is changing rapidly. London is now home to the greatest concentration of African churches outside Africa – many of them in bingo halls and warehouses, schools and community centres, where they also serve as social and charitable hubs. Outside the capital, the prospects of a religious revival are relatively bleak: weekly Church of England attendance is below 2 per cent of England’s population, and 20 Anglican churches are closed for worship every year. Is secularisation “almost entirely a white British phenomenon”, as the Birkbeck political scientist Eric Kaufmann puts it?

In this week’s long read Tomiwa Owolade, a New Statesman contributing writer, explores this divide and looks at the migrant roots of London’s Christian revival. He finds that, largely because of its religious population, the capital has become the most socially conservative city in the country, with a higher percentage of Londoners disapproving of sex outside marriage and homosexuality.

“This is awkward for conservative thinkers,” Owolade writes, “who complain about the decline of Christianity, and about large-scale immigration to Britain. Without immigration, the decline of Christianity would be even more profound. But it is also tricky for progressives: many of these immigrant communities espouse values on gender and sexuality that are far from liberal.”

Will the African Christian revival be dampened by a wider secular culture – or will it expand?

Written and read by Tomiwa Owolade.

This article originally appeared in the 31 March-13 April New Statesman spring special. You can read the text version here.

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