Yorkshire Post
Published Date: 26 May 2009
By Michael Brown Religious Affairs Correspondent
A YORKSHIRE bishop is claiming there may be a “turning of the tide” in the supposed decline of Christianity in this country – or at least in his 920 square-mile “patch”.
Pointers to a boost are outlined by Bishop of Bradford David James in an upbeat message to his diocese of 130 parishes and 165 churches in Bradford, a quarter of North Yorkshire, and parts of Leeds, Lancashire and Cumbria.

The 63-year-old church leader, in an article headed “What’s the Buzz?” in the June issue of his diocesan news, admits that in Western Europe Christianity is in decline.

But even in that part of Europe he says there are signs that the situation is changing. And in the last few weeks as he has travelled around his area, he has been hearing encouraging comments.

Bishop James says the comments include: “Some new young families have started worshipping with us – I haven’t a clue where they come from”; “nearly everyone in the Upper Dale came to a carol service”; “we have more people in church during the week than on a Sunday – there are scores of mums and toddlers”; “we have a lot more weddings this year, for some reason”; and “baptisms are on the up”.

He added: “These are just a few of the ‘What’s the Buzz? Tell me what’s a-happening!’ snippets,” and concludes: “They suggest a turn of the tide”.

Bishop James, who has been at Bradford since 2002 and was previously Bishop of Pontefract, says that last September 130 of his churches took part in Back to Church Sunday – a Church of England scheme to get people going to church again – and from a survey in five deaneries it is estimated that over 1,000 people responded to the invitation.

He adds: “I have begun to confirm some of those who continued to come.”

This year’s Back to Church Sunday is on September 27 and his prayer for every church in his diocese “is that there will be something of the sense of ‘electricity crackling in the air’ because any one of the people you welcome could be an angel in disguise and any one could be coming with that sense of curiosity and expectation – What’s the Buzz? Tell me what’s a-happening! – and you will be saying to them in some way or other ‘The living faith, the God who brings life from death is for you!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 27th, 2009 at 12:58 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.