Through prayer and meditation, we can be in tune with godly ideals.”Robbi Robson, chair of British Humanist Association and Assistant Director of the Royal College of Nursing’s Policy Department”I came from a broadly speaking Anglican background, and went to a Methodist boarding school, which meant sitting in chapel for large quantities of time, but I don’t think becoming a humanist was a rebellion. Indarjit Singh, Sikh, journalist and broadcaster, vice-chair of Interfaith Network, JP and OBE

“Sikhism is not a missionary religion. It is a religion which teaches that there are many paths to God, and that we are small fry in the universe.
It is often difficult to be a Sikh, particularly for children; they think `If I didn’t have a turban I would be better accepted’. My good fortune is that I was brought up with parents who didn’t press their religion on us.

They simply lived it.As a Sikh, you can be told at job interviews that `We would love to have you, but our workforce might not’. I started off as a mining engineer, and I was told by the National Coal Board that I shouldn’t go into management because I would find difficulties there with the men. When both parties are marrying for the first time, then, in 1995, 64 per cent of those marriages took place in a religious building.In 1996, 638,900 people died in Britain and 95 per cent of them were despatched with a funeral including a Christian ceremony.About 19 per cent of the adult population attend church each week, but almost double that figure claim to be regular attenders.Church attendance in the East Midlands, Yorkshire and Humberside regions is the lowest in Britain.The Local Authority Districts which have the smallest percentage attending church are Blyth Valley in Northumberland (3 per cent), and Castle Point in Essex, Boston in Lincolnshire, and Lichfield and Tamworth in Staffordshire (all 4 per cent). The highest percentages are in Ribble Valley in Lancashire (26 per cent), West Devon (23 per cent) and South Staffordshire (22 per cent).The number of religious books being published in the UK has risen rapidly since 1993, when 2,600 were published. Privately far-removed from stereotypical evangelical tub-thumpers like Billy Graham and Morris Cerullo, in public he has the power as a speaker to inspire. Women are also most likely to have no doubts, or, if they do, still to hang in there. In a 1995 survey, 27 per cent of women, but only 18 per cent of men, agreed with the statement that “I know God really exists and I have no doubts about it”.Just over half the children born in Britain are likely to be baptised in a church.In 1993, 49 per cent of marriages took place in a religious building, 48 per cent in 1994, and 47 per cent in 1995.

From initial gatherings of 30-odd people in a Brighton school hall in the 1970s, New Frontiers now has 140 affiliated churches in the UK and 60 more overseas.The industrial warehouse, just off the main London road in the centre of Brighton, that is the headquarters of New Frontiers International, has few claims to architectural merit. Membership of the National Trust, however, rose 5.8 per cent.While England has 62 per cent of church members, it has 77 per cent of the churches and 80 per cent of ministers, reflecting the residual strength of the church in Scotland which has 18 per cent of the membership, but only 8 per cent of the churches and 9 per cent of the ministers.Women have a higher disposition for religious belief than men. Trade union membership will have fallen 4 per cent between 1980 and 2000; the Guide movement’s membership was down 1.2 per cent between 1981 and 1995, and the Scouts’ 0.5 per cent. This is not only true for their membership, but also for their church buildings, whose numbers will have dropped 15 per cent between 1980 and 2000, and their ministers, who will have dropped by 31 per cent.Other organisations are faring badly too. In 1980, all churches combined had 7,550,000 members; by 1985, this figure had fallen to 6,980,000; by 1990, it had further tumbled to 6,690,000; and by 1995, to 6,360,000.

It is predicted to slump to 5,950,000 by 2000.Assuming present trends continue, then in the 20 years 1980 to 2000, the Anglican church’s membership will have fallen by 27 per cent, the same drop as in Roman Catholic mass attendance.Orthodox churches, of which the Greek Orthodox Church formed 94 per cent of membership in 1995, are the only institutional churches growing in Britain.The Presbyterian Churches, of which the Church of Scotland formed 64 per cent of membership in 1995, are declining faster than the Anglican and Catholic churches. In total, 65 per cent of the British population has some affinity to a Christian religion.
However, committed members represent but a fraction of these figures. In 1995, there were also 5.7 million Roman Catholics, 2.6 million Presbyterians, 1.3 million Methodists and 600,000 Baptists. This is almost half (45 per cent) of the population of Britain. The largest denomination in Britain is the Anglican Church, which stood at 26.1 million in 1995. Two hundred years ago, Samuel Butler, the Bishop of Bristol, misread the signs of the times and declined the then Prime Minister’s offer to be Archbishop of Canterbury on the grounds that there is “no hope for this failing church”..

In 1990, 71 per cent of the British population said they believed in God, as did 95 per cent of those living in Northern Ireland. “How do you deal with a mass instinct for worship in a new way? It represents a huge challenge to all the churches.”But in case church leaders are feeling like throwing in the towel, they would do well to remember that spiritual health has peaks and troughs Their predecessors have been here before – and survived. You used to see it in the Mediterranean countries and perhaps Ireland, but never here And I’ve also noticed this penchant for lighting candles. Twenty years ago in Britain that would have been dismissed as a Rome-ish superstition.”"There is undoubtedly a phenomenal hunger and thirst for religion about,” says Cristina Odone, “and I believe that it could be satisfied if the churches find a way of reining in those strong collective emotions that we saw on display this summer outside Kensington Palace.” But she has no illusions as to the scale of the task ahead after six years of church attempts to exploit the coming millennium. “Just down the road from me there was a terrible car accident six months ago and people have turned it into a road- side shrine, with fresh flowers each week That is something new. Often they can be witnessed in the gestures of individuals that we have grown so accustomed to seeing that they no longer register. Much was made of the habit of laying flowers and making a shrine to the Princess of Wales out-side her Kensington Palace home, but Father Alban Barter believes it was symptomatic of something that had been happening on a smaller scale for years.