Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Catherine Deveney: Churches have brought about their own decline – but human hunger for meaning will never vanish

It's little surprise that faith in organised Christianity is waning across Britain, but hope that there is something greater to believe in will never be extinguished, writes Catherine Deveney.

Churches are growing increasingly empty of congregations across Britain (Image: Ingrid Pakats/Shutterstock)
Churches are growing increasingly empty of congregations across Britain (Image: Ingrid Pakats/Shutterstock)

It’s little surprise that faith in organised Christianity is waning across Britain, but hope that there is something greater to believe in will never be extinguished, writes Catherine Deveney.

“I wonder who will be the last, the very last, to seek this place for what it was,” Philip Larkin wrote, in his 1955 poem, Church Going.

The first time I read those words, they seemed fanciful. Churches becoming obsolete? Yet, Larkin predicted that they would eventually be visited only by antique-hunters, or “Christmas addicts”, searching for “a whiff of gown-and-bands and organ-pipes and myrrh.”

As the Christian church’s great festival of Christmas approaches, it seems he might be right; fewer of us will be searching for the baby in the manger than ever before.

This week, it was reported that Christians in England and Wales have become the minority, falling below half the population for the first time. Meanwhile, according to the 2021 census, the number of people with “no religion” has trebled since the millennium.

The picture in Scotland differs slightly. Religious belief has dropped, but, while almost two million claim no religion, close to three million claim a Christian affiliation of one kind or another. Although, one suspects, the “another” makes up the cultural Christians, the Billys and Tims, whose idea of Protestantism or Catholicism involves a once-a-week pilgrimage to Ibrox or Parkhead.

It seems that Jesus Christ’s true message has been lost within the church over the decades (Image: Pafnuti/Shutterstock)

Church leaders have been architects of their own decline. Their handling of abuse scandals has shown their inability to demonstrate, in any meaningful way, the Christian values they profess. Larkin’s words were prophetic when he described “a shape less recognisable each week, a purpose more obscure.”

The historical Christ was a revolutionary figure, more a Che Guevara than a Prince of Pomp. How, then, did his radical, social justice message get translated into a parade of – mainly – elderly men in robes and mitres, pontificating on the nation’s sex lives, while covering up the decidedly murky activities that some of them were secretly pursuing?

Pontifications about the sexuality of Christ himself

This week saw a different twist: pontifications about the sexuality of Christ himself. Joshua Heath, a junior research fellow, gave a sermon at evensong in Trinity College, Cambridge, during which he displayed renaissance and medieval paintings of the crucifixion.

A vagina looks like a wound? Either Joshua needs to get out more, or I need to consult a doctor immediately

He honed in on the wound in Christ’s side. It was, he speculated, shaped like a vagina, which sounds a bit like those wackos who see the face of Jesus in their pepperoni pizza, or the Madonna in the swirl of their mayonnaise. A vagina looks like a wound? Either Joshua needs to get out more, or I need to consult a doctor immediately.

“In Christ’s simultaneously masculine and feminine body in these works… his body is also the trans body,” Heath apparently concluded. Well! I am sure someone will give him another PhD for it, but you can imagine how well the trans Christ went down in England’s green and pleasant land.

Save your tears for something worth crying over

There were tears from the congregation, and shouts of heresy, and, quite honestly, it’s hard to work out which bit of all this is the most objectionable.

Is it the notion that women are now relegated to being a gash in a man’s side? Or the fact that we can’t actually say that said gash represents women because, obviously, that’s offensive to the trans community, and we must now say it represents “people with a vagina”.

Perhaps we should focus on eradicating the need for foodbanks (Image: Wullie Marr/DC Thomson)

Or, is it the fact that religious folk were so insecure, they were actually crying over irrelevant, pseudo-intellectual tosh that reduces a supreme spirit to a body and a gender? God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Rocky Horror Ghost…

Frankly, I’d be so thrilled that God existed, I’d accept “Him” in a skirt, velvet knickerbockers, or top hat and tails. So, I suggest the congregation save their tears for something worth crying about, like abused children, the poor trying to heat and eat, the oppressed in war-torn lands, or the psychological distress of the bereaved and lonely. Things, in other words, that Christ might have actually cared about.

Maybe search for meaning will eventually lead us back to church

“Back at the door I sign the book, donate an Irish sixpence, reflect the place was not worth stopping for,” Larkin wrote all those years ago, capturing the irrelevance of the “frowsty barn”, with its oppressive silence and stagnant ideas.

The silence has only got louder, the irrelevance more marked. The statistics show that people have stopped identifying with an organisation that protects itself rather than its victims, and that epitomises “do what I say and not what I do”.

Whether you tick the census atheist box with certainty, or the religious box with hope, there is a human search for meaning that even Larkin felt

And, yet, in December, it is easy to find the mind wandering to the Christmas story with a heartfelt wistfulness. Whether you tick the census atheist box with certainty, or the religious box with hope, there is a human search for meaning that even Larkin felt.

“A serious house on serious earth it is, in whose blent air all our compulsions meet,” he wrote. Going, going, gone. But, when it is, those compulsions will remain; a hunger for meaning that may prompt Church Coming rather than Church Going – a new building rising from the discarded bricks of the old.


Catherine Deveney is an award-winning investigative journalist, novelist and television presenter, and Scottish Newspaper Columnist of the Year 2022

Conversation