ABSTRACT
Cameron and Johnson's contrasting reactions illustrate how Christianity is both declining and growing in contemporary Britain. A survey of the last 30 years shows that substantial church growth has happened across much of Britain. This growth is strongest in London but is by no means confined to the capital. There is significant growth amongst the indigenous British population and amongst established denominations. But there is large-scale church growth amongst black, Asian and minority ethnic communities and in the new churches formed during the last 100 years. Putting together decline and growth amongst British churches shows a church changing very rapidly. In the last 30 years the British church has become much more ethnically diverse. It increasingly straddles the religious divide between the secularity of, say, Sweden and the robust religiosity of Ghana or China. The research suggested that churches and church leaders can let go of the secularization theory, its eschatology of decline and its ecclesiology of defeat.
