The withdrawal of the quiet revival report is a reminder not to measure the wrong thing

The Church was too keen to welcome a report that soothed its own anxieties, rather than looking to serve a generation drowning in their own, says Michael Tang. But Gen Z are still spiritually hungry, reading scripture in their rooms while trying to decide whether the institution that holds it can be trusted

In April 2025, Bible Society announced that something extraordinary was happening. Gen Z, the generation the Church had written off, was apparently returning. Church attendance among 18-to-24-year-olds had quadrupled since 2018. The headlines were jubilant. The press releases flowed. Church leaders exhaled. 

But among the celebration, there was also caution. The Church of England’s own statistics for mission, published six months later, showed nowhere near the same level of growth. By almost every measure, in almost every diocese, attendance was still significantly lower in 2024 than in 2018. Statistics published by the Catholic Church said the same. The British Social Attitudes Survey recorded that monthly church attendance was falling - not rising - between 2018 and 2023.  UCL’s Professor David Voas called the survey claims “wholly unbelievable.”