From mass baptisms to churches being so full they had to turn people away, the number of good news stories from the Easter weekend have exceeded many people’s expectations. We round up the most encouraging stories following what appears to be an unprecedented weekend for many churches. Add your own stories in the comments section below

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Easter is often the busiest service of the year for many congregations, and alongside Christmas, it is the time that many church leaders expect a healthy bump in attendance. But this year, there seemed to be more than just a few extra people in the pews. The internet was awash with stories of churches full to overflowing, record responses to the gospel and baptisms aplenty.

This anecdotal evidence is supported by three significant pieces of research. Just before Easter, Bible Society released The Quiet Revival, which concluded that church attendance has risen by 50 per cent over the last six years, with the most dramatic growth among young adults, particularly young men.

In the US, Barna released its State of the Church 2025 research, which reported that 66 per cent of Americans have made a meaningful commitment to Jesus, a 12 per cent increase since 2021. “This is the clearest trend we’ve seen in more than a decade pointing to spiritual renewal,” said Barna’s CEO David Kinnaman.

Most recently came The Patmos Survey, the largest Bible engagement research project ever. Surveying 91,000 people across 150 countries, it found that even in Western countries, 62 per cent of people believe in God or a higher power. Worldwide, 240 million non-Christians expressed an interest in learning more about the Bible, with young people (aged 18–25) showing a higher interest in the Bible than older demographics.

Whether one looks at local church stories or large-scale research projects, there’s mounting evidence that something seems to be changing in the spiritual atmosphere.

Here’s just some of what we’ve seen, both big and small.

Ticket to pray

In a post entitled “Easter encouragements”, Rev Al Gordon of SAINT church, Hackney, said that he had “never seen crowds like this” at his church. Their new 9:30am service was “packed”, there were queues to get into the Good Friday service and the spiritual hunger was “shaking up the ground.” Meanwhile, the church had been forced to introduce a free ticket system for their all-night prayer meetings “because of capacity issues”. For those wishing to attend the next one on 2 May, Gordon advised “Move fast!”

Standing room only

Social media was full of pastors praising God for bumper congregations.

At Holy Trinity Brompton, home of the Alpha course, ushers were forced to turn people away at the door even before the 11:30am service started. Writing for Premier Christianity, Jean Kabasomi said that it was “a bittersweet feeling - disappointment for them but happiness that church was overflowing on Easter Sunday.” HTB later said they had “welcomed over 5,000 people” to their London base and baptised 20 people.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols said 50,000 people visited Westminster Cathedral during Holy Week – even before news broke of Pope Francis’ death. “For the 12 o’clock [Easter Sunday] Mass, people were queuing down Ambrose Avenue in order to come in as soon as the previous Mass had finished, to find a place. There were 200 people outside the door following it on their phones. So there is, as they say, something going on – and that, too, we should ponder and pray about.”

Gavin Calver, CEO of the Evangelical Alliance, ran a poll on X which found a staggering 82 per cent of respondents reporting that their churches were “packed to the rafters”. While only a snapshot poll, it’s still an encouraging sign. If nothing else, it’s an interesting insight into the general mood among many church leaders right now.

Former Premier Christianity editor Justin Brierley reported that his own church, Woking United Reformed Church had seen “its biggest Easter attendance on record - standing room only”. Others chimed in with their own reports, including: 

  • Portsmouth Cathedral said attendance at Easter week services “were all up by 30% - 50% plus 33 adults and children baptised and confirmed at The Easter Vigil”
  • The congregation at West Kirk in Belfast and was “much bigger” than usual
  • A church in Fowey, Cornwall, they “had to open the al fresco annex!”
  • St Ninian’s Cathedral in Perth, Scotland “ran out of service booklets” on Easter Sunday, the first time that they had “exceeded pre-covid numbers”
  • Mike Nicholls, lead pastor of Luton Christian Fellowship, said the church has its “highest ever attendance, 21 baptisms - full first service, full second service standing room only, and nearly 120 in overflow next door”
  • Rev Tom Sander, rector of St Giles-in-the-Fields reported that Easter attendance was up 128 per cent over ten years, with average Sunday attendance also up 122 per cent
  • The Church of the Good Shepherd in Pyrford, Woking was “packed”
  • St Mary’s Wavertree in Liverpool reported its highest Sunday morning congregation
  • Dr Trevor Stammers reported that Christ Church Banstead was “full to overflowing”

Premier Christianity has also received reports from:

  • Welcome Church Woking – the largest gathering ever on Easter Sunday 1,300
  • Citygate Church Bournemouth – the largest meeting ever, over 1,000
  • Harvest Church Alton – the biggest congregation ever, 360
  • St Michael’s and All Angels Eastbourne – 240 on Easter Sunday. 60 more than the previous year. 
  • Mosaic Basingstoke – “first meeting in the new building 425 people. Slight panic as the max is 450!”
  • St Nics Newbury – “full with 14 baptisms”
  • Hillsong Guildford – “over 1,000 people”
  • The Beacon Camberley - “standing room only. Packed”
  • St Michael’s in Aldershot celebrated 20 baptisms
  • SOUL Church Norwich baptised 100 people

 

Bumper Blackburn turnout

While there are no official statistics yet for the number of people attending Easter services this year, the Bishop of Blackburn is among senior clergy reporting bumper attendances at CofE churches. According to The Telegraph, Rt Rev Philip North said early indications in his diocese suggested numbers were up by a half, with some parishes almost full. (See our previous coverage of growth in Blackburn here.)

Youthscape’s Rachel Gardner, who is also youth lead at Preston Minster, shared photos from St Luke’s Blackburn along with the caption: “Adding to the flow of images on social media tonight, showing multiple baptisms and full churches, as individuals, families and communities are being transformed by the resurrection power of a God who is making all things new. Wow…just wow. Whatever name we give this, whatever we think you’re up to God, just keep doing it and we’ll keep bearing witness to it.”

A great British queue

Luke Whelan, a Gen Z male who also happens to be a Daily Mail journalist, recently wrote about his own conversion to Christianity. Here, he films the round-the-block queues for London’s Hillsong church on Easter Sunday.

Reports from The TAB London, said that queues for their Easter Sunday service stretched more than a quarter of a mile from the O2 Intercontinental Hotel, all the way back to North Greenwich station.

Standing on the verge

King’s Community Church (KCC) in Southampton saw a record number of people join them on Easter Sunday. 120 responded to the gospel message for the first time. “In all my years of church leadership, I’ve never seen that on a Sunday morning,” said Andy Johnson, senior pastor at KCC. “We had almost 1,600 people here, more than we’ve ever had before on a single Sunday morning.”

Johnson said that he felt the UK was on the verge of “a real revival moment”, driven by a crisis of confidence in politics, economics and institutions. “This is a moment for us to believe God for remarkable breakthrough, that churches that have been 200 or 300 can become churches of 1000s,” he added.

Not just the UK

The first Mass of Easter is the traditional time for new converts to be welcomed into the Catholic Church. In France, the usual average for this is around 4,000 people nationwide. But not this year. Instead, the Conference of Catholic Bishops in France reported that 17,000 people were welcomed into the Church over the 2025 Easter weekend, which is not only more than four times the average but also marks year-on-year growth.

Meanwhile in the USA, Pastor Greg Laurie of Harvest Church, California, told CBN News that the Easter turnout at his church exceeded all his expectations. Not only did they see record numbers attending their services, but an outsized response to the gospel. “We saw 500 people make a profession of faith. We called them forward in public invitations. It was fantastic. I can’t remember an Easter where we had a response like that,” Laurie said.

Do you have a story to share of God on the move? Add your comments below, or email us: christianity@premier.org.uk

Emma Fowle is deputy editor of Premier Christianity and editor of Voice of Hope, Premier's quarterly devotional magazine. Emma lives in Cornwall with her husband and two teenage daughters. She loves to read, swim in the sea, play netball and lift weights with her dad.View full Profile

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