Christianity in decline? I'm not sure

I SPENT part of the weekend, as I suspect did many, mooching around the packed stalls at a Christmas market. I was in Winchester where, as in Exeter and many other cities, the tradesmen and women selling their scented candles and bottles of locally made gin are gathered together in the shadow of the cathedral.

- PHILIP BOWERN

Thousands of people wandered between the stalls, munching on giant German sausages and buying gifts for an upcoming festival that marks the birth of Jesus. Yet few even on a Sunday, with market business in full flow - took time out to cross the threshold of the great church and say a few prayers or join in the hymns on the first Sunday of Advent.

The confirmation that England is no longer strictly speaking a Christian country came yesterday with the publication of the 2021 Census data on religion. For the first time ever in a census, fewer than half the respondents declared themselves Christians down to 46.2% compared to almost 60% a decade ago.

More than a third of the population now say they have no religion - up from a quarter in 2011 - while the growth in the number of people from ethnic minority backgrounds in England and Wales has helped to fuel the jump in those declaring themselves followers of other religions.