Built in Victorian times to encourage steelworkers and miners to remain on the straight and narrow, Christ Church in Ebbw Vale would comfortably seat 400 worshippers. But on most Sunday mornings a century and a half on, no more than 20 or 30 people file in.
"Church is only about hatches, matches and dispatches now – births, marriages and deaths," said Chris Phillips, who works at the Ebbw Vale Institute cultural centre.
"A hundred and fifty years ago everyone worked in heavy industry. It was hard, dangerous work and there was a fair chance you wouldn't be coming home. When you did get home safely with a bit of money in your pockets, you were prepared to go and say thank you to God. Frankly there's **** all to be thankful of these days. They've taken all the industry away and there's no jobs here any more. People have lost hope and lost faith.
Census and religion: churches lose their appeal in struggling Welsh valleys | UK news | The Guardian
Census 2011: What has caused this massive flight from Christianity?
So, now we have the census figures and, as expected, there has been a huge drop in the number of people declaring themselves Christian in Britain – from 72% to 59%. The rise in those declaring they have no religion has risen from 15% to 25%.
So what has happened in this country in the decade since the last census? What has caused this huge flight from religion?
It's complicated, but we have to take into account that in that intervening period we have had the trauma of 9/11 and the subsequent rise in Islamic militancy. We have seen a lurch towards conservatism within Christianity, with the Catholic Church becoming aggressively political and reactionary. But the Anglican Church, too, has been taken over by evangelicals with an agenda that repels people, even those who have been traditionally attached to the Church of England.
National Secular Society - Census 2011: What has caused this massive flight from Christianity?
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