THE churches are dying before our eyes.

This decline is irreversible and it is happening much more quickly than even insiders such as myself would have expected.

But there is a silver lining to this shroud.

Since 2005, there has been a 50 per cent increase in the numbers of people attending Pentecostal Churches in London — a phenomenon explained in part by a large influx of immigrants from Africa during that period.

So, whereas in the 19th Century the African peoples were converted to Christianity by British missionaries, so in the 21st Century they are repaying this kindness by returning to convert secularised and pagan England to its Christian roots.

Since 2005, the number of Anglican church-goers has declined by nine per cent, while Catholic worshippers have risen by one per cent, again mainly due to immigration from Eastern European and Latin countries.

This new study carried out for the evangelical group The London City Mission, by the Brierley Consultancy, showed that 230,000 people attended Pentecostal services last year, compared to 198,300 at Catholic Masses.

According to the Churches’ Census, which recorded congregation sizes on a Sunday last year, Pentecostal churchgoers now make up 32 per cent of Sunday worshippers in London, compared to 27 per cent for Catholics and 12 per cent attending Anglican churches.

In 1979, 333,700 Catholics went to church on Sunday. This represents a decline of 40 per cent, the same percentage decline as for Anglican churches. Other traditional Christian denominations have also declined. What have the Pentecostals got that the mainstream Christian Denominations manifestly lack?

First of all, they are exuberant. Their worship exudes joy. Sometimes this joy might seem embarrassing to traditionally restrained English people who are not accustomed to entering a church and seeing worshippers waving their arms in the air and speaking in what appear to be foreign languages.

In common parlance, this is known as the phenomenon of speaking in tongues and it dates back to the first years of Christianity, to the Day of Pentecost – Acts chapter two, verse one and following – to what we used to call Whitsuntide when Yorkshire played Lancashire at cricket. This is why the Pentecostals are called Pentecostals because they were the first Christians to worship God with obvious sincerity and joy.

But the main reason for the burgeoning of the Pentecostal Church is because they actually believe what they say and preach.

They are not like so many of the unfaithful bishops and clergy in the Anglican Church who regard Christian doctrines as mere metaphors for social and political aims.

There are some exceptions to the decline among traditional Anglicans – but these are few and far between – one thinks of Bishop Michael Nazir Ali and Tom Wright, former bishop of Durham, and his glorious book on the Resurrection of Jesus.

Like the Pentecostalists, such men firmly believe that Christ will come again to judge the quick and the dead. This is mere pie in the sky to our modern, secularised socialgospelling clergy. But we were always told, “in the last days there will come scoffers and busy mockers”.

They are in for a rude awakening.