THAT WAS THE CHURCH THAT WAS: HOW THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND LOST THE ENGLISH PEOPLE

church attendance is on track to fall to a mere 150,000 by 2050 if decline continues at the current rate. But it is something of a cop-out to argue that this is purely because the Church is “stuck in the 1950s” and that religion has become a “toxic word”. If liberalisation is the key to keeping bums on pews, why do faiths with a more conservative approach to women or homosexuality (such as Catholicism or Islam) continue to grow?

But it is the book’s tone that I found most off-putting — often crossing the line from irreverence into spite. If the CoE has become, as former Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey warned, “a toothless old woman muttering in a corner, ignored by everyone”, then Brown and Woodhead are like a pair of teenagers trading snarky comments at the other side of the room.

Amusing, in a gossipy and cruel sort of way, but the shtick gets old fast and it doesn’t do much to help anyone.