Rise Again - Laura Beth

I’m obsessed with watching the underlying rhythms of areas I’m an outsider in. Whether it’s the dark effects of slavery in Haiti or more mundane like the fashion of New York and Rome, teasing out these undertones is my favorite thing to do while traveling.

Before coming to London, various people suggested to me that the UK was an nation in spiritual decline. Some said the land of Christian epics like Wycliffe and Tyndale had lost its curiosity and openness towards religion. Many Americans had the perception the UK was as a land of people uninterested in anything beyond the history of religion in their land.

Eager to seek out any remnants of religious fervor I found a church nearby and decided to give it a try. As soon as I reached the doors I knew at least some of the perceptions I had heard were far off the mark. The packed theater looked to be mostly college-aged, modern music with a religious twist came from the speakers, and the crowd had more ethnic diversity than I have seen before or since here in London. Most surprisingly, the service itself had the most responsive audience of any religious service I have attended during two decades in the Bible Belt.

While staring at a New Testament copy from 350 A.D. in the British Library, I concluded the UK has a much more complex relationship with Christianity than I was told. The British do have significant influence in the history of Christianity, but it appears there is a group of Brits my age ready to write their own chapter.