2025 Review: Small Boats, Quiet Revival & Being Human
What news sticks in your mind from the past 12 months? Here are 3 stories that ran and ran – and stuck with me:
Small boats and the need to belong
2025 was thick with stories on small boats, immigration and Islamophobia.
Outside asylum-seeker hotels there were protests and counter-protests. “Operation Raise the Colours” covered our streets in Union Flags — for some, it was a reflection of national pride, for others a warning that only certain people belong. And Tommy Robinson marches drew thousands, with flags, crosses and “Christ is King” banners.
This is about immigration and Islamophobia — many small boats come from Muslim-majority countries. And it’s about Christianity — as our symbols are adopted for these marches.
Let’s look at the tensions on both sides.
The Right
I grew up in Blackburn. Almost entirely “white” in the 1970s (apart from my family and a few others), it’s now about one third Muslim. Some people I grew up with feel the town has changed in ways they don’t like, somehow “taken over”. For instance, the pub on our road is now a non-alcoholic café, and my old comprehensive school is now an Islamic Academy. Some of my (white) friends have moved out to nearby villages. I don’t share their opinion, but their sense of loss is real.
This frustration exists in other towns as well. Some are even afraid of all asylum seekers because crimes involving them make national news.
Only 5% of those who settle here arrive on small boats – politically huge but numerically tiny
But a lot of this is hype. There’s no evidence that asylum seekers commit any more crimes than anyone else. And only about 5% of those who settle here arrive on small boats anyway – politically huge but numerically tiny. So yes there are some legitimate concerns, but some are simply wrong, and they can spill over into racism. And, we must note, for Christians, Scripture speaks clearly: welcome the stranger, the refugee, the outcast. Hatred of any people group is a sin.
The Left
Many on the Left genuinely want a more equitable, fair society, and that is to their credit. But sometimes the way this is pursued undermines their aim.
In the summer, I attended a panel discussion in Bradford on Islamophobia, which included two Muslim MPs and a Barrister. We heard shocking accounts of discrimination and violence against Muslims simply for being who they are. It’s worrying, and it’s unacceptable. However, during the hour-long discussion, not once did the panel acknowledge stories of white British residents feeling their sense of loss … frustrated that their pub has become a café. Those stories were simply not present.
Secondly, in my work as a Chaplain at Manchester Airport, we are in a lengthy dialogue about calling Christmas, “Christmas” — the signs in the airport shops state “Happy Holidays”. But we try to mark other religious festivals authentically. When it’s Eid, Diwali, etc., we don’t say “Happy Holidays”. This seems to be driven by the retail department’s intention not to offend “somebody”, not some deliberate attempt to sideline Christianity, but the outcome is poor. They generate the very sense of inequality they seek to prevent – and worse, unintentionally feed the far-right narrative that their culture is under threat.
They generate the very sense of inequality they seek to prevent
Most of us inhabit the middle ground. Our task is to listen widely, hold the tensions honestly, resist the extremes.
The Quiet Revival – hope or hype?
Go back to your churches and prepare for revival!
Perhaps you remember this (misquoted) line from Liberal leader David Steel in the 1980s. Addressing the Party Conference on its final day, he declared, “Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government!” The party faithful roared, they went wild with delight – could it really happen …?
No. The next election told a very different story.
To be fair, “… prepare for revival!” is NOT what the Bible Society said when, in April, they released a report called The Quiet Revival … but it’s what many people seemed to hear.
A major YouGov Survey commissioned by the Bible Society indicated a substantial and unexpected growth in Christian faith since 2018. It noted that across all ages, church attendance was up by 50%. And among 18–24s, it was even better, with a quadrupling in church attendance, and soaring interest in the Bible…. But somehow most of us hadn’t noticed.
It led to a flurry of press interest. There were moving, genuine stories of conversions, baptisms, and local growth. Could it be that the long-established trend of declining church attendance in the UK was reversing?
Then came the push-back, an equal and opposite flurry of articles. Other surveys – such as the long-running British Social Attitudes study – still pointed to decline. And the “bums on seats” attendance-counts taken regularly by Anglicans and Catholics continued to show a downward curve.
Is it possible, as someone asked, that these millions of new church attenders are hidden away in small denominations that don’t do counts? Maybe, but as Christian journalist Tim Wyatt argued, it would be extraordinary for attendance to rocket without anyone noticing.
It would be extraordinary for church attendance to rocket without anyone noticing.
What we do know
The church is changing, growing and shrinking at the same time and, with online services now common, “attendance” might mean something different.
At the same time, society is also changing. Immigration has brought new Christians from Eastern Europe and Africa. And it now seems more socially acceptable to identify with Christianity: even the infamous atheist Richard Dawkins says he’s a “cultural Christian”. Younger people (Gen Z) especially seem less embarrassed to admit an interest in church and less likely to identify with atheism. These are all encouraging signs.
It now seems more socially acceptable to identify with Christianity
On the less encouraging side, we also see far-right groups adopting Christianity and Christian symbolism as a response to what they see as a threat from Islam (see previous).
What’s the takeaway?
Amidst the confusing shifts in society, there are encouraging green shoots, but we are in a changing landscape with new forms of attending and belonging.
And (one more lesson) the word “revival” is emotive and highly charged – it simultaneously gets us excited and afraid of being disappointed. Use it sparingly!
Could AI make us “more human”?
And one last topic that never left the news. I’ve written a lot on AI in 2025, so this is brief and focuses on just one question: what is the distinctively Christian response to AI?
Being (more) human
Christian theology insists that humans are set apart from anything artificially made. Since AI is not made in the image of God, it cannot be in relationship with God. Even if AI were to become sentient and granted legal rights, as some propose, it would still lack subjective experience – like feeling the warmth of the sun on your face or the smell of fresh bread. Furthermore, it has no values or ethics of its own; it simply absorbs what it finds online. And importantly, it does not share our fragility — our fallenness and redemption — both essential to being human.
Christianity has the language to answer the question increasingly being asked, “what makes us different to AI?” and people are surprisingly keen to hear it.
Paradoxically, this means AI can help us to be more human. AI creates opportunity to ask and lean into what it means to be authentic and embodied – as a kind of reaction against AI. For example, a recent meeting on conversational AI bots in care homes ended with renewed awareness of what distinguishes human pastoral care. And one Christian organisation now states clearly on its homepage, “… every interaction you have with us is human”.
Christianity has the language to answer the question increasingly being asked,: what makes us different to AI?
This is a valuable by-product of AI. It’s not about retreating into the past – we will use AI for what it is suitable for — it’s about going forward with wisdom whilst re-valuing human relationships, and the incarnational nature of Christian ministry.
How do we move forward?
The 2025 Vatican Report on AI, Antiqua et Nova, puts it beautifully:
With wisdom both ancient and new (cf. Matthew 13:52), we are called to reflect on the current challenges and opportunities posed by scientific and technological advancements, particularly by the recent development of Artificial Intelligence.
2025 was the year AI stopped being “for techies” and became normal, part of everyday life — including church life. It’s no longer novel to say, “I used AI”, it’s normal. We will use AI, but we must do so with wisdom, ancient wisdom and new wisdom.
AI Christian Partnership is publishing guidelines for the use of AI in Christian ministry.
If you enjoyed this, try reading Rising Dragon — what Christians need to know about the rise of China
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!