Bagehot: While shepherds watched

摘要

On the third Sunday of Advent the worshippers at St Matthew's, Brixton, were bracing themselves for the annual Christmas influx of unbelievers. "Help us persuade a few of them", they prayed, "to keep coming." Like many London churches, St Matthew's is enjoying a slight revival. Over the past decade its weekly congregation has dou-bled-to 65 on this Advent Sunday. That is chiefly because of an influx of young middle-class families, driven to one of London's poorer parishes by high house prices and to church in the hope of winning coveted places at the local Church of England primary school. "I recognise their self-interest," says the church's vicar, the Rev Stephen Sichel, wearily.