We believe every church can grow younger.
Not just the large ones. Not just the ones with a full-time youth worker or a brand new building. Every church, whatever its size, history, or starting point.
That belief is what Growing Younger Together is built on.
Where this started.
St John's, Upper Norwood, is an Anglo-Catholic parish in South London. Back in 2019, an average Sunday morning might see three children under seven in one group and four in another. Like many churches, we looked around one Sunday and asked ourselves an honest question: where are the children and young people?
We didn't want to just ask the question. We wanted to do something about it.
In February 2023, we launched Growing Younger Together, a programme built around one simple conviction: that every child and young person deserves an entry point into the life of faith, whatever their background, whatever their family's history with church.
We made mistakes. We learned. We kept going.
Within six months, average weekly attendance of under-18s at Sunday worship had grown from 7 to 45. By the end of the first year, PlayTime! had welcomed over 450 under-5s and their families each week. Messy Church had grown to 500 children and adults monthly. On Christmas Eve 2022, 45 children came to our crib service. On Christmas Eve 2023, over 1,050 adults and children filled the church across two identical services. 85% of the children and young people coming through our doors had no previous church connection at all.
We built something we're proud of. And then we realised we didn't want to keep it to ourselves.
This is bigger than one church.
The Church of England is ageing. In 2018, Sunday attendance for under-16s dropped below 100,000 nationally for the first time ever, and the decline is continuing at nearly twice the rate of adults. 38% of churches have no under-16s at all. 68% have five or fewer.
The picture is particularly stark in Anglo-Catholic parishes. Only 12% of Church of England parishes with 25 or more under-16s on a Sunday come from the Anglo-Catholic tradition. Most of those have the advantage of a church school or a children's choir. St John's had neither.
Across the country, churches are asking the same questions we were asking. How do we reach young families? How do we make children and young people feel genuinely at home? How do we build something that lasts?
We can't answer those questions for every church. But we can share what we've learned, walk alongside other churches as they find their own answers, and offer real, practical support to make it happen.
That's why Growing Younger Together exists. Not as a programme to be rolled out uniformly, but as a partnership, between St John's and churches who are ready to grow.
What we're working towards.
01
Every child belongs
We believe children and young people aren't the future of the church; they're the church, right now. Everything we do is built around making them feel genuinely welcome, genuinely included, and genuinely seen.
02
Roots & creativity together
Our programmes are rooted in Anglican tradition, liturgy, sacrament, and the rhythm of the church year. But they're also playful, creative, and designed to meet families where they are. We don't think those things are in tension.
03
Partnership, not prescription
We're not here to tell churches what to do. We're here to share what we know, support what you're building, and trust that you know your community best. Growing younger is something we do together.
The people behind it.
Growing Younger Together is led by the team at St John's, Upper Norwood — clergy, lay leaders, and volunteers who have been running these programmes on the ground for years.
The programme was developed and written by Mthr Rachael Gledhill, who first piloted a version of the model at St Barnabas, Dulwich, before bringing it to St John's in 2023. It is led alongside the Revd Canon John Pritchard, Vicar of St John's. Together with a growing team of over 100 volunteers, including teenagers, retired members of the congregation, and parents from PlayTime! and Messy Church, they show up every week to make it happen.
We're not a large organisation. Behind this initiative is a small, committed team: people who show up every week to run the sessions, a communications and brand specialist who shapes how we show up to the world, and the wider St John's community who make it all possible.
Reverend Canon John Pritchard
Vicar
Mother Rachael Gledhill
Associate Vicar
Father Archie Warsap
Assistant Curate
Jermaine Weekes
Site Supervisor & ChurchwardenDoes this resonate with you?
If you're a church leader who's been asking the same questions we were asking, we'd love to hear from you. You don't need to have all the answers, or any of them. Just a desire to grow younger, and a willingness to take the first step.