The Jedi Church is attracting more than a thousand new followers every day ahead of the UK premiere of the latest in the Star Wars franchise on Wednesday, its leaders say.
A top UK Jedi council member told the Telegraph that the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens has led to a dramatic increase in its members.
"It's gone up substantially in the past couple of days," Patrick Day Childs said, though he admitted that "the real test will be in a couple of weeks when the film hype has died off."
Childs attributed the Church of Jediism's popularity to its open and tolerant views.
"I think people are shying away from traditional religion because it doesn't reflect their views. We've got no problem with homosexuality or anything like that. We are very accepting," he said.
The Church of Jediism started as a joke in 2001, when the national census first recorded the religious persuasion of respondents.
In 2001, some 390,000 people self-identified as Jedis, a figure that more than halved to 177,000 in the 2011 census.
Organisers now claim to have more than 250,000 followers, according to the Telegraph.
Jedi members are allowed to wear robes in their daily life, but church-founder David Jones – who goes by the Jedi name Morda Hehol – said they're not entirely practical.
"We encourage people to wear them for events, but if I'm brutally honest, they're not really very practical."
Jones said he was pleased with the newfound interest in his Church. "We've been rushed off our feet. People want to know more about it. It's great for us."
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has already broken the record for the most advance ticket sales in UK history.
Additional reporting by Reuters.
