The Royal Army Chaplains’ Department (RACD) has suggested that faith may be on the rise among young men in the military.
While the Army doesn’t keep official statistics on such matters, the RACD shared some figures it has collected, as well as anecdotal evidence with BFBS Forces News.
According to the RACD, dozens of officer cadets at Sandhurst are being confirmed or baptised, with 11 baptisms taking place last October. That same month, 21 baptisms took place at Army Training Regiment Winchester.
In Army Training Centre Pirbright, recruit baptisms rose by over a third (37.5 per cent) between 2024 and 2025.
The RACD said that recruits at the Infantry Training Centre in Catterick increasingly wanted to learn about Christianity, while at the Army Foundation College in Harrogate a fifth of new recruits attend Sunday morning services, although some did stop attending after their initial six-week training.
With such a range of hard and anecdotal evidence, one retired Major General couldn’t resist saying “a quiet revival” appeared to be taking place within the military.
Last year the term was in vogue after a now discredited report by YouGov and the Bible Society suggested a significant rise in churchgoing, particularly among young men. Despite the figures of the report being flawed, churches up and down the country did in fact report signs of increased interest. The latest intervention from the RACD adds to this trend.
This apparent desire for spirituality and meaning among young men was also reflected by Dominic Holroyd, a chaplain to the Royal Light Dragoons. Holroyd told BFBS, "What I've noticed is a spiritual inquisitiveness; that's how I would describe it. There's a yearning for knowing something 'other'."
Retired Major General Tim Cross himself became a Christian while serving in the Army.
He said, "We've got a generation coming through now who are finding themselves feeling quite hopeless. They are finding themselves thinking, 'what is this all about?
He added, “The quiet revival that's being talked about, I think, is a reality and we're seeing evidence of that."
Recently, Tommy Robinson, a controversial Far Right figure, claimed in an interview with historian David Starkey earlier this year that he was witnessing a "revival in men".
"In fields across the UK on Saturday mornings – they’re not going to church on Sundays. They’re training, they’re praying and they’re being stronger together for each other," he said.
