It’s 10am on Sunday, and people are already starting to filter through the doors of Harbour Church. Sun streams through the windows – there’s an air of anticipation as congregation members greet each other and catch up on the week just gone. Soon, the room is filling up, the sound of gentle chatter swelling as the throng grows and people take their seats. The five-piece worship band strikes up; the crowd gets to its feet; the air vibrates as more than a hundred voices sing praises to God.

Is Christianity back? Across several countries, the last few months have seen numerous anecdotal reports of a resurgence of Christian observance. Many British clerics are noting strong attendances at Lenten and Easter services. Similar reports are emerging in the USA, where younger people make up much of the increase. Meanwhile, France has had a 50% rise in adult baptisms, and survey data suggests a fourfold increase in Catholic observance among 18 to 24-year-olds in Britain.

Sydney Johnston grew up in a nondenominational Christian household — but now the Upper West Side millennial is a devout Catholic.

“There’s just something so beautiful and transcendent about the rituals and the ancient history in the Catholic Mass that’s been preserved,” Johnston, 30, told The Post. “The church really communicates a degree of reverence that I didn’t find in the more liberal, laissez-faire approach of nondenominational churches.”

Francis, the 266th supreme pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church and spiritual shepherd of her estimated 1.39 billion members for nearly twelve years, died Monday in Rome at the age of 88 weeks after after being hospitalized Feb. 14 to treat double pneumonia, the Vatican announced.

Vice President JD Vance met with the Holy Father only hours earlier.

Pope Francis, the trailblazing Catholic leader known for his human-rights advocacy and sharp political edge, died Monday, April 21, at the age of 88 at his residence in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta after battling a long series of health complications stemming from a chronic lung disease, the Vatican announced.

The pontiff had been hospitalized on Feb. 14 with bronchitis, contracted pneumonia four days later and was listed in “critical condition” by the Vatican on Saturday, Feb. 22. He never fully recovered.

Pope Francis, history’s first Latin American pontiff who charmed the world with his humble style and concern for the poor but alienated conservatives with critiques of capitalism and climate change, died Monday. He was 88.

Bells tolled in church towers across Rome after the announcement, which was read out by Cardinal Kevin Ferrell, the Vatican camerlengo, from the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta, where Francis lived.

For Christians, Easter is a remarkable time of new life, of resurrection and spiritual renewal. But those of a more secular persuasion can also find themselves beguiled by the restorative zeitgeist of this celebratory time of year.

In the northern hemisphere it’s spring, with its green shoots and brighter light. Down here, deep in the southern hemisphere, the transition is of a gentle autumnal splendour – of softer skies and a flourish of bronze in the deciduous treetops.

I have just been reading my church’s annual report for the AGM and I’m feeling just a little too pleased with myself. Our average Sunday attendance has risen steadily over the last few years. During 2022 it was 138; 2023 it was 153; during 2024 it was 170. Other churches have also experienced a bounce back after Covid, though most of them haven’t yet returned to pre-Covid levels. But my little glow of inner vicarly smugness is made utterly ridiculous by the story of Holy Week, the days running up to Easter.

As the bells rang out across the courtyard of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the priests began to sing a deep, low prayer. Heads bowed over candles, and escorted by people bearing aloft large gold crosses, they made their way to a platform at the heart of the ancient square.

This Easter weekend, it’s time for some Good News: Christianity’s decline in America has slowed and might soon turn an upward corner – just what America needs as we struggle with record rates of suicide and depression.

As a former agnostic who converted to Christianity in 2017, I find this an encouraging development, especially during a season when Christians celebrate resurrection and renewal. Science suggests that faith is a healing force, and that’s something Americans can use more of.