Sands, delivering the annual lecture of the Religion Media Centre at St Bride’s Fleet Street, said people are genuinely interested, curious and open to religion “in a way that they probably hadn’t been for a generation, and so the media has a responsibility to capture that”.

Her intention in her new role is to reflect the religious sphere beyond the structure of the Church. She said, “We will embrace discussion of nature and art and poetry and pilgrimage – I hope it does lead to the church door.”

She spoke of the need to find where the audience is and where their interest lies, “and that’s why I’m particularly interested in pilgrimage, poetry and enchantment because that is bringing in people who are not necessarily traditional churchgoers”.

She aims to raise profile, expand audience and increase revenues, she said.

Sands, a former editor of the Sunday Telegraph, The London Evening Standard and BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, said there was a lack of knowledge about religion in the media: “If we are to understand human motivation and the sense of what lies beyond us, it’s helpful to know about religion. But sadly, not many journalists do.”

Notable exceptions included the late Edward Stourton, who was a trustee of The Tablet and a regular BBC Radio 4 presenter.

However, Sands, who is also a trustee of the British Pilgrimage Trust, added, “The press may not deal much in theology, but it knows the value of a photograph of a spire in the mist, a cathedral at sunrise or sunset.”

Aili Winstanley Channer, Charles Plater Trust intern at The Tablet, was presented with the Religion Media Centre Young Reporter Award at St Bride’s Fleet Street on Tuesday 29 November 2026 by Michael Wakelin, chair of the centre. Photo by Ruth Gledhill

Also at the event, Aili Winstanley Channer, the Charles Plater Trust Intern for The Tablet, was awarded the Religion Media Centre’s Young Reporter Award for her article “Finding the way home – a counter-cultural revival”.

The article, published by The Tablet in February,  tells the story of dramatic increases in the number of people being received into the Church. While the number attending continues to decline, young converts in particular are bringing new energy, and there are reports of a 30 per cent rise in converts from other denominations.

The Religion Media Centre said the judges – Roger Bolton, Michael Wakelin, Rosie Dawson and Ruth Peacock – were particularly impressed by the breadth of Winstanley Channer’s research and engaging writing style. 

She was presented with her award by Michael Wakelin, chair of the Religion Media Centre, last night, Tuesday 29 September, at the Religion Media Centre lecture at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street.

Her prize was a cheque for £500, donated by the Revd Professor Keith Magee of The Guardian Foundation.

Winstanley Channer, who has now completed her year-long Charles Plater Trust internship at The Tablet and returns to the University of Oxford next week to start a doctorate in literary and intellectual history at Lincoln College, will also continue at The Tablet as a part-time staff writer.

She said: “I’m very honoured to have received this award, which came as a complete surprise. For my piece, I wanted to dig beneath the headlines, statistics and simplified narratives that we were seeing about young people’s interest in faith.

“By speaking to young people from many different backgrounds, I found it wasn’t something that could be reduced to any one set of ideological motivations, but rather a diverse range of spiritual journeys.

“In a multifaith society where religion influences our shared public life in complex ways, there’s more need than ever for specialised religious journalism, so it’s wonderful to see the Religion Media Centre supporting it.”

Top of page: St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street by Thaler Tamas.