Church of England priests are going viral on TikTok – and a Carshalton church is getting in on the trend.
The TikTok account for All Saints’ Carshalton has attracted remarkable attention, with one of its videos reaching around 750,000 views.
And it’s not alone.
Across the country, churches and individual priests are discovering that TikTok can reach people who might never walk through a church door.
The videos tap into something that seems to work particularly well on TikTok: the surprise of seeing people you associate with tradition, formality and seriousness doing something completely unexpected.
One Carshalton video jokes about having to “hold it down in Carshalton” while everyone else is in LA.
Another asks: “Things no one told me before I became a priest!”
There are also videos that play with the conventions of church life itself – including jokes around the pulpit and Easter.
It is funny partly because it is so unexpected.
A vicar behaving like a TikTok creator isn’t quite what many people have traditionally associated with the Church of England.
Carshalton isn’t an isolated case
One vicar’s TikTok video attracted around 1.7 million views in just three days. The Church of England reported that Revd Anne Beverley, of Christ Church, Wesham, had originally made the video to keep in touch with seven teenagers in her congregation.
The Church of England has also been experimenting with its own TikTok formats.
Its #AskARev series, launched in 2025, saw 163 posts receive more than 1 million impressions, 57,000 engagements and 926,000 video views, according to the Church of England’s review of its digital channels.
And it isn’t just individual vicars.
Churches and cathedrals around the country have developed TikTok presences, with clergy answering questions about Christianity, church and everyday life – alongside rather more light-hearted content.
There is clearly an appetite for seeing something a little different.
So why does it work?
Perhaps the attraction isn’t really about religion at all.
It is about people.
TikTok thrives on personality and authenticity. And there is something inherently engaging about discovering that the person standing at the front of a church on Sunday has a personality, sense of humour and life outside the traditional image of a vicar.
For younger audiences in particular, a priest appearing on TikTok isn’t necessarily seen as strange.
It can actually make the church seem more approachable.
And that may be the cleverest thing about it.
Rather than trying to make church look modern, these videos simply show that the people inside it are already living in the modern world.
The result is a slightly surreal but very 2020s phenomenon: vicars going viral.
And if the response to the videos coming out of Carshalton is anything to go by, people are rather enjoying it.
Sources / credits
Church of England: ‘It was ridiculous!’ How vicar’s TikTok meant for seven teenagers reached 1.7 million
Church of England: How people engaged with our digital channels in 2025 – including #AskARev
All Saints’ Carshalton TikTok: All Saints’ Parish Church, Carshalton
