Two years ago, churches across the land stood empty on Easter Sunday, their doors locked by government decree. Even priests were banned from entering by order of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who delivered a sermon from his kitchen.

Justin Welby, who has entered his tenth year as the spiritual leader of the Church of England, was widely condemned for that decision and conceded that he had not “pushed hard enough” to keep churches open for individual prayer during the first lockdown and had “made a mistake” in locking priests out.

His apology has not quelled the lingering anger of some worshippers and clergy over the move, but all this was put aside last weekend for a moment of “joyous” celebration.

For thousands of Church of England parishes Easter Day, the biggest story on Easter was not Welby’s headline-making condemnation of the government’s new migration policy. It was the return of hope.

Not just the hope offered by the resurrection of Jesus in Christian teaching, but the hope that there is still life in the Church as the pews filled for the first restriction-free Easter since 2019.

Priests across the country reported seeing familiar faces, including many older and more vulnerable parishioners, making a first foray back into congregational worship since the pandemic began.

“We were amazed and thrilled,” said the Very Rev Andrew Nunn, Dean of Southwark. “It was back to the kinds of numbers we would have had pre-pandemic, the first time that has happened. Quite a few people said it was the first time they had dared to come back, for Easter.”

Many priests reported that their Sunday congregations even before Easter were up to 70 or 80 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, often with more watching online. The trend for streaming services on YouTube or Zoom began during the pandemic and is here to stay for those in care homes, the housebound and even those who wish to do something else with their Sunday mornings and watch the service on catch-up later that day.

Vicars hope that those worshippers who came back in person for Easter will now feel emboldened to return every Sunday. However, some may not have that choice.

Sir Tony Baldry, a former Conservative minister who ran the Church Buildings Council after quitting parliament in 2015, told The Times that a growing number of churches are likely to become “festival churches” that only hold services on special occasions like Easter and Christmas because they do not have enough worshippers or money to hold services every week. Instead of having to close their doors for ever, these bastions of English heritage can be preserved, staying open as community hubs for local people between hosting occasional services, said Baldry, who now runs the Association of Festival Churches.

In Lincolnshire, in the church’s largest diocese, some 28 per cent of churches surveyed since the pandemic — 174 out of 615 — said they were likely to revert to this model in future.

Welby conceded last autumn that 2022 would mark 70 years of unbroken year-on-year decline in church attendance. Despite more than £170 million of investment during his tenure in schemes designed to attract new, younger and more diverse worshippers, there has been no let-up in the slow but relentless decline that has left many parish churches with empty pews and empty coffers, struggling to maintain their ancient buildings and remain open for worship.

This is why many feared the pandemic could prove terminal for the Church of England. Some laid part of the blame for this with Welby himself who, with his fellow archbishops and bishops, wrote in March 2020 telling churches to close and priests to stay out.

“I didn’t push hard enough to keep churches available for at least individual prayer in the first lockdown,” he said last year. “We also said clergy couldn’t go in, and personally I feel I made a mistake with that.”

“I think it was a great mistake to look keen to shut churches,” agreed the Rev Marcus Walker, rector at Great St Bartholomew’s in London. “I think his reputation has taken a big hit.”