England is worst in the world for child alcohol consumption. The Church must wake up

Children in England are more likely to have drunk alcohol than those in any other country. Emma Heath says the news should be a wake up call to churches who are contributing to an unhealthy culture around alcohol 

England has the worst rate of child alcohol consumption in the world.

That’s according to a new report by the World Health Organisation, which shows more than half of children had drunk alcohol by age 13. 

I believe we are living in a culture of denial around the serious impact that alcohol is having. Having lived a life of alcohol abuse myself, I am now running a national Christian charity upskilling teams to work in the area of addiction. But it takes a wake up call to really see what is going on around us, and I had just that jolt when I was invited to speak at a local school in Dorset.