In January 1968 the bishop of Birmingham, Leonard Wilson, wrote in his diocesan newsletter of the fresh ideas sweeping English society in the preceding years. Discernment was crucial, he argued, but a wholesale rejection of change risked quenching the Spirit of God at work in the world. Special wisdom was needed regarding relations between young and old:

The bishop's words were powerfully emblematic of the way in which, by the 1960s, relations between young and old had become a hotly-debated social question. Youth was frequently identified with new social and political agendas that gave short shrift to authorities and institutions – including organised religion. The assertive self-confidence of youth – expressed in myriad ways from student protests to gang violence – was widely discussed in politics, the arts and media. ‘Teenagers’ (a comparatively recent coinage) were increasingly conspicuous as consumers and the fashions and tastes that they adopted were often consciously distinct from those of their parents. For themselves, adult observers often spoke of a ‘generation gap’ and anxiously discussed its causes.