Black Worshippers Rising Against Downward Trend in Church Attendance

The number of worshippers of African and Caribbean origin in the UK is on the rise despite the general downward trend affecting most churches, particularly white-majority churches, across the country.

Despite people of African and Caribbean origin accounting for only 2 percent of the population, they make up more than two-thirds of all Sunday church-goers in London and 7 percent of worshippers across the UK, according to research.

The Christian Research Association has published the figures on church attendance, which reveal that black church membership over the last five years has risen by around 18 percent compared to a 5 percent drop for churches nationwide.

The research shows that many members of the black community choose to worship in black-led churches, particularly Pentecostal churches in which blacks comprise more than a third of the congregation, making the black Christian community one of the few Christian growth groups.

Peter Brierley, editor of the research, said: “Across the UK more churches are closing more than they’re opening. The growth rate we are seeing in the UK largely comes from the ethnic minority groups.”

One runaway success is Glory House in east London. Established in 1992 by Nigerian immigrants and with just 45 members, it now has a membership of 3,000 and opens its doors to around 600 people every Sunday, with half that number also attending the mid-week service.

Pastor Jonathan Oloyede, one of Glory House’s founders, has attributed the growth of black-led churches to the UK’s rapidly-growing African communities which bring with them their own deeply embedded church culture.

“Christianity in Africa is big in terms of lots of people going to church. Another factor is we have a strong, very vibrant ministry that is an outreach to the family and young families, so church is not just something you attend, it’s part of your life.”

The steady rise in black Church attendance has combined with the rich church culture to give black-majority churches an annual turnover that far outstrips the average traditional UK church.

The turnover for Glory House in 2004 reached a staggering 1.5 million, mostly in the form of tithes.

The growth of black worshippers in Britain has not been all positive, however. Bishop Joe Aldred, black church spokesman for Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, said that the majority of black people attend mainstream churches in which the majority of the congregation are ethnic minorities.

“The church where I am pastor in Birmingham, if you go back 25 years was overwhelmingly a white Baptist church. Fast forward to today and 98 per cent of its members are black.

“There is some evidence of racism in all denominations, the Americans call it ‘white flight’ – as the blacks move in, the whites move out,” Dr Aldred says.

Dr Beckford, a lecturer at the University of Birmingham on diasporan religions and cultures, also criticised the amount of unfair negative coverage black-majority churches and church communities get in the media.

He said: “It’s rare that you find an unbiased analysis of black life in general and black church life in particular.

“Scandals within the Catholic Church or within Anglicanism never get the same kind of negative reaction that a black case will, even if it’s an isolated one,” Dr Beckford says.

Katei Kirby of the African Caribbean Evangelical Alliance shares this opinion, referring to the recent surge in press stories falsely linking witchcraft and child abuse with black churches.

“The phone calls we had from some journalists were making unexplainable links between Christianity, witchcraft and black culture.

“What we’ve been desperately trying to do is make people understand that Africans in Britain, Caribbeans in Britain whether they go to a black-led church or not are making a significant contribution to society.”

She continued: “Those things don’t make the headlines because they don’t sell papers or increase viewing.”

Pastor Oloyede expects acceptance of black churches to grow with time, however: “I think we’re still budding, still blossoming, still maturing. In the coming years many of the black churches are going to start integrating with mainstream society but for now there is still misunderstanding and misinformation about black-led churches.”