Anglicans Launch “Back to Church” Campaign

A diocese of the Church of England recently launched a “Back to Church Sunday” campaign to boost their declining church attendances. The creativity of the campaign was welcomed by many church ministers, and more than half of the diocese’s 300 parishes signed up for the scheme.

The Right Reverend Nigel McCulloch, the Bishop of Manchester, was the initiator of this campaign. In the Diocese of Manchester, churches participating in the campaign were being offered subsidised resources to equip churchgoers to invite people to church on the last Sabbath of the month - 26th September - so called “Back to Church Sunday”.

The resources pack included promotion tools for the regular congregation, service materials for church ministers and gift packs for new-comers. Thousands of A3 colour posters depicting a crowd of people around a puzzle-shaped hole containing the slogan “Missing You”, prayer bookmarks and credit card style invitations were distributed by regular churchgoers to friends, neighbours and relatives over the past few weeks to promote the campaign.

The gift pack for new worshippers contained a glossy booklet about the Church, a special issue of the diocesan newsletter Crux and a bar of “fair trade” chocolate donated by the Co-Op supermarket chain.

For the service on 26th September, clergy used a specially prepared traditional liturgy on the theme of thanksgiving and used older people’s favourite hymns.

Even though most churches usually emphasise on attracting young people, the Manchester diocesan officials’ research has shown that the church’s most established ‘fringe’ lies in the over 50 age group. It is thought to be because many of them have memories of churchgoing that are not shared by younger generations, and they are very likely to be reflecting on life as well as thinking in terms of meaning, purpose and community.

Of the 20 million people aged 50 and over in the UK it is estimated that half have had an experience of church through Sunday School or in later life.

Diocesan Canon Evangelist Robin Gamble said, “There are loads of people who for whatever reason have lost contact with their local church and who would come back with a personal invitation.”

The campaign showed the Church’s effort in finding back the “mission pews”. The initiator of the campaign Rev Nigel McCulloch, claimed that the established Church is in danger of extinction following the figures published in The UK Christian Handbook: Religious Trends in March.

At the current rate of decline in church membership, the projection suggests that total Church membership across Britain will have fallen to below six million by 2005, and even down by more than a million people in 15 years.

The bishop warned, “We will, unless there is a turn in the tide, be a Church which gradually disappears from this land.”

The effectiveness of the campaign, however, has not been determined yet. The assessment is commissioned to the University of Wolverhampton to see how effective it was in encouraging people back to church and its effect in the lives of people over 50. The campaign will be introduced nationally if it is proved to be successful.