Is the UK Church Resurrecting or Declining?

The past decade has seen much evidence of the number of churchgoers in the UK dropping significantly. However, after adopting a new method of calculating the overall figures for weekly Sunday service attendants, the Church of England has now claimed that an increase has occurred in their average attendances.

The conflicting evidence from surveys has come after the Church claimed that a "more precise figure" is shown after averaging out the figures for the whole of October, rather than counting the attendants on a particular Sunday. This method shows an average of 1.7 million people coming to church throughout the whole month while other statistics published this year shows a continuing decline in attendants that drop below 900,000. But only one million out of 1.7m account for Sunday service attendants.

Congregations in rural parishes still show signs of declining but city-centre church congregations are increasing.

The number of worshippers attending Christmas services is a reliable indicator in boosting the figures. "Taking into account other services of worship (carols, Christingles etc) not included in this Christmas count, the size of the Anglican church in England, if portrayed in these terms, is approaching 3 million people, which is three times the figure of 1 million often cited in the public arena," says the report.

The statistics published in 2002 show that 2.6 million people attended Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. The numbers of weddings held in the Church have declined from 86,000 in 1994 to only 54,700 in 2002. Christenings declined from 189,000 in 1996 to 158,000 in 2002.




Jenny Lee
Ecumenical Press