Churches Face a Continuing Fall in Attendance

LONDON, OCT. 1, 2006 (Zenit) - The numbers of Sunday churchgoers is still falling in England, according to a report published Sept. 18 by the British organization Christian Research. The decline, however, seems to be slowing.

The report, the 2005 English Church Census, shows that from 1998-2005 "only" a half-million people stopped going to church. The good news was that this was half the loss sustained in the nine-year period prior to 1998.

The press release accompanying the report was titled, "Pulling out of the Nosedive," and it claimed: "Many churches in England are in a healthier state now than seven years ago."

The census found that there are two major reasons for the slowing decline: the number of churches are growing; plus there was a considerable increase of ethnic minority churchgoers, especially blacks.

The data were collected from surveys sent to 37,500 churches, of which about half responded. The attendance figures are those for Sunday, May 8, 2005. According to the census 6.3% of the population, just over 3.1 million people, are now in church on an average Sunday, compared with 7.5% in 1998.

Just over a third of churches, 34%, are growing. This compares with 21% in 1998. A further 16% are stable, up from 14% in 1998. The proportion of churches in decline has fallen from 65% in 1998 to 50%. Nevertheless, the losses from declining churches outweigh the gains from those with increasing numbers. And this continuing decline is taking place in a situation where church attendance is already at extremely low levels.

The Catholic and Anglican churches accounted for over half of the numbers in the census, with each having just over 800,000 people in church the day the data were collected. Next in order of numbers were the Methodist, Pentecostal and Baptist churches.

Numbers for the Catholic Church were slightly ahead of the Anglican level. But compared with 1998 the decline in attendance for the Catholic Church was much greater than for the Anglicans. In 1998 the Sunday participation for Catholics was just over 1.2 million, meaning that in the previous seven years their numbers have dropped by almost a third.

Another problem is that churchgoers are significantly older on average than the population. No fewer than 29% of churchgoers are 65 or over, compared with 16% of the population. Believers in the younger age groups also tend to go to church less often, and there is a progressive decline in belief as age drops, with very few churchgoers in the younger age brackets. Less than 10% go to church in the 20-29 age group, and this falls to 5% in the 15-19 group.

Regarding the question of increased participation by ethnic groups, the census found that blacks now account for 10% of all churchgoers in England, with an additional 7% from other non-white ethnic groups.

Catholic problems

A more detailed look at the situation of the Catholic Church came in another report, published this summer by the Pastoral Research Center. Over a three-decade period Mass attendance has declined by 40%, according to a summary of the report published in the Times newspaper on July 4. The report covered the period 1963-1991.

Over the same period baptisms were halved, while marriages and confirmations plunged by 60%.

As well, first Communions declined by 40% and the number of adult converts fell 55%. According to the Times, more recent figures, from 2004, show little improvement in the situation. Numbers going to Mass on a Sunday in 1991 in England and Wales stood at 1.3 million, declining to 960,000 in 2004.

The Web site for the Catholic Church in England and Wales also publishes statistics that reveal similar trends. The number of diocesan clergy fell from 4,755 in 1981 to 3,765 in 2003. Religious-order clergy fell from 2,266 to 1,363 in the same period.

The number of marriages in Catholic churches fell precipitously, from 29,337 in 1981 to 11,013 in 2003. The Web site estimated weekly Mass attendance at 915,497.

Last April 10 the Telegraph newspaper published a detailed article on the situation of Catholic monasteries and convents. Citing official figures the article said that only a dozen people entered monasteries in 2004, thus continuing a decline that has persisted in recent decades.

Vocations to monastic orders were 107 in 1982. By 1990 this had fallen to 52, and in 2000 only 20 entered. The total number of monks in England and Wales now stands at 1,345, many of them elderly.

The situation of nuns is similar. In England and Wales their numbers stand at 1,150, and vocations continue to decline. In 1982, 100 women entered convents; by 2000 this fell to 22. In 2004 there were only seven vocations, with a slight increase to 13 in 2005. An increasing number of ...