It’s astonishing how consistent the CofE attendance figures are as a percentage of all attending while the total number attending was dropping by about 30%. I can’t help thinking that says something important about the role the CofE plays in the UK in general, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what it must be.
Kendall, I’m not sure that enjoy is the appropriate word for how we in the UK approach these terrible figures. Here for me are the headlines:
RC as proportion of worshippers, down from 39.7% in 1980 to 28.2% in 2005.
Pentecostal up proportionally from 4.3% of worshippers in 1980 to 9.1% in 2005; New Churches (a rather loose description, one feels) up from 1.4% in 1980 to 5.8% in 2005.
The precipitous decline of the United Reformed Church (for US readers: a merger of Presbyterian, Congregationalist and the small Church of Christ) to one-third of its size.
Mark # 1 – what does it say for the Church of England being a national church while (a) throughout this period it has never had a plurality of worshippers and (b) its own figures point to around 2.25% of the English population in average Sunday attendance. Is this really a national church?
I suppose you could argue that being a national church doesn’t particularly encourage attendance, since participation isn’t how you establish membership — it’s a birthright.
In connection with an article I published in Touchstone siome years ago, I recall that in 2002 1.53 percent of the Swedish population attended a service of the Church of Sweden on an “average” Sunday, and 1.53 percent attended some other place of worship on that Sunday. There was only a difference of 100-150 between the two figures, and I can’t recall which one was the greater.
Mark, my point entirely. It amounts to an anorexic definition of Christianity. I hasten to add that there are many wonderful Christians in the C of E. I have learned from some of them. Moreover, to turn the point against Catholics like myself, we find the same problem with ‘ethnic’ Catholics who say things like ‘to be Polish is to be Catholic’ etc. Well, not quite. St Paul gave us the briefest encapsulation: whoever says ‘Jesus is Lord’ belongs to the community of faith. If people vaguely claim ‘birthright’ membership of a national church, or ethnic Catholic identifiers, have they yet acknowledged Jesus as Lord? We need to move towards a clearer sense of faith, and of making a declaration of faith for oneself. I don’t mean to sound like a Southern Baptist making an altar call, and I accept that God alone sees into the human heart and knows how much faith there is. But I would be happier if all church members knew what they believed and held it contra mundum. Where there is separation of church and state this seems to be much more the case.
Terry: it is good to have a Catholic voice from the UK here. IYHO, what’s behind the precipitous decline of Catholic attendance? From some time ago, I have *very slight experience of a 2-3 Catholic schools in England and they didn’t seem all that Catholic to me.
kmh: for a long time (as I think you know) Catholics in the UK were something of a ghetto. Irish in large numbers, urban, self-contained, with a few families from aristocracy and gentry, and a sprinkling of converts. Worship conveyed a strong sense of the numinous. From the 60s onwards all that changed. Education pushed Irish descendants up the ladder. Vatican II, ecumenism and a rising tide of Catholic confidence pushed the Church into playing a bigger role in the life of the nation. The outstanding pastorate of Cardinal Hume was the proof and seal of that. Unfortunately in the process Catholics lost something of their sense of distinctiveness. In addition, the culture here in the UK is strongly sceptical and mocking of Christianity in general, and the less confident Catholics fall by the wayside along with the others. I went to a meeting recently where an address was given on the holocaust. At question time we were startled by a rant from the audience about the Catholic Church. Yes, I thought to myself, the only prejudice now that can be openly espoused. Still, the Pope’s visit was a great success that startled many. I get a feel of things changing for the better.
I should have added that in the Catholic Church in England and Wales there is widespread recognition that the catechesis of our young people from the 1970s until recently has been poor. It was almost as though we were embarrassed to teach anything too definite, too challenging, too distinctive. A
Whoops. Wrong combination of keys. As a symbol of what I am saying, I remember in my first parish having a conversation with the children’s first communion catechist who had stretched a banner across the sanctuary saying ‘Jesus invites you to a meal.’ My objection: ‘It sounds like: Meet me at McDonalds.’ Things are better now, although old expressions of confident belief are still rarely heard. I should think that few Catholics under the age of 40 would have heard the word transubstantiation. Or real presence. I once asked the altar servers what the words of consecration were and drew a blank.
It’s astonishing how consistent the CofE attendance figures are as a percentage of all attending while the total number attending was dropping by about 30%. I can’t help thinking that says something important about the role the CofE plays in the UK in general, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what it must be.
Kendall, I’m not sure that enjoy is the appropriate word for how we in the UK approach these terrible figures. Here for me are the headlines:
RC as proportion of worshippers, down from 39.7% in 1980 to 28.2% in 2005.
Pentecostal up proportionally from 4.3% of worshippers in 1980 to 9.1% in 2005; New Churches (a rather loose description, one feels) up from 1.4% in 1980 to 5.8% in 2005.
The precipitous decline of the United Reformed Church (for US readers: a merger of Presbyterian, Congregationalist and the small Church of Christ) to one-third of its size.
Mark # 1 – what does it say for the Church of England being a national church while (a) throughout this period it has never had a plurality of worshippers and (b) its own figures point to around 2.25% of the English population in average Sunday attendance. Is this really a national church?
“Is this really a national church? ”
I suppose you could argue that being a national church doesn’t particularly encourage attendance, since participation isn’t how you establish membership — it’s a birthright.
In connection with an article I published in Touchstone siome years ago, I recall that in 2002 1.53 percent of the Swedish population attended a service of the Church of Sweden on an “average” Sunday, and 1.53 percent attended some other place of worship on that Sunday. There was only a difference of 100-150 between the two figures, and I can’t recall which one was the greater.
Mark, my point entirely. It amounts to an anorexic definition of Christianity. I hasten to add that there are many wonderful Christians in the C of E. I have learned from some of them. Moreover, to turn the point against Catholics like myself, we find the same problem with ‘ethnic’ Catholics who say things like ‘to be Polish is to be Catholic’ etc. Well, not quite. St Paul gave us the briefest encapsulation: whoever says ‘Jesus is Lord’ belongs to the community of faith. If people vaguely claim ‘birthright’ membership of a national church, or ethnic Catholic identifiers, have they yet acknowledged Jesus as Lord? We need to move towards a clearer sense of faith, and of making a declaration of faith for oneself. I don’t mean to sound like a Southern Baptist making an altar call, and I accept that God alone sees into the human heart and knows how much faith there is. But I would be happier if all church members knew what they believed and held it contra mundum. Where there is separation of church and state this seems to be much more the case.
Terry: it is good to have a Catholic voice from the UK here. IYHO, what’s behind the precipitous decline of Catholic attendance? From some time ago, I have *very slight experience of a 2-3 Catholic schools in England and they didn’t seem all that Catholic to me.
kmh: for a long time (as I think you know) Catholics in the UK were something of a ghetto. Irish in large numbers, urban, self-contained, with a few families from aristocracy and gentry, and a sprinkling of converts. Worship conveyed a strong sense of the numinous. From the 60s onwards all that changed. Education pushed Irish descendants up the ladder. Vatican II, ecumenism and a rising tide of Catholic confidence pushed the Church into playing a bigger role in the life of the nation. The outstanding pastorate of Cardinal Hume was the proof and seal of that. Unfortunately in the process Catholics lost something of their sense of distinctiveness. In addition, the culture here in the UK is strongly sceptical and mocking of Christianity in general, and the less confident Catholics fall by the wayside along with the others. I went to a meeting recently where an address was given on the holocaust. At question time we were startled by a rant from the audience about the Catholic Church. Yes, I thought to myself, the only prejudice now that can be openly espoused. Still, the Pope’s visit was a great success that startled many. I get a feel of things changing for the better.
I should have added that in the Catholic Church in England and Wales there is widespread recognition that the catechesis of our young people from the 1970s until recently has been poor. It was almost as though we were embarrassed to teach anything too definite, too challenging, too distinctive. A
Whoops. Wrong combination of keys. As a symbol of what I am saying, I remember in my first parish having a conversation with the children’s first communion catechist who had stretched a banner across the sanctuary saying ‘Jesus invites you to a meal.’ My objection: ‘It sounds like: Meet me at McDonalds.’ Things are better now, although old expressions of confident belief are still rarely heard. I should think that few Catholics under the age of 40 would have heard the word transubstantiation. Or real presence. I once asked the altar servers what the words of consecration were and drew a blank.