Attendance at C of E churches continues to decline slightly, the latest statistics have revealed. In 2013, the average weekly attendance across England was 1,009,000, two per cent of the population. In 2012, this figure was 1.05 million.
The latest figures come from Statistics for Mission 2013, which was released on Monday. The report suggests that, on an average Sunday in October last year (when the figures were collated), a total of 849,500 people attended a C of E service.
In another measure, the Usual Sunday Attendance, 784,600 people attended. Forty years ago, the Usual Sunday Attendance figure was approximately 1.25 million, but population increases mean that the percentage of English residents who attend church has halved, from three to 1.5 per cent over this period.
Sad, but not surprising. The Mother Church of Anglicanism has been sick and in pathetic shape for a long time. Unlike the USA, where attendance at so-called “mainline” Protestant churches peaked in the mid 1960s, and then went into a mostly relentless decline for the last 50 years or so, the CoE has been in severe decline for about a century.
One telling indicator of that deep decline is that infant baptisms in the CoE, which used to be more or less socially expected of all non-RC, non Dissenting (and non-Jewish) inhabitants of England, (there being almost no Muslims back then) have declined to the point that less than 20% of the population now bothers to go through with that traditional rite of passage (and it’s less than 10% in some major cities). Of course, that’s probably a blessing disguise, as the customary practice of infant baptism on demand, totally apart from any sign of faith or commitment on the part of the parents, has been a horrible curse for the CoE. I’m merely pointing to another indicator of how heavily secularized and de-Christianized England has become.
Bottom line: when less than 2% of the population bothers to go to church at an Anglican church on any given Sunday, what once truly was THE Church OF England has degenerated into being merely A small church IN England, or if you will, The Church of a Tiny Minority of England.
Regardless of when (not it, but when) the CoE is legally and formally dis-established (de jure), the fact is that it was informally and socially dis-established long ago (de facto). What was once a leading nation in sending out missionaries to the rest of the world (or at least to the British Empire’s many colonies) has now become a mission field itself.
As an American, I don’t say that with any sense of superiority or smugness. The same grim tendencies are apparent on the American church scene. The same powerful currents of secularization and pluralism are eroding the foundations of most American denominations too. It’s just that the process of internal rot and decay is more obvious and further advanced across the Pond. But there are also important signs of hope there too, in things like the powerful Alpha movement and the HTB (Holy Trinity, Brompton) network, or the Fresh Expressions and New Wine movements. We North American Anglicans have much to learn, both positively and negatively, from the experience of our brothers and sisters in England who have been facing aggressive secularization and zealous relativism at least two generations longer than we have here.
David Handy+
(FWIW, today marks the 7th anniversary of my first post on this blog. Thanks, Kendall, for letting me wax eloquent here so often.)
May I just point out that the Church Times speaks as if there is no other Christian presence when it says that the proportion of English residents attending services has halved – those are the exact words – when it means that the proportion of English residents attending Church of England services has halved. Sigh. I used to find this conflation even in the venerable pages of The Times. Time and again I would read something like: ‘Less than one million people in England attend services’ which would leave me throwing things at the wall. Lazy, unreflective journalism. It is true that less than one million people in England attend Church of England services on an average Sunday. But here is an astonishing fact that you won’t find reported: on an average Sunday more than one million people in England attend services that are not Church of England, but are Catholic, Pentecostal, Orthodox or independent.
David, regarding baptism without commitment, I can add this from my experience. I have conducted countless weddings – several hundred at least. Quite a few have been the weddings of a baptised Church of England young man and a Catholic young woman. In such occasions I advise that the service be a liturgy, not a nuptial Mass, but sometimes the couple decide on a Mass. The rubrics of the RC church allow me to offer communion to the groom on this occasion if he is baptised and understands the meaning of the eucharist. In the preparation I have asked the groom one question only: ‘When did you last receive communion in the Church of England?’ The response is always a surprised look and the reply: ‘Never.’
I think that Bonhoeffer would have a word to say to us about this. Possibly along the lines of cheap grace. And truth be told these days we cannot completely avoid his strictures in the Catholic Church either.
Terry Tee, #2, the fact that one million people are attending Christian services outside the CofE is good news and I’m glad to hear it. It means that active Christians in the UK are more than double the CofE-only attendance numbers.