Church attendance in Britain is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation, research published today suggests.
The fall – from the four million people who attend church at least once a month today – means that the Church of England, Catholicism and other denominations will become financially unviable. A lack of funds from the collection plate to support the Christian infrastructure, including church upkeep and ministers’ pay and pensions, will force church closures as ageing congregations die.
Those interested might like read my recent Blogpost The Shrinking Church of England for a comparison of the decline of the Church of England vs Population Growth. Truly Depressing figures.
Anselmic
Maybe- but interestingly numbers in our parish are up for the fifth consecutive year. I do not wish to brag but say this to suggest the reasons may be different to those we imagine. So how do we buck the trend?
By refusing to water things down, by being confident and caring and daring to stand for something definite -whilst taking great care over the liturgy. Here are a list of secret ingredients for our success (in my humble opinion
1) A LOT of hard work from a faithful and dedicated congregation.
2) A healthy spread of ages from 1- 96
3) The faith preached is that handed down by the apostles.
4) Adherence to tradition – Eastward facing Mass with birettas et al, (sorry sixties reformers but the mystery of worship does not confuse or put off the young – THEY LOVE IT!)
5) A reaching out to the community
6) retaining men in their thirties and forties. (beacuse we resistthe trend to totally feminise our message).
7) Good childrens activities and youth group
8) A loving family who pull together and support their priest
9) a refusal to shift feast days but keep them as days of obligation- the world can bend to suit us we do not roll over and die!
So when will the church take notice? We are everything the elite deplore and have tried to ‘do away with’. A Forward in Faith parish which has retained the traditional rites of the church. We are modern in approach but never trenedy. Traditional in worship but never rigid . My experience is that where the faith is taught without compromise a…churches thrive! Mainly because they point people to Jesus and he is ever faithful – ever sure!
One of the things I have learned in the thirty years I have been attempting to understand future trends is that projections of this kind are dangerous because they say what will be happening if present trends continue. Most of the time present trends do not continue, and projections concerning everything from the amount of oil available to the population of the planet has had to be severely revised over the last quarter century. Now, it is possible that trends could get worse, but it is also possible that the places where there is Christian strength in the UK will blossom and flourish — and change the whole picture.
Having been back in this country for eight months I have certainly been to very few places in the Church of England where congregations are declining (although obviously it is happening). In our little village parish we have seen a rise of 20% in the last year, and this is a congregation made up of a very ordinary bunch of people. A year ago most of the faces were old and wrinkled, today there is a growing number of fresh young faces joining our fellowship — and our more contemporary sister congregation up the road is moving ahead with scads of enthusiastic younger families.
However, we should be careful not to argue from the particular to the general (as in this illustration of mine). One congregation’s growth cannot be projected outward to everyone. But then neither should we build our whole forecast of the future around a doom and gloom scenario like the one being propounded rather simplistically here — that is equally illogical.
As is always the case with items like this from The Times, beating up the Church of England is a national contact sport (although woe betide anyone who says anything as cutting about Muslims, Hindus, or even Roman Catholics). The C. of E. is an easy target for cheap shots by everyone from journalists to stand-up comedians. Yes, there are non-denominational evangelical and free congregations that are going ahead well, but nothing has been said here about the Anglican parishes all over the country that are advancing and burgeoning, exploring, experimenting, seeking new ways of proclaiming the old message, and seeing people come to Christ — and grow as disciples.
At places like Ridley Hall, Cambridge, we are seeing some really gifted and dynamic men and women coming through determined to advance the Kingdom — and with no illusions about how demanding it will all be. An unexpectedly large proportion of these individuals have come to faith through Alpha. Just the other morning I had a very gifted ordained woman sitting in my office who ten years ago was a high flier in the City of London, making more money than is healthy, and blithely agnostic. It was through Alpha that the Lord reached into her life and led her along a very different course. The work she is doing today is essential and missional, but hardly glamorous.
However, figures like those in this report should be taken seriously. A warning that we overlook at our peril. They should encourage the churches that they need to be mission-shaped and mission-driven. I would ask The Times to tell the whole story, because there are all sorts of fascinating new initiatives going on in the Church of England that could bear wonderful fruit in coming years, and these should not be overlooked.
I would say to the journalists working on articles like these that if they are going to kick the Church of England, then they also ought to be balanced in their reporting and tell of some of the really good things that are happening. But, whoops, I forgot, good news doesn’t sell papers or garner Pulitzer prizes!
I agree w/Rugbyplayingpriest. My kids are quite young yet they don’t find the mass confusing. They are accustomed to it and in engaging them in conversation regarding church services, it is obvious that they have absorbed more of what is going on than it might initially appear. They don’t need it watered down.
#4 CarolR
How true. Kids wil understand more than we give them credit for. I have had some of the most amazing conversations with my kids in the past few months as one of them approaches first communion this weekend. It’s not rocket science to them.
The kids that don’t get it though, seem to come from families where the parents don’t get it. I think this is part of the point Rugbyplayingpriest made in #2 about retaining men in their 30s and 40s. Whether we like it or not, dad (if he’s home) sets the tone. If he’s engaged in the liturgy or the parish itself, the kids will generally follow.
“The fall…means that the Church of England…will become financially unviable”
All the more reason for the Church of England to loose itself from dying, rich-country revisionist churches like ECUSA and align itself with the vibrant Anglican Christianity of the Global South.
Abp. Williams, are you listening? Do you care?
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“Projections of this kind are dangerous because they say what will be happening if present trends continue. Most of the time present trends do not continue” —Richard Kew [#3]
Yes, indeed. Who during the 1960s would have expected the Soviet Union to collapse, China to become a capitalist dynamo, Freudianism to become passe, rock music to become common fare in evangelical churches, and Christianity to become the majority religion in Subsaharan Africa? Who during the 1980s would have thought the Latin Mass would be staging a comeback early in the 21st century?
It can be done. And sometimes present trends themselves (e.g., the prospect of Britain having a Muslim plurality) prompt new thinking.
Remind me why Lambeth even matters.
Even the author of the research has repudiated this misleading article about it.