|
News
Archbishop speaks out on childhood Church questions proposals for gambling advertisements Archbishop's prayers for the 'ordinary people of God' as covenant plans progress Statistics show increased giving and ordinations Back-a-Book to help Lambeth Palace Library turn over some very old pages Pulling out of the nosedive Pulling out of the Nosedive (shortened form) Church People are older!
Archbishop speaks out on childhood The Archbishop has spoken out of the difficulties children face in the 21st Century, as patron of the Children's Society who has launched The Good Childhood Inquiry. Dr Rowan Williams spoke about the pressure children face at school with excessive testing, as well as the commercial pressures they face by being targeted as consumers before they are ready. "I think we have a shared unwillingness in our culture to let children be children for long enough".
Church questions proposals for gambling advertisements The Church of England has called for all advertisements promoting gambling to carry health warnings about the danger of gambling addiction. In a submission to the Committee of Advertising Practice, the Church states that the potential benefits of enforcing such warnings this “should outweigh the disadvantage of extra financial costs for advertisers.” The Church also calls on the Gambling Commission to make compliance with advertising rules a condition of gambling operators’ licences.
In the submission, the Church restates its long-held concern for the potential damage to individuals and families if more people become problem gamblers.
Archbishop's prayers for the 'ordinary people of God' as covenant plans progress The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has spoken of his prayers for ordinary churchgoers who are ‘puzzled, wearied, or disoriented’ by the present controversies within the Anglican Communion. In a Pastoral Letter to the Anglican Communion’s Primates and Presiding Bishops, Dr Williams said that the 'ordinary people of God' do not want to see division as the consequence of the Anglican Communion’s difficulties.
Statistics show increased giving and ordinations Statistics released last month show that direct giving to parish churches averaged exactly £5.00 per electoral roll member per week and tax-efficient giving increased to an average of £8.00 per subscriber per week.
Official Church Statistics, published on the Church of England website last month, also show increases in the number of clergy being trained and ordained. The Church ordained 505 new clergy in 2005 (267 men and 238 women), the highest number since 2002.
Attendance figures for 2004 show a mixed picture for trends in church attendance: regular Sunday church attendance fell by one per cent – largely offsetting a similar increase the previous year, but weekly and monthly churchgoing held steady and the number of children and young people at services rose by two per cent.
The new statistics confirm that more than 1.7 million people attend Church of England church and cathedral worship each month while around 1.2 million attend each week – on Sunday or during the week - and just over one million each Sunday.
Back-a-Book to help Lambeth Palace Library turn over some very old pages Lambeth Palace Library, the historic library of the Archbishops of Canterbury and the principal reference point for the history of the Church of England, has launched a project to help safeguard the future of thousands of priceless books – while offering a unique gift idea at the same time.
The Back-a-Book initiative invites members of the public to mark a special event or anniversary by donating money to help repair one of the Library’s volumes and, in return, dedicate an acid-free bookplate as a lasting memorial inside the cover of the book that they help to save. As the bookplates are created with a choice of words agreed with the sponsor, the scheme could even help in the search for an ideal gift for a friend or family member.
Library staff will select the exact volume to be restored, based on those most in need within the subject range specified by the sponsor.
Pulling out of the nosedive Many churches in England are in a healthier state now than seven years ago. Some local churches as well as a few denominations are doing very well, more churches are growing, and overall they are not losing nearly as many people as they were.
These are the major findings from the 2005 English Church Census, undertaken by Christian Research and published recently.
The Census showed that in the 1990s one million people left church in nine years, but in the seven years from 1998-2005 only ½ million left, a much slower rate of decline, showing that churchgoing in England is beginning to pull out of the ‘nosedive’ decline seen previously. There are two major reasons for this slowing decline: the number of churches which are growing, and a considerable increase of ethnic minority churchgoers, especially black people.
Over a third of churches, 34%, are growing (compared with 21% in 1998), 16% are now stable (up from 14%), while the proportion which are declining has fallen from two thirds to only half (65% down to 50%). A quarter, 25%, of the churches which were declining in the 1990s have not only stemmed their losses, but have turned their church around and are now growing. This includes churches of all denominations and sizes.
However, the declining churches are still losing more people than the growing churches are gaining. The net effect is that overall 6.3% of the population are now in church on an average Sunday (7.5% in 1998), with others attending midweek. A major factor in this decline is that churchgoers are significantly older on average than the population - 29% of churchgoers are 65 or over compared with 16% of the population.
Black people now account for 10% of all churchgoers in England (increased from 7%), with a further 7% (previously 5%) from other non-white ethnic groups. This is most obvious in Inner London, where 44% of churchgoers are now black, 14% other non-white, and only 42% white.
"Christian Research has never shirked from telling us unpalatable truths about church decline. At last they have some good news for us!" comments Ven. Bob Jackson, the Church of England Archdeacon of Walsall and author of ‘The Road to Growth’.
"Decline has slowed and far more individual churches are growing. In fact the data I see for the Church of England confirms this. ‘Pulling out of the Nosedive’ is an apt and justified title for a report with some statistical good news for all the churches."
"Statistics like these give both the church and wider society the helpful opportunity to look at how church attendance has changed over time" says Rev Katei Kirby, CEO of ACEA (African and Caribbean Evangelical Alliance). "For example, while it is significant to see the increase in the numbers of Black people attending church in England, it is equally important to see where they are attending - in the independent and Pentecostal sectors as well as in the nominal or mainstream denominations. I think that this will continue to have a major impact on the picture of church attendance trends in the future."
"This is a helpful, though challenging, analysis of the state of the Church in England" responded Rev John Glass, General Superintendent Elim Pentecostal Churches, one of the denominations which has done better than others.
Dr Peter Brierley, who undertook the Census, says, "It is a great joy to have some good news at last. Although the overall numbers are still going down there are many signs of hope in the statistics. It is important that church leaders, both nationally and locally, pick up on these positive things, learn from those who are doing well, and build for the future. If that happens we could see the church in this country once again having a major impact on our nation."
The results of the 2005 English Church Census are published today in Pulling out of the Nosedive and a volume of statistics which is No 6 in the Religious Trends series.
Pulling out of the Nosedive (shortened form) In 1989 the number of people attending church each week in England was 4.7 million. During the 9 years between 1989 and 1998 that number reduced by a million people to 3.7 million.
In the 7 years 1998 to 2005 that number has reduced again, to 3.2 million, half a million less. Bad news and good news! Bad news – the number continues to decline. Good news – the drop is nothing like as steep as it was. We are pulling out of the nosedive!
That is the title of the book on the recent results of the 2005 English Church Census: Pulling out of the Nosedive. It gives the details of how the percentage of the population attending church has dropped from 7.5% in 1998 to 6.3% in 2005. It also tells that there are more growing churches, more people from ethnic minorities in church now, and how the largest churches are growing.
It also explains that many women are not attending so frequently, that 29% of churchgoers are 65 or over, and that more than half the churches have congregations of 50 or fewer people. So there are plenty of challenges ahead if we are really to pull right out of the nosedive and start climbing again!
Church People are older! The results of the 2005 English Church Census, recently published, showed that 29% of churchgoers were 65 years of age or older. That compares with 25% in 1998 and 19% in 1989. By contrast, the population figures are, respectively, 16%, 16% and 15%.
This means that not only are churchgoers older than average than the population generally, but, as these percentages show, they have grown proportionately older over the last 16 years. There is an especially large proportion in the age-group 65 to 74, what the Government calls the ‘Third Age’. One sixth, 17%, of churchgoers are in this age-group, twice the 8% of the general population.
Older people do not always have the energy of younger people, nor do they have the habits of younger people. Many watch the BBC Sunday evening programme Songs of Praise, and the older they are the more “spiritual” they find it. For those only able to get to church on special occasions like Christmas and Easter, or who are in ill health, such programmes are hugely appreciated.
Many older people are grandparents. Research shows that grandchildren respect the values of their grandparents, many of whom have been influential in helping their grandchildren learn more about Christianity. Perhaps we can encourage them to do more still!
|