Church of England Attendance Hits a Record Low

Church of England attendance has declined by 24,000 since 2014.

The Church of England is known to be bleeding followers for quite a while and now the number of attendees have dropped under one million. This comes to below two percent of total population. Attendances on Sunday have dropped in the region of 760,000.

Church of England Attendance Hits a Record Low[/tweetthis]

The 2014 statistics related to the Church of England reveal that 24,000 worshipers are missing, implying any one of two possibilities: death or altogether stopped going to church. From the remaining 980,000 worshipers, about 830,000 were adults. Attendance during festivities, however, remained strong as ever, with an attendance of 2.4 million attending Christmas services. The number is also positive for special Advent services with 2.6 million attendees in the special Advent held for schools and civic organizations.

For church authorities, such a decline was expected. The Archbishop of Canterbury, in his speech directed to his peers at Primates meeting held in Canterbury, said that “the decline in numbers has been a pattern for many years…and the culture [is] becoming anti-Christian.”

The Archbishop admitted that the hostility in recognizing gay marriage has resulted in a number of individuals leaving the folds of the church. He said that the number of churchgoers were falling at approximately one percent every year from the time of the Second World War. The decline was due to a number of reasons, like the growth of secularism and greater religious diversity. The aging profile of its worshipers also contributed to the fallen numbers. The population of churchgoers have dipped by 12 percent in last decade and it will soon become half of the number in the 1960s.

The recent annual survey shows that 980,000 individuals attended 16,000 churches in October 2014. The number comprises 150,000 children and 830,000 adults. The majority of attendees trooped in on a Sunday.

The Anglican church did not expect that anything will change immediately in the coming future due to the demographics. About one percent of churchgoers die every year-thus lowering the total number of the remaining. The greater incidence of house-bound people further lowered the church going numbers. The Archbishop said at Anglican Primates meeting that the culture is becoming hostile towards Christianity, ranging from matters related to sexual morality or care for individuals at the end or beginning of life. The law of marriages between same sex couples became effective from 2013. In response, it has started a new renewal and reform program.

In Cameron's 'Christian country' less than 2% of the population now attend Church of England Sunday services. https://t.co/RdNcz8fSwu

— Glyndŵr (@glynhale) January 12, 2016

Resources

• Christian Today
• The Guardian

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