Reflection June 2024

The headline news from the Church of England this past month has been that average weekly attendance at Church of England services rose by almost five per cent in 2023 - the third year of consecutive growth. These are preliminary results with the full Statistics for Mission report due to be published in the autumn.

The figures suggest that attendance by children was up by almost six per cent last year, with overall, all-age weekly attendance showing an increase of 4.7 per cent.

Both the Archbishop of Canterbury and Archbishop of York have welcomed the news whilst being cautious not to claim that this growth is a trend that they necessarily expect to continue.

Counting numbers of people attending church however in no way reflects the activities of churches in their communities. For most people church attendance accounts for little over an hour a week and it is what Christians are doing for the rest of the week that has the most impact on their communities. As we read in the letter of James ‘What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you? If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So, faith by itself if it has no works, is dead.’ (James 2: 14-17)

The basic figures do not tell us why more people are attending church – is it as the church suggests due to the church’s ‘focus on reaching more people with the good news of Jesus, establishing new Christian communities, wherever they are, revitalising our parishes, and seeking to become a younger and more diverse church, making everyone feel welcome’? The figures alone do not confirm this analysis. It may be true, but it could just as easily be that in the unstable world in which we are now living with wars, mass migrations of people and environmental changes that we do not seem to be able to control, people are being prompted by the Holy Spirit to come to church to find a degree of certainty in their lives. And it is also just as likely in some places that it is the work of Christians in their communities supporting people after Covid and during the recent difficult winters that has encouraged the people they have helped to start attending church. There may be as many reasons for the increase in church attendance as there are new church attendees.

In addition, the raw figures do not tell us which churches have seen the greatest growth. It would be good if the increased attendance was uniformly seen across all churches be they cathedrals, town centre churches or village churches and across all types of worship from traditional to charismatic. Hopefully we will have more information when the full Statistics for Mission report is published in the autumn.

Total attendance is still however below 2019 levels, the last year before the Covid-19 lockdowns. A number of people who started to attend services on-line during Covid may have continued to do so and will not be included in the figures so the figures may actually underestimate the number of active Church of England members.

So, whilst the church may be encouraged by the figures as, for the first time in a long time, we have seen a noticeable growth in church attendance, we must recognise that the Sunday or weekday service, whilst central to the worship of many Christians is only a fraction of the way that Christians express their faith. It is how Christians express their faith, either individually or through church activities in their communities which will connect with the people who at present do not attend church.

We, as Christians, have something that everyone needs: the forgiveness that Jesus brings and the gift of the Spirit that binds us together. But those who are not members of the Church also have something we need. Because the Church is a body where every part is valued and necessary, and when some people feel excluded for whatever reason, or where some people don’t have an opportunity to hear the gospel or they are driven away by our failings, then the whole body suffers.

We want people to come to know Jesus because we know that the love and compassion they find in Jesus is what they and the world need.

Richard Byas (Reader)