Hark! The flock's back: Church attendances up... but it's only at Christmas

  • Christmas Day service attendance is up, according to the Church of England

By Steve Doughty for the Daily Mail

Published: | Updated:


Growing numbers of people go to church at Christmas but for the rest of the year, congregations continue to shrink, figures show.

The festive boost for the Church of England follows years of secular attacks on Christmas.

These include what the last Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, called ‘weary annual attempts by right-thinking people to ban or discourage nativity plays or public carol-singing’.

Bad figures: Attendance figures show a drop in regular services, but an increase around the holidays, such as Christmas

Bad figures: Attendance figures show a drop in regular services, but an increase around the holidays, such as Christmas

Attendance figures published yesterday show that more than 2.6million people went to Church of England services on Christmas Day in 2011, a 14.5 per cent increase on the previous year.

Christmas congregations in 2010 were pushed down by bad weather, but the  numbers were still 8 per cent up on 2009.

However, for the rest of 2011, the records show a bleaker picture of continued decline.

‘Average weekly attendance’, first measured a decade ago because people were said to go to church more often on days other than a Sunday, was just over 1million, 0.3 per cent down on 2010 and 3 per cent below the 2009 level.

‘Usual Sunday attendance’, covering just Sunday services, was 807,472, up 0.8 per cent on 2010 but down 2 per cent from 2009.

Holiday spirit: Christmas Day service attendance in 2011 increased by 14.5 per cent on the previous year

Holiday spirit: Christmas Day service attendance in 2011 increased by 14.5 per cent on the previous year

Church by numbers

The number of church baptisms of children was up 4 per cent on the previous year, but funerals fell by 8 per cent over two years and marriages were down 2 per cent. A total of 51,880 couples were married in churches in 2011, just above half the number in 1991.

Some dioceses showed big increases in congregations. Average weekly attendance went up by more than 9 per cent in Norwich, which was identified in the 2011 national census as the least religious place in the country, and more than 10 per cent in Southwell and Nottingham.

However, it dropped by nearly 10 per cent in Canterbury, more than 8 per cent in Portsmouth and 8 per cent in Durham.

But the Bishop of Norwich, the Right Reverend Graham James, put a positive spin on the figures, saying they are ‘heartening, especially the very strong growth in Christmas Day attendance. Also welcome is the stabilising of the numbers of those who attend church services on a weekly basis’.

He added that ‘there is a quiet confidence underlying these figures... [reflecting] the wide nature of the ministry offered by the Church – for all of life, from the cradle to the grave’.

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