The subsequent Archbishop of Canterbury after Justin Welby will inherit a nationwide church in numerical collapse and groaning below bureaucratic burdens.
On Thursday 5 December, the Church of England printed its missions statistics for 2023. The Church's common weekly attendance for all ages, which incorporates Sunday and Midweek, was 693,000 folks in 2023 – 598,000 adults and 95,000 kids aged as much as 16 years previous.
The variety of adults was 19 p.c decrease than in 2019, though 4.5 p.c greater than in 2022. The variety of kids was 24 p.c decrease than in 2019, though 4.9 p.c greater than in 2022.
Since 2019, C of E has dropped in numerical weekly attendance by greater than a fifth.
The newest mission statistics come a day after assume tank Civitas printed a report on the C of E which warned it was overspending on human sources (HR) crimson tape and variety officers on the expense of parishes.
message – Re-valuing parishes: Foundations of wellbeing, group and non secular belonging in England – tutorial researcher and guide Esmé Partridge discovered that “managerial turnover” within the church over the previous 20 years has left extraordinary parishes “struggling to outlive”.
Its report stated 42 church dioceses had taken on “massive numbers of employees” for the reason that flip of the millennium, merging parishes and decreasing the variety of clergy to chop prices.
These administrative positions embrace HR positions and plenty of “politicized roles” reminiscent of range, social justice, LGBT and 0 officers.
This development implies that “dioceses throughout the nation now make use of so many individuals that there’s a mean of 1 administrator for each three and a half clergymen”.
The report discovered that 21 per cent of diocesan spending now goes to administrative prices, virtually double that of enormous charities reminiscent of Oxfam (10 per cent).
Civitas famous that the variety of stipend holders – C of E ministers who obtain a wage – can also be declining in lots of dioceses, together with the Diocese of Sheffield, the place there have been 155 such ministers in 1999 however there might be 83 in 2025, a decline. from 46 p.c.
The report stated: “These selections don’t seem to have been made out of monetary necessity: the Church Commissioners are trustees of a £10bn endowment fund which was initially arrange solely to supply assist to parishes.
“Then why doesn't he exit of his method to save them?”
The report beneficial that dioceses share back-office features to scale back prices, direct cash to common parishes to fund extra ministers and cut back the quantity of “parish share” donations that church buildings pay to their dioceses every year.
The C of E tried to dismiss the report and stated a spokesperson The Telegraph newspaper: “We don't acknowledge the image painted by this report, which seems to have a elementary misunderstanding of how clergy are paid and ignores the important assist dioceses present on the frontline to parishes throughout the nation in every part from safety to finance.”
“Opposite to the image the report paints, Church buildings of the Church of England have seen outstanding progress up to now yr – with whole congregations set to exceed a million once more in 2023 – a tribute to the faithfulness of clergy, parish volunteers and parishioners throughout England in sharing the great. messages about Jesus Christ and repair to their communities.”
The spokesman's assertion that “the overall congregation will exceed 1,000,000 once more in 2023” comes from the mission's newest statistics: “The worshiping group of the Church of England – the variety of its common worshipers – was 1,007,000 folks in 2023.”
In accordance with a commentary on the statistics: “A church's congregation is outlined as individuals who attend companies recurrently, as soon as a month or extra (both in particular person or 'at dwelling').”
The C of E spokesman uncared for to say that the overall worshiping group of standard worshipers in 2023 was 10 per cent decrease than in 2019, though 2.5 per cent greater than in 2022.
He additionally failed to elucidate that the individuals who maintain the parish church on the entrance line are usually not those that can attend as soon as a month or watch a service on-line, however those that attend the church in particular person week after week, who contribute financially and tackle the required and demanding volunteer work.
Mission statistics clearly confirmed that the variety of weekly guests has dropped sharply since 2019.
Welby's successor can not cease the decline. It is a demographic actuality because of the truth that most individuals who attend C of E church buildings are over 60 years previous.
However he might attempt to sort out the centralized administration tradition that has taken over the C of E and work to ease the bureaucratic burden on frontline parishes. This might liberate parishes for simpler evangelization.
Julian Mann is a former Church of England vicar, now an evangelical journalist primarily based in Lancashire.
