Average weekly attendance at Church of England services rose by almost five per cent in 2023 - the third year of consecutive growth, preliminary figures show. Even more positively, attendance by children was up by almost 6% cent last year, according to the annual Statistics for Mission findings.
While total attendance is still below pre-Covid levels, the latest figures are encouraging, and if they continue to rise at the same rate, they will surpass pre-pandemic attendance.
In 2021 all-age Sunday attendance was 22.3 per cent below the projected pre-pandemic trend, but the new figures reveal that the gap had narrowed to 6.7 per cent last year.
All-age weekly attendance rose to within 8.3 per cent of the trend last year, compared with 24.1 per cent in 2021.
John Hellewell (pictured right), Mission Adviser, for the Diocese of Chester says; “These encouraging figures reflect what I hear visiting parishes across the diocese. Almost everywhere has stories of people coming to faith or rediscovering their faith as we focus on reaching the 1.5 million across our dicoese – One life at a time. Our own attendance figures are slightly below the national average, but they may not reflect our actual growth, which may be under-represented, as we had under 80% of Statistics for Mission returns for last year. It’s not too late to send them in, so if you can, please send them to me, John Hellewell at john.hellewell@chester.anglican.org rather than filling in the online return."
The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, said: “This is very good news. For the first time in a long time we have seen noticeable growth.
“Of course we don't yet know whether this growth is a trend but I take it as a great encouragement that our 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, is beginning to make a difference.
“Most of all it encourages me that our emphasis on being a Christ centred and Jesus Christ shaped church is renewing our confidence in the gospel and our dependence on Christ.
“I hope the whole Church will be encouraged to continue this story of faithfulness, believing it will lead to fruitfulness, not because we want to build the earthly ‘empire’ of the church, but because we want people to come to know Jesus and because we know that the love and compassion they find in Jesus is what the world needs.”
Overall, all-age weekly attendance at Church of England churches rose to 685,000 last year, from 654,000 in 2022, an increase of 4.7 per cent. The number of children attending weekly increased from 87,000 in 2022 to 92,000 (up 5.7 per cent).
The full Statistics for Mission report is due to be published in the autumn as usual but these preliminary figures, published for the first time, aim to provide a snapshot of the overall picture.