According to Christan Research, church attendance figures in the UK which have been falling for years, appear to have stabilised.

This follows on trends reported on previously- here for example.

This from the Telegraph–

The figures show that in the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, a long-term decline in weekly Mass attendance ended in 2005 and the figures have been broadly stable since. In 2008 there were 918,844 attending church each week, up from 915,556 the year before.

Within the Church of England the researchers found “fairly steady attendance” over the past decade, with 1.145million attending services each week in 2008, compared with 1.2m in 2001.

However this does not include the higher numbers who go to church at Christmas and Easter, nor those who have joined the Fresh Expressions initiative.

Here are some graphic illustrations, from The Church Mouse blog–

I am not sure how to read these stats. Church attendance numbers have fallen for so long in the UK that it almost seemed as if church as an institution was doomed here- but the reality is that there was always going to be a residual group who will continue to attend.

Does this mean that this group are to some extent the serious believers- and that the nominal attenders have been winnowed out? I am not so sure…

I think that church has a way to go yet in finding ways of engaging with our cultural context- a lot of steps forward, and no doubt a lot of steps backwards too.

But lest I become too maudlin, this is indeed a good story for the life of faith in these islands. Because although my concept of ‘church’ is much greater than buildings and institutions- they can be very useful, particularly in our climate!