From the Humanist Association - discuss

Im in favour of the OP, Im a believer but not an attender at church, however live and let live, I have no problems with other religions or with those who have no religion at all.

The latest figures from? It's easy to throw statistics around but you usually need to do some digging if they are being used to support a view likely to be controversial or at least, contested. Patterns of attendance have undoubtedly changed a great deal over the last twenty or thirty years. Many people who certainly think of themselves as regular churchgoers rarely go to every service every Sunday, for example. This makes it difficult to collect reliable figures on a sampling basis. And while I agree with Jalima from my personal experience, that is also difficult to quantify in any meaningful way

A large parish church in a town, a cathedral in a city and a small village church (not part of a roster).

In a rural or town area Jalima? Here where I live, there used to be a service in every village and every Church, but now there is a rosta, and services take place in one village one Sunday, and another the next, etc- so attendance 'looks' not to bad- but it still perhaps 80% or more less than used to when I was a kid.

Well, I am astonished by those figures - probably more people attend at Christmas time but I have been to several services in the last few months which have been very well-attended (at more than one church).

Apparently a loss of 22.000 regular worshippers have been 'lost' last year- mainly older people unable to attend or deceased, and not replaced. How long before attendance falls to below 1%?

On the Big Questions yesterday one spokesperson for the C of E said, relating to the conflicting views in the Church re sexuality, it was important that the church was separate from and not answerable to the state. Someone then suggested that that stance might be considered by some to be valid, were it not for the fact that the C of E has a privileged position and exerts power within the political establishment.

Following last night's discussions in Canterbury.