dwindling congregations c of e

Urmstongran

I just think we are becoming a more secular society.

I agree as witnessed by the last Census. As a Humanist I think the decline of the church is inevitable, despite the hot spots of activity in some parts. I was brought up in the Methodist tradition and still have a soft spot for them. I think the church performs a useful social function, where people meet regularly and in the best churches, care for one another.

My active humanist group, performs a social and caring function which I guess is similar to the church, but without reference to a supernatural god. What I do miss is a good sing, which raises the spirits. Will have to suggest.

I don’t think any of the powers that be have really grasped the problem, but certainly a church will be more likely to thrive and grow if they have a resident vicar. It is just not possible these days, but how someone is meant to cover up to ten rural churches is beyond me.
Even in the RC church the local priest has three large congegations, each about 20 miles apart.

fancythat

Callistemon21

Is there a lack of vicars?
There don't seem to be many new, young Anglican vicars filling posts.

There certainly is in Methodism.
Didnt used to be so until up to about 5 years ago.
I think the same could be said about C of E except their problems may have started a little earlier.

The ones I know seem to have either taken it up as a second profession in middle age or are still working despite nearing retirement and ill health.

Callistemon21

Is there a lack of vicars?
There don't seem to be many new, young Anglican vicars filling posts.

There certainly is in Methodism.
Didnt used to be so until up to about 5 years ago.
I think the same could be said about C of E except their problems may have started a little earlier.

The Roman Catholic church which my Mum attended is packed every Sunday, sometimes people have to stand.

Clearly the C of E are not doing something right.

Is there a lack of vicars?
There don't seem to be many new, young Anglican vicars filling posts.

No shortage of church goers here our village is crammed with cars on a Sunday the C of E church has a large congregation. I have also noticed about four churches different denominations within a mile are now food banks.

I had written a long post on this yesterday but it disappeared into the ether! I gave up going to my local church a few years ago. I could not get on with the new vicar but gave him a couple of years. To no avail so I now attend a Benefice of seven churches. I have heard that this not so new vicar is becoming decidedly unpopular. There have been complaints to the Bishop from the church wardens. I won’t go into the reasons for this. However, it seems that unless a vicar has committed adultery or worse, the congregation is stuck with him. I find it very sad. I can see the village church from my house but must drive to churches elsewhere now. I attended it for thirty years but I can not face sitting in church and listening to an anti-women, anti-gay person at the altar. To make it worse in my view, he does the PR for a group of very conservative bishops. That bunch of men who refused to take communion in the presence of other bishops who either supported gay marriage or were in that type of relationship.

I wish we could find an empty church for our congregation. We are packed into the school hall and have to pay rent and of course it is not available except Sunday mornings. There are no empty churches nearby though. I think , here in Victoria ,there is a bit of a revival going on, especially since Covid. Sometimes a few good things come from terrible events.

Some of our local churches now share staff

I am not religious but I find it really sad, especially now visits to school will stop. I think it is very sad for the children to lack that part of their education.

It is always good to teach children to have open minds and be respectful of others faiths and the stories were always good, with sound morals

It is a sad time

My Presbyterian church is growing. It is very plain and we meet in a school hall as we don’t have a building. We are bursting at the seams, mainly young families. Most of the local churches are thriving but not the Anglicans so much. As far as I know the Catholic Churches are going well,too. Stick to the Bible, nothing fancy, seems to be the way to go. That’s what I reckon, anyway!

Oh, and it’s a beautiful church, so still very much in demand for weddings and Christenings.

Our local Catholic churches and Methodist chapels seem to be thriving, but our C of E church has undergone a lot of sea changes depending on the vicars, and I’m not sure how it’s doing at the moment. It did really well under a “high church” vicar who introduced incense and more traditional rituals, bells and smells, as Esmay put it. Now it’s all modern hymns and pared back services, and Sunday attendance is way down. However, the Sunday School has been disbanded, in favour of a family friendly messy church service midweek, so perhaps that’s where the congregation’s gone.

But it does host various groups and classes, and community events that are well attended. We went up to a brass band concert there at the weekend, and it was packed out.

Oh, and concerts with local singers and a local Male Voice Choir performing too.

Grantanow

Churches with trivial attendances ought to be secularised and converted into community centres, arts and theatre centres, libraries and meeting rooms, concert venues, etc. Lack of interest in local volunteering e.g., as a parish councillor is a great pity and probably reflects a whole range of reasons for not wanting to get involved.

Churches often do that anyway, if they have an enterprising but small congregation and a vicar happy for the church to become a multi-use building.

Children's holiday clubs, fundraising social events with food and a glass of wine, even dinners (with wine) and poetry evenings, a food bank corner where people can donate.

Churches with trivial attendances ought to be secularised and converted into community centres, arts and theatre centres, libraries and meeting rooms, concert venues, etc. Lack of interest in local volunteering e.g., as a parish councillor is a great pity and probably reflects a whole range of reasons for not wanting to get involved.

It is a very difficult situation. The CofE still wants churches to pay their Parish Share, despite falling number, though there is some adjustment made. The thriving charismatic city churches are well supported financially and well resourced, whilst village churches are left to struggle- at least in my diocese. Vicars are run off their feet serving several villages, whilst cathedrals have a number of clergy. I am not sure the situation is being handled well, but look around and you ask yourself how many will still be here in ten years’ time. The activities designed to attract younger people may be successful, but they don’t easily turn into people who give their money or their time to run the church.

There are several churches in this area, all with dwindling congregations. There are also 2 Baptist churches, both getting a congregation of 450-600 on a Sunday with a lot of younger people. I went to one of these churches a couple of times and can certainly see the attraction. They are very welcoming and songs were modern with music being played by a guitarist or band. It was quite interesting although different.

Our Church is jam packed at each of the 4 Saturday/Sunday Services (Catholic)

Archbishop of Canterbury apparently prays every day in tongues. Jesus encouraged it.

Floradora9

Church of Scotland is the same shutting churches everywhere . I do not think they ever kept up with the times we live in . Our town is down to one church of Scotland when there used to 3 . We decided many years ago to leave .

The Church of Scotland is selling many rural churches where the congregation are dwindling. DH often gets requests to do conversion designs for homes.
His first question is ‘how much have you got to spend?’. The buildings, although cheap to acquire, are often in poor condition and require a lot of work to bring up to modern standards.
Such a shame as many of them are architecturally beautiful.

I live next door to a large village church. Population maybe 1,500. On Sundays you are lucky if 10 people attend the service and they are mostly elderly ladies.

Christenings are well attended, as are weddings and funerals.

Church of Scotland is the same shutting churches everywhere . I do not think they ever kept up with the times we live in . Our town is down to one church of Scotland when there used to 3 . We decided many years ago to leave .

I just think we are becoming a more secular society.

Catholic and happy clappy/evangelical/charismatic seem to be doing well (The influx of catholic Poles boosted congregations), but the middling C of E is suffering.