CHURCH closures can result in a fall in overall church attendance, because worshippers are unwilling or unable to attend a unique church, a latest poll suggests.
The poll was commissioned by the National Churches Trust to attract attention to an increased rate of church closures within the UK. More than 3500 churches have closed previously decade, the charity reports.
The results of its weighted survey of 2667 adults within the UK who described themselves as Christian were published on Wednesday. About 60 per cent of the respondents said that they attended church somewhere between on daily basis (two per cent, 29 people) and once every few years (18 per cent, 480 people). More than one third (35 per cent, 924 people) said that they never attended church.
After a question from the Church Times, the sample of churchgoing respondents (i.e. removing those that didn’t attend) was weighted to a figure of 1745. Of these, 22 per cent said that, should their local church close, they might not attend church in any respect.
Seven per cent said that they might attend a web-based service as an alternative. This implies that slightly below one third (29 per cent) of the churchgoers would not worship in a church constructing should their preferred church close.
An additional seven per cent said that, within the event of the closure of their church, they might attend in-person services less often.
Just three per cent of the churchgoers said that they might attend services in a “latest type of church” akin to in a café, a community centre, school, or mission hub (News, 16 August).
The survey also found, nevertheless, that the more incessantly respondents attended church, the more likely they were to hunt a latest place to worship should their current church constructing close: 35 per cent of people that attended a church at the very least once every week, and 33 per cent of at-least-monthly churchgoers, said that they might discover a latest church to attend as often as they did currently. This was compared with just 12 per cent of those that attended lower than monthly.
Older people were almost definitely to stop going to church in any respect: only 19 per cent of the 566 over-65s said that they might discover a latest church to attend as often, should their current church close. More than one quarter (28 per cent) said that they might stop attending in-person worship.
There were only 132 churchgoing Christians aged 18 to 24 within the survey. Of these, 28 per cent said that, within the event of the closure of their church, they might discover a latest one to attend as often.
Churchgoers in London were least more likely to stop going to church in any respect (14 per cent of the 275 surveyed). Churchgoers within the north-west were almost definitely to stop attending (32 per cent of the 200 surveyed).
There were also variations in attitude between the denominations. Pentecostals (32 per cent of the 77 surveyed) and Presbyterians, including Church of Scotland (32 per cent of 97 surveyed), were almost definitely to say that they might find one other church to attend as incessantly.
About one quarter of the 721 churchgoing Anglicans (23 per cent) and one quarter of the 402 churchgoing Roman Catholics (25 per cent) said that they might not attend church.
The Rural Dean of South Holderness, in East Yorkshire, the Revd Alisdair Laird, who’s the priest-in-charge of 20 parishes, has recently experienced a church closure: that of All Saints’, Burstwick, last 12 months.
He said: “Once a church constructing is closed, especially in villages and county towns, in some ways the thing that represents the historic heart of that place has been abandoned, for everybody, not only those that share a Christian faith. . . When the pub, the shop, the varsity, and eventually the church are all gone, what is definitely left? . . .
“Traditionally people, not surprisingly, are likely to be very focused on ‘their church’, especially in villages, and are reluctant to be involved beyond that. The excellent news is that we’re finding that individuals listed below are making more effort to ‘go down the road’ to a neighbouring church, much more so where people provide lifts for many who don’t drive.
“Helping people to worship at a latest church does after all mean that they should feel welcomed by clergy and other worshippers, however it does represent a possibility for community and growth.”
Regardless of religion and beliefs, people had a shared responsibility to their ancestors and descendants to recognise the “treasure” of churches as historic buildings, he argued, and to work to maintain them open.
The National Churches Trust is campaigning for the brand new Government to ensure the long run of the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme, which allows churches to say back the VAT on church repairs. Currently, it’s guaranteed only until March 2025.
The Trust’s chief executive, Claire Walker, said: “Many church closures happen as the cash can’t be found to perform urgent repairs. Fixing a roof can cost over half one million kilos. The backlog of repairs for the Church of England’s churches alone is at the very least £1 billion, and the annual need is estimated to be £150 million a 12 months.”
Extending the scheme, which was introduced by Gordon Brown in 2002, would, she said, “allow those running churches to plan for the long run protected within the knowledge that they’ll have the option to say back 20 per cent of their costs”.
The research was conducted by Whitestone Insight between 12 and 20 June.
