CATHEDRAL attendance levels were higher in 2022 than within the previous 12 months, confirming a bounce-back after the pandemic, the newest release of statistics has shown.
A weekly average of 28,200 people were reported to have attended cathedral services: 79 per cent greater than the equivalent figure for 2021, although still 24 per cent below 2019 levels, the last full 12 months before the Covid pandemic.
The statistics gathered illustrate something of the size and breadth of the ways through which cathedrals served their communities, and highlight their significance within the lives of many, a senior statistical researcher for C of E data services, Dr Ken Eames, said in a foreword.
Data got here from all 42 mainland Church of England cathedrals, and from Westminster Abbey (a Royal Peculiar). Among other things, the survey asked about Sunday attendance and midweek services, Easter and Christmas services, school visits, baptisms, marriages and funerals, musical activities, and volunteering.
The statistics show that Sunday attendance held fairly regular from 2000 to 2019. Reported midweek attendance rose from 7000 people per week in 2000, when first recorded, to a peak of 19,900 people per week in 2015, then remaining stable until 2019. Attendance at midweek services showed a sharper fall in 2020, and a faster recovery in 2021 and 2022, than attendance at Sunday services. The average adult attendance on a usual Sunday in 2022 was 292.
Attendance was also up at additional regular services happening a minimum of once a month in 2022, including fresh expressions and college services. At Easter and Holy Week there was a reported total attendance of 42,000, of whom just below half received communion. In all, 73,000 attendances were recorded in Holy Week services, compared with 104,000 at Christmas, of whom one quarter received communion.
A survey conducted by The Times last month suggested that attendance at Christmas services in 2023 had continued to extend (News, 26 January).
There were 600 baptisms in cathedrals in 2022, 260 marriages, and 340 funerals, with an extra 150 memorial services. More marriage services were held in cathedrals than in 2019, reflecting a catching-up after the lifting of Covid restrictions.
Special events are also recorded. These include diocesan or episcopal services, resembling annual festivals; irregular services for schools (resembling end-of-term or end-of-year services); and others, excluding memorials. There were 2100 special events altogether, with an annual attendance of 584,000. When it got here to public or civil events, graduation ceremonies recorded their highest number ever, at 530, with 434,000 attending.
Cathedrals reported 8.2 million visitors in 2022, of whom 39 per cent were paying or donating visitors. Organised educational events for kids and young people attracted a complete attendance of 194,000; 22,900 students were reported to have attended cathedral schools or schools formally related to cathedrals.
Servers, welcomers, stewards, flower arrangers, committee members, and others made up the 12,500 volunteers in 2022, when the cathedrals’ Community Roll stood at 13,000.
There were 165 choirs — the very best number reported so far — comprising 1500 youth choristers (79 of them girls), and 410 lay clerks. Voluntary choirs reported 1700 members, just below three-quarters of whom were adults, and 45 per cent of whom were women.
Overall, a complete of 170 regular and 700 occasional musicians were reported as being involved in cathedral services.
Many cathedrals continued to supply Church at Home services, online, by phone, post, email, and other means, which they initiated throughout the March to July 2020 lockdown, and through October 2020. Eighty-five per cent still offered Church at Home services in October 2022, and online services were probably the most ceaselessly reported type.
Encouraging signs on church attendance have also come from the Statistics for Mission 2022 data, which showed all-age average weekly attendance, including Sunday and midweek services, as 654,000 — up from 605,000 in 2021, but still significantly lower than in 2019, the last 12 months to be unaffected by the pandemic. The figure stood then at 854,000 (News, 10 November 2023).
