Church flocks in steady decline

Before you read. Think over the following questions.

- What factors in your opinion cause the decline in the number

of churchgoers?

- Does faith require regular attendance of church services? What is

the difference between religious beliefs and church?

The scale of the decline in church worship in Scotland was laid bare yesterday asnew figures showed that 300 people have stopped attending services every week for the last eight years.

This translates to a startling fall in attendance of 120,000 in the past eight years. Some 570,000 people went to church on Sunday in 2002 - 11 per cent of the population - compared to 690,000 in 1994.

The Scottish Church Census found that if present trends continue, the number of Scots attending church on Sundays will fall to less than 7 per cent by 2020. Nearly all denominations have suffered, but the Church of Scotland, Scotland’s largest Church, fared worst, with the number of regular worshippers fallingby 22 per cent to 228,500 since 1994.

The Catholic Church also reported a steep decline in congregation sizes, with attendance down by 19 per cent to 202,110 in the same period.

Two-thirds of those who left the Church during the last eight years were women, and half of them were aged between 20 and 44. Church leaders believe the reasons for this are the changing patterns of employment and the rise of the retail sector and Sunday working.

The age profile of churchgoers is also of concern, with the majority over the age of 45 and many over 65.

Dr Peter Brierley, the executive director of Christian Research, who conducted the study, said the report showed "huge numbers" had dropped out of Church life - thanks to an increasingly secular and materialistic world. "We see many people leaving the Church and that is obviously of great concern, but it is a great challenge as well," he said.

"Where we see women leaving the church or young people not attending we have to look at how we can attract these people. We live in a different world now, where people tend to do different things on a Sunday."

Dr Brierley said the decline in the number of women was down tothe fact that many of them were "too busy" to go to church.

"Many women are working because they have to help pay the mortgage," he added. "There has been an explosion in the number of jobs in the retail sector in the last few years and many of these jobs are done by women.

"Although many women can cope with work, a family and running a home and husband, they are too busy to find the time to come to church."

Despite the decline in numbers, Dr Brierley said there were some positive findings in the report, particularly concerning use of churches through the week. Midweek services, youth activities and a variety of community groups werenow commonplaceand attracted an additional four per cent of the population.

"That is an indication that people still value the Church, but their priorities have changed regarding Sunday services," he said.

"Other measures we can take would be to streamline leadership to enable groups of elders to hand over to smaller groups of younger people, as well as relating the message we want to give out to contemporary culture, making it relevant to each age group."

The Rev Colin Sinclair, the chairman of Christian Research and a Church of Scotland minister, said the study was an indication that the new "mission fields" should be in Scotland.

However, Peter Kearney, a spokesman for the Catholic Church, said the Church’s strengths lay in its constancy and warned against radical change. "Against the backdrop of a more secular, materialistic society, it is probably not surprising that we see this drop-off in numbers. The idea of faith and belief today is not just about weekly attendance - many people have what they would consider faith, but do not necessarily go to church."

Mr Kearney said that at times of crisis people still gathered in churches for support. "Any idea of churches modernising would defeat the purpose of what people want from it, which is something firm and unchanging," he added.

"More people go to church every Sunday than go to watch a football game, or who go and see a film, so we have to look at worship in that context."

Others suggested the decline in Catholic worship was not as severe as suggested in the survey because many people went to mass on a Saturday evening rather than a Sunday, when the survey was conducted.

The decline in popularity of the two largest denominations, which account for three-quarters of all Scottish churchgoers, contrasted sharply with the fortunes of the Pentecostal Church and the Salvation Army.

The report found that about 11 per cent more people went to Pentecostal services than in 1998, while the Salvation Army posted an eight per cent rise over the same period.

Churchgoing was much more common in the west of Scotland than in the east, with the highest attendance as a percentage of the population in remote areas such as the Western Isles and Skye and Lochalsh, where nearly 40 per cent still go to church regularly.

In a bid to develop a strategy to tacklethe situation, the Scottish Churches will stage a series of roadshows around the country in September and October this year. The meetings, which will be open to all, will be led by clergy and will take place in cities including Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.

The report was written following a census last year of over 4,000 Scottish churches.

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