According to knowledge to be had thus far, attendance at Anglican Church of Canada Easter and Christmas products and services rose via 41 and 50 in line with cent respectively in 2023, even whilst reasonable Sunday attendance fell via 9 in line with cent over the similar length—considerably sooner than the decline of about 2.5 in line with cent in line with 12 months ahead of the pandemic, says the church’s statistics officer, Canon Neil Elliot.
Attendance statistics for 2023 are the newest to be had because it generally takes dioceses a while to assemble, consolidate and document knowledge from all in their parishes. Even so, best 26 of 30 dioceses had reported their 2023 attendance numbers as of early January. Where knowledge weren’t to be had, Elliot used 2022 numbers to finish the image, that means the numbers is also other within the ultimate tally.
The figures for Christmas and Easter, Elliot says, are nonetheless 20 and 26 in line with cent under 2017 ranges, suggesting the bounce-back has no longer reversed the total pattern of decline. Still, they constitute extra of a restoration than he had anticipated from the pandemic-era low issues of 2020 and 2021. When he launched the 2022 statistics, Elliot mentioned he idea it was once not going the church would see a lot more of an building up in attendance, because it appeared protected to think that individuals who sought after to go back to church after COVID-19 shutdowns had executed so. But the sudden building up in holy day attendance in 2023, he says, is proof the church stays in an unpredictable time.
The numbers of church participants indexed on parish rolls and of identifiable givers donating cash have remained strong since 2020. Some of those knowledge be offering hope whilst others are reason for fear, says Elliot—including as much as a moderately unclear image. This loss of readability isn’t sudden, he says, given the impact of the pandemic.
“That’s what a radical discontinuity does,” he says. “It creates a whole bunch of noise and it takes a while for everything to settle down into a new pattern.”
Knowing that Christmas and Easter usually are days when individuals who don’t come the remainder of the 12 months attend a carrier, he says, parishes may also be proactive about giving them causes to wait continuously.
“I totally think [parishes] should be jumping on the wave, because there are people still coming back to church,” says Elliot. “It is encouraging that the number on parish rolls is staying stable, so the people are out there. The question is: how do we turn the occasional attendance and the membership into regular attendance?”
Elliot emphasizes that attendance traits fluctuate—regularly dramatically—from one diocese to the following. While some are experiencing enlargement, others are seeing even sooner decline.
While it’s encouraging to look the church is amassing other people in for vacations and preserving its donors, he says the church can’t forget about the drop in reasonable attendance.
“The good news is the fact that we are still in this radical discontinuity and we know the outcome is not settled yet,” he says. “But we are still in a situation where average Sunday attendance is in decline. If that is the main statistic that we need to pay attention to—if we are a church that’s about people coming to church as our core activity—then we are still in a very challenged position.”
