For Christian worship in England, the Covid-19 lockdowns were a disaster. All churches were forced to close by the government. Where office working and high-street shopping led, Christianity followed. It stayed at home. Recently published research suggests that fully a quarter of Anglican churches are no longer holding weekly services. Five, 10, even 20 parish churches are being grouped under one hard-pressed vicar, with worshippers racing round to find which one is open.
Hopes that attendance would recover in 2022 have proved vain, though online worship has seen a boost. A preliminary survey of five representative dioceses suggests weekly attendance may have fallen during lockdown by more than 20%. It is even possible that the final year’s figure may be below half a million. This follows a 15-20% fall in the decade from 2009. Less than 2% of the population are now believed to regard themselves as “practising” Christians. A 2005 study found there were more mosque-going British Muslims, about 930,000, than regular worshippers in the Church of England. The significance of this for the king’s ecclesiastical coronation next month grows ever more alarming. A secular ceremony of some sort would surely be more suitable.
