In 2023, Christmas and Easter attendance was down 20 and 26 percent respectively compared to 2017, and up 50 and 41 percent from the 2020 and 2021 COVID panic years.

Average Sunday attendance fell by 9 percent in 2023.

You can read more in this article which attempts to grope for strands of optimism amid the gathering gloom.

The odd thing is that the ACoC is more preoccupied with attendance numbers than it is the number of people who, though its ministry, have become Christians.

Could it have something to do with money, salary and pensions?

According to data available as this issue was being prepared, attendance at Anglican Church of Canada Easter and Christmas services rose by 41 and 50 per cent respectively in 2023, even while average Sunday attendance fell by nine per cent over the same period—substantially faster than the decline of about 2.5 per cent per year before the pandemic, says the church’s statistics officer, Canon Neil Elliot.

Attendance statistics for 2023 are the most recent available as it typically takes dioceses some time to gather, consolidate and report data from all of their parishes. Even so, only 26 of 30 dioceses had reported their 2023 attendance numbers as of early January. Where data were not available, Elliot used 2022 numbers to complete the picture, meaning the numbers may be different in the final tally.

The figures for Christmas and Easter, Elliot says, are still 20 and 26 per cent below 2017 levels, suggesting the bounce-back has not reversed the overall trend of decline. Still, they represent more of a recovery than he had expected from the pandemic-era low points of 2020 and 2021. When he released the 2022 statistics, Elliot said he thought it was unlikely the church would see much more of an increase in attendance, as it seemed safe to assume that people who wanted to return to church after COVID-19 shutdowns had done so. But the surprising increase in holy day attendance in 2023, he says, is evidence the church remains in an unpredictable time.