The Anglican Journal conducted a survey to find out who is reading the paper. The age of those who read the Journal and who are, therefore, interested in the Anglican Church of Canada’s version of Christianity is revealing. You can view all the results here. These are the age groupings:
Let’s make the not unreasonable assumption that the age demographics of those who read the Journal are an accurate reflection of the age of church attendees. If we do, it means that unless things change and the church manages to attract younger people, in around 20 years, there will be 42% fewer Anglicans, in 30 years 72% fewer and in 40 years 94% fewer. That’s assuming the 6% currently between ages 18 to 49 don’t leave in the meantime.
The average Sunday attendance in the Anglican Church of Canada is around 320,000. If the above figures are any indication, in 40 years the average attendance will be 19,200.
This is called a “death tsunami.”
I suspect they broke up the demographics so at first look it doesn’t appear so bad. Lump us fogies together and look out!
18-49 |||
50-64 |||||||||||||||
65-?? |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Over 50% of their readership is in the twenty year span of 50 to 74 age group and yet only 6% of their readership is in the under 18 to 49 age group which represents a thirty year plus age spread. It’s even worse if the over 74″s are added in.
This is either the end of the ACoC, or nearly as bad, the complete irrelevance of the ACoC’s central message carrier to its non-geritol members.
Bring on the dancing Primate! Quick, more smoke and mirrors.
Alpha Canada’s surveys from 2005 to date show that in the general population those who regularly attend church fell from 20% to 17%.
That is why they created Alpha To Go; meeting in pubs, colleges, workplaces, senior residences, bringing people the simple Truth, the unaltered Gospel of Christ.
So in general, since 2005 church attendance has shrunk 15%, it would be interesting to know how much the ACoC has diminished in that time.
It is my belief that those who are lost and broken, like I was and am, will be called to come to the unchanging Truth of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, and the Word of God, not to gimmicks, smoke and mirrors, inclusivity or fads, but a Truth and a Way to live by and to cling to.
It is my prayer that the leadership of all Christian organizations, and true churches of Body of Christ, would come to understand this simple belief.
Interesting to note that the last published stats from the ACoC were from 2001.
The website says “The 2005 Anglican Church Directory was the last edition to contain consolidated statistical information concerning our Church across Canada. Unfortunately, those statistics only covered the years up to 2001. The Financial Management Dept. of General Synod is currently working to collate and validate the Church statistics since 2001. It is hoped that current statistical information will once again become part of the Anglican Church Directory and national website in the near future.”
See http://www.anglican.ca/help/faq/number-of-anglicans/
I think your average Sunday attendance figures are absurdly optimistic. There is no way that there are 320,000 Anglicans at worship on any given Sunday. The number is more like 100,000. Let’s do the math shall we…
The 2001 census identified 2.2-million Anglicans – that’s census Anglicans (it includes identifiers who never grace the nave of a church, they just like the label). If we use the D of T as a barometre for the country you find that their 400,000 census Anglicans result in 80,000 on parish rolls (this is the number quoted in The Anglican newspaper).
That means that only 20% of census Anglicans are registered at a church, period. Our pool of actual participating Anglicans in the Canadian church is now down to 440,000. Participation though, does not mean active attender. Most literature today regarding congregational development argues that “regular attendance” is once every three weeks. So divide 440,000 by 3 and you get about 150,000 regular attenders. Those who attend “weekly” is considerably less – my guess, about 100,000.
These figures might even be lower given the fracturing of congregations in the past ten years due to the SSB issue.
One thing I take issue with is that the survey does not gage the # of young people at church. Let’s face it, there ain’t a lot of content in The Anglican Journal to attract young people. Yet they are present in our churches – like mine.
I think this is the first time I’ve been accused of being absurdly optimistic.
According to this, there are 2,884 congregations in the ACoC. If the ASA is really only 100,000, that means congregations have an average of 34 people. Doesn’t that seem a bit low?
David,
That was 2884 in 2001. My guess that figure should be reduced at least 15% owing to normal attrition, mergers and ANiC induced closures. That brings the figure down by at least 400 in 2012.
The other thing to bear in mind is, we are talking about congregations – actual worship communities – not parishes. Across Canada I have worshipped in communities with barely a handful of attendees – yet somehow they manage to keep the doors open.
I once met a priest in rural NFLD – Avalon peninsula I think – that had 13 points (some met in homes, others in churches). He couldn’t visit them weekly (lay readers took care of that), but he would monthly. Many comprised of 8-10 parishioners. So… he may have had 13 congregations but on any given Sunday about 130 were worhsipping in his parish. He claimed to have 400 people on church rolls. I think this is becoming normative in the church.
In the D of Toronto, The Anglican claims 80,000 Anglicans in some 230 congregations – that’s an average of 347 per congregation. However there is a wide variance in actual size. Some parishes are large – Trinity, Streetsville; St. Peter, Erindale; St. Paul, Bloor Street. And others quite small.
If we take my arithmatic from above, that means over any three week period, the average attendance at a D of T parish is around 115. This number inflates at Christmas and Easter as C and E Anglicans come off the couch to reclaim their place in the comfy pew to validate their membership.
We might be comparing MacIntosh to Red Delicous. They are different, but it is still “apples to apples” and the trend is not in dispute. The Anglican Church of Canada is in serious decline.
It appears that the vast majority of people who are still there are the baby boomers. There are precious few, very few, who were born after 1965. Dispite all attempts to be “relevant” and “meaningful” nothing has worked. Perhaps we should stop being a sort of “church”/community service group, and just go back to being a true and Faithful “Church”.
AMP,
I think you hit the nail on the head.
For me (born in 1968), my attachment has more to do with my Anglican “parish” community rather than the Anglican “faith”. I shopped around before I settled on my current parish and I can assure you that the SSM issue was irrelevant in my decision where to worship.
I was looking for a welcoming, loving community of believers who would support me and my family on the journey beyond Sunday mornings. I was not looking for a club of “do-gooders” – I can join the Rotary club to get that.
It was important to be in a community where it was clear that the priest took the time to invest in a meaningful sermon each week; where the service gave me a sense of the divine presence and the music was uplifting. The parish needed to dedicate their efforts toward young people and small group ministry. Prayer is emphasized and learning the bible is a priority.
My parish has all this, but sadly many Anglican parishes do not.
Something wrong here… I’m beginning to agree with you.
Nothing wrong at all. Sometimes we get things right. It is bound to happen once in a while.
🙂
Alpha is a prime example of the timeless and unchanging truth (the Gospel) being presented in a contemporary (willing to change with the times) package. Some people want to hold on to the past (tradition) for all the wrong reasons. To take things to a ridiculous, yet logical extreme, we should be worshipping in Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek. Everything traditional was contemporary at some point.
Eph,
Have you fallen on your head? Praise God a glimmer of hope!
This post is making an unreasonable assumption. The simple fact is that younger people do not read or buy journals and newspapers anymore. This is a big concern for all paper-based publications. To assume that the reader of the Anglican Journal represent membership in the ACoC is to assume that people with subscriptions to the Globe and Mail (or any other newspaper) represent Canada. It’s simply not accurate.
Strange. This post showed up on my main page as the most recent post. It must have been a glitch in wordpress.
Yes, that is odd. It is dated today, too, which makes it even more strange.
It really does not matter if people do not read the Journal as it has become nothing less than advertising for the apostate leadership within the ACoC. If you do submit anything that is orthodox you can be sure it will NEVER be included in this publication. The tragedy is that this publication is partially funded by the Canadian taxpayer.
The Journal has an agenda and that is definitely NOT to uphold the faith. Rather they are pushing the worship of “political correctness” which is totally deceptive in its own right.