Contact with Local Churches Poll – Church of England – 13 November 2022
Savanta ComRes surveyed 2,073 UK adults aged 18+ online between 1st and 3rd July 2022. Data were weighted to be representative of the UK population by age, gender, region and social grade.
The House of Good: The economic and social value of church buildings to the UK | National Churches Trust
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(Article) Bishop Seeley tells Synod of short- and long-term financial pressures | the Church Times
“Pressed by Mr Lunn about whether the Archbishops’ Council recognised that dioceses were not “trying to undermine the mission of the Church”, but had policies “dictated by their finance or lack thereof”, Bishop Seeley agreed: “One of the things that is going on here is we have got a long-term Vision and Strategy and short-term pressures around finance, and those two timetables don’t meet. . .
“We need to try to find a way to mitigate the current situation that is prompting dioceses to consider cutting posts . . . through some form of financial provision.” It remained unclear exactly how many posts dioceses were cutting, he said.”
Bishop Seeley tells Synod of short- and long-term financial pressures
The Future of the UK’s Church Buildings | National Churches Trust
“People want churches, not digital worship, new consultation shows.
With Easter approaching, an overwhelming majority of people think that churches are still needed, despite the growth of digital worship during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results of a consultation about the future of the UK’s church buildings released by The National Churches Trust.”
11-04-22 - FUTURE OF CHURCHES CONSULTATION
The Chote Report 2022 | Independent Review of
Lowest Income Communities funding
and Strategic Development Funding
“Projects awarded funding between 2014 and 2021 were expected to create 89,375 disciples; to date [Februrary 2022],12,705 have been “witnessed”. In the time period, dioceses have spent £74.5 million of the £176.7 million of SDF grants awarded by the SIB.”
Stronger As One? Amalgamations and church attendance | CofE
“From this inspection and statistical analysis of the standardised attendance data prepared by Voas and Watt, it is clear that the relationship between growth in standardised attendance and benefice structure is complex. …
The effect on standardised attendance of benefice structure is clearly complex and requires further investigation (See Going Deeper for further investigation); work with clergy numbers and diocesan resources may be considered.”
Going Deeper: Church attendance statistics and clergy deployment | CofE
“The variety of factors that affect change within a congregation’s Statistics for Mission figures is enormous. Voas and Watt touched on many of them in their report. In this document, we have shown that the location of a parish, the congregation size, and the population change in the parish all have statistically significant effects on a congregation’s growth. These are not factors that we can change, but being able to partition out the effects of these factors, we can look in more detail at the effect of other factors such as benefice structure and clergy numbers.
The change in the number of clergy per church in the parish has a significant effect on growth in that parish. Where there is an increase in stipendiary clergy, there is a greater likelihood of growth, a decrease in stipendiary clergy is more likely, on average, to lead to decline. ”
Churches, COVID-19, and communities | The Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture,
University of York
“Normally churches act as a ‘National Wellbeing Service’. They are vital community hubs, providing cradle-to-grave activities for everyone to access and are usually key places of comfort and refuge in times of crisis.
“They offer a lifeline to many and provide an almost invisible infrastructure of care, support and socialisation for people of all faiths and none across the whole country. It wasn’t until much of this disappeared overnight, because of enforced church closures, that its full importance to individuals and communities was realised.”
Churches-Covid19-communties-full-report
Ministry Statistics 2020
“At the end of 2020 there were nearly 20,000 active clergy serving in the Church of England, around 7,000 of whom are likely retired clergy continuing to serve. This report explores various characteristics of those clergy, including gender, age, ethnicity, working hours and roles.”
Findings from the Church Growth Research Programme 2011-2013
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Is this the solution to our missional challenge? | Psephizo
Is this the solution to our missional challenge_ _ Psephizo
New ResPublica Report. ‘Holistic Mission: Social action and the Church of England’
“Launching on Wednesday 10th July in Lambeth Palace, with keynote remarks from the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Justin Welby and the Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd MP, the report will demonstrate that the Church has a truly unique place in English society, and is the key to unlocking a revolution in both voluntary and statutory public service provision. The report argues that we need new institutions for the 21st century, and that the Church is well-placed to become one.”