Congregations deliver happy Christmas for the Church

THE CHURCH of England revealed today that attendances for its Christmas services increased by as much as 30 per cent on 1997.

The apparent surge in the popularity of festive churchgoing is in marked contrast to recent research suggesting that the active membership of the Church has fallen to an all-time low.

The increases in Church of England attendances two weeks ago were recorded across the country, and Catholic churches such as St George's Cathedral, Southwark, and Brompton Oratory also reported particularly healthy figures for Christmas Day services. At St Paul's Cathedral the size of congregations for Christmas services rose from 8,500 in 1997 to 10,500. This rise was almost entirely due to the inclusion of an extra service on Christmas Eve. At Birmingham Cathedral the Christmas attendances increased by 30 per cent. The Canon Treasurer of St Paul's, Canon Michael Saward, said: "We are even more encouraged by the 1998 figures than we were by those for 1997. "A lot has been made of the so-called decline but the situation at St Paul's is very encouraging. "I have seen people queueing to get in for as far as the eye can see. We had an extra service dedicated to children on Christmas Eve which attracted almost 2,000 worshippers." Westminster Abbey also claimed particularly healthy Christmas atten-dances. An Abbey spokesman said: "There were more than 6,000 people at our four Christmas services and this upward trend has continued into the New Year as the Abbey was also packed on Sunday. In the past there has sometimes been a bit of a lull after Christmas. "We do not know what this has been caused by. I think there is a national trend. There has also been a general feeling at Westminster Abbey for the last year that attendances are rising." Some in the Church of England believe the millennium has helped to boost attendances. A source said: "It is very nice to see these figures. The Church has been in the news more than usual with all the debate about the Spirit Zone and the Millennium Dome. "Maybe all the fuss about that has encouraged people to think more about religion and spirituality. We have also made a big effort to take the message of the gospel to people through the Decade of Evangelism." The Church of England has refused to publish official statistics for annual attendances since 1996, claiming that surveys do not give a true indication of the extent of regular worship. Independent research has pointed to the number of weekly worshippers among Christian denominations falling to below one million a week. However, most of these polls have been taken on Sundays which fails to take into account the increasing number of worshippers attending weekday services.

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