JUST in time for Easter, a surprisingly upbeat story from our established churches.
There have been numerous stories about the decline in church attendances and about Britain becoming a strenuously secular country. We're much more likely to take part in retail or leisure pursuits of a Sunday, it seems, than to sit on a hard wooden pew in a church and pay obeisance to our Creator. Just two months ago, the National Secular Society responded to news that Church of England attendances had slumped below one million for the first time by observing: "It is inappropriate for there to be any established religion in a modern pluralistic society, far less one where the majority do not consider themselves to be religious.”
Not so fast. Detailed new research by Dr Steve Aisthorpe, commissioned by the Church of Scotland, suggests that the number of Britons to whose lives the Christian faith is central is much greater than you would think merely by measuring church attendances. It challenges widespread assumptions that the fall in Sunday-morning numbers is synonymous with a decline in Christian faith and the Christian community. The research, indeed, uncovers a phenomenon of "churchless faith"; two-thirds of people who have stopped attending church nevertheless maintain a strong personal faith. The numbers of attendees is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the entire Christian community, Dr Aisthorpe points out. The decline in Christian faith is considerably smaller than we have been led to suppose. Indeed, the research points out, Christianity in Great Britain is not so much in decline as in transition.
Dr Aisthorpe's painstaking handiwork has many valuable lessons for our churches as they consider why church-goers become church-leavers. In a wider context, it might be reassuring that Christian faith remains so strong. We should also, perhaps, beware making haphazard assumptions based on a few headlines.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel