Over a quarter of Anglican churches in the UK do not hold a weekly Sunday service

Over a quarter of Anglican churches in the UK do not hold a weekly Sunday service, according to a new report from the National Churches Trust looking at the post pandemic situation. The report also found that many churches are struggling to raise funds for repairs and maintenance. The pandemic has had a significant impact on church attendance which has fallen by more than 20 per cent from before the Covid outbreak. However, it is not simply that no one wants to come to services, churches that stayed online and have not reduced their service numbers have fully regained 2019 attendance levels.

Exhausted leaders spread across multiple congregations, tired volunteers and financial struggles were given as some of the issues facing churches post-pandemic.

This relates to the Church of England and some of the findings are not present in the wider evangelical church. A common denominator in churches who are experiencing reduced numbers of attendees is that they are the churches who have abandoned orthodox Christian teaching.

In our experience, contrary to popular opinion, most evangelical churches which are remaining faithful, kind and bold, are at least holding up in terms of congregation numbers and services and many are growing, albeit rather slowly.

However, there is no room for complacency and churches need to reach out with the gospel, be embedded in their communities and always be willing to innovate in order to make church accessible to all people.

Churches, even the smaller ones, have a large volunteer base and we recognise that for many reasons, including the longer term effects of the pandemic, and the busyness and stress of modern life many of these are exhausted and we need to care well for them and not take them for granted.

Graham spoke to Premier Christian News about this issue recently.