Membership
Due to its status as the established church, in general anyone may be married, have their children baptised or their funeral in their local parish church, regardless of whether they are baptised or regular churchgoers.
Between 1890 and 2001 churchgoing in the United Kingdom declined steadily. In the years 1968 to 1999, Anglican Sunday church attendances almost halved, from 3.5 per cent of the population to just 1.9 per cent. One study published in 2008 suggested that if current trends were to continue, Sunday attendances could fall to 350,000 in 2030 and just 87,800 in 2050.
In 2011, the Church published statistics showing 1.7 million people taking part in a Church of England service each month, a level maintained since the turn of the millennium; approximately one million participating each Sunday and three million taking part in a Church of England service on Christmas Day or Christmas Eve. The Church also claimed that each year 30% attend regular Sunday worship on at least one occasion; more than 40% attend a wedding in their local church and still more attend a funeral there. Nationally the Church of England baptises one child in eight.
The Church has 18,000 active ordained clergy and 10,000 licensed lay ministers. In 2009, 491 people were recommended for ordination training, maintaining the level at the turn of the millennium, and 564 new clergy (266 women and 298 men) were ordained. More than half of those ordained (193 men and 116 women) were appointed to full-time paid ministry.
Read more about this topic: English Church
Famous quotes containing the word membership:
“The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don’t acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)