There are two opportunities this week for individuals to make a difference. The first is to vote in the General Election on Thursday. The second is to be counted in the fourth English Church Census on Sunday 8th, probably not quite so well-known!

The aim of the Census is to find out the impact on church attendance of the rapid changes taking place in both church and society. Questions included cover not only the number of ‘bums on pews’ that day, but the frequency with which people attend, their age and gender, how many worship mid-week and the number of young people in youth activities.

This will enable Dr Peter Brierley, who will analyse the responses, to discern the key trends in church life since the last measurement seven years ago. For example, has the growth of youth congregations meant that churches are keeping more of their young people than they did in the 1990s? Is the number of mid-week services growing and is that making a difference to overall attendance numbers?

Dr Brierley says, “There are several positive indications which we are picking up from various sources. We need to know the current position as accurately as possible so that we can all take encouragement from any trends which are doing better than expected, and take strategic action about those which are still heading in the wrong direction.”

Every minister in the country, all 24,000 or so of them, should have received a form by the end of April at the latest so that each church can be counted on the 8th. The more churches which respond, the more accurate the results will be. Will you be counted?