An encouraging number of churches in rural areas are seeing something of a renaissance, perhaps after decades of no real change. This was one of the surprise findings from the 2005 English Church Census. Over the four years 2001 to 2004 over 350,000 people "greenshifted", that is to say, they moved from their urban or suburban surroundings to go and live in the countryside, usually the remoter rural areas of Britain.  Greenshifters are mostly those in their 20s or 30s who earn their living through Internet or other web‑based activity. All rural areas have electricity which, plus computer, is all these people need. Those in their 20s and 30s will often have young families.  There are also many people with a second home in a rural area.

     Some of these greenshifters and second home owners would be Christian people who would expect to attend church.  In very rural areas the only places where the community gets together is usually either the school or the church, and these Christian incomers naturally focus on the church.

     The Table shows the percentage of churchgoers in different age‑groups by various environments.

 

Table 1: Proportions attending church by age‑group and environment, 2005

 

Age- Group	Centre & Inner City %	Suburban & Towns %	Commuter Rural %	Remoter Rural %	Overall %
Under 11	12	14	12	15	13
11-15	5	7	6	5	6
16-19	5	5	3	5	5
20-29	8	7	6	9	7
30-44	15	16	14	17	16
45-64	24	23	26	24	24
65-74	19	16	19	14	17
75-84	10	9	11	9	10
85 & over	2	3	3	2	2
Average age	46	44	48	43	45

 

 

It should be noted that the Remoter Rural column has:

          The highest percentage of attenders under the age of 11;

          The highest percentage of attenders aged 20 to 29;

          The highest percentage of attenders aged 30 to 44; and

          The lowest average age of churchgoers.

All these are consistent with those in their 20s and 30s moving into remoter rural areas with their young families. The percentages in the Remoter Rural column are quite different from those in the Commuter Rural column which has the lowest percentage of people under 11 and between 20 and 44. The greenshifting families really do want to live in the remote countryside.

          Figure 2.21 in Religious Trends No 6 is a map showing where the church grew in rural areas in England between 1998 and 2005. It includes Local Authorities like Ryedale in North Yorkshire, very rural but at the same time not far from York. Other areas include Staffordshire Moorlands, Herefordshire and Boston in Lincolnshire.

Rural ministers

Who are the ministers in rural churches? Many are women, as over half, 56%, of women ministers serve in rural areas. They therefore in the main look after small churches   two‑thirds, 68%, of women ministers have congregations of 50 or less. Most rural ministers (male or female) look after 4 churches on average, so they depend on enthusiastic and energetic lay leadership, which many of those in their 20s and 30s are prepared to offer.

          As a result some remoter rural churches are growing quite fast. The Census showed that a quarter, 24%, had grown in attendance in excess of 33% over the 7 year period, although it is of course true that a congregation of 12 would grow by this percentage if just one family with two children started attending. Again this is contrary to experience in Commuter Rural churches where a lower than expected percentage of churches grew by the same amount.

Churchmanship

Remoter Rural churches have the highest percentage of churches whose ministers described them as "Broad" or "Low Church" (18% and 20% respectively against 13% and 11% across all churches), and the lowest percentage which were Evangelical (25% against 40% overall).

Number of churches

There are 9,300 churches in Remoter Rural areas and another 6,100 in Commuter Rural areas, a total which makes up two‑fifths, 41%, of all the churches in England. More than half of these, 57%, are Anglican churches, a number which itself is also more than half, 54%, of all the Anglican churches in England, showing that the Anglican presence in rural areas is huge, with the opportunities and responsibilities that brings. Large numbers of Anglican rural churches are listed buildings.

          On the other hand, the congregations in rural areas are much smaller than elsewhere, averaging 55 in Commuter Rural and 28 in Remoter Rural areas, against 84 overall. Rural church attendance is just 19% of all attendance.

          The gender balance of churchgoers in rural churches is little different from that in churches overall. There are slightly more women pro rata aged 45 and over in Remoter Rural churches than in other areas, including Commuter Rural areas, but the differences are not significant.

          Some churches, often especially rural churches, put their building to imaginative use in their concern both to remain open and to be useful to their local community. Thus Shipbourne Parish Church in Kent holds a weekly Farmer's Market in the church every Thursday morning; in Sheepy Magna in Leicestershire the Church provides a Post office 2 days a week; and the village church in Thorndon, Suffolk holds a regular caf, church. In the February 2006 Synod of the Church of England rural churches were encouraged to "do what was best for their communities".

          Channel 4's autumn 2005 programme Priest Idol was set in the Commuter Rural village of Lundwood, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire, and the American Anglo‑Catholic priest, James McCaskill, did see it grow over a year. A caring congregation, a warm welcome, a determined leader, relevant speaking and an expectation of change made the difference.

So what?