The question “What is the ethos of your congregation?” has been asked in each Church census since 1989.  It generates much interest and is usually answered by a high proportion of respondent

 

        The answers identify the churchmanship for a particular church and it is assumed that this applies to all those who attend it.  This is manifestly not true, but there is no other yardstick so it has traditionally been assumed that the swings and roundabouts of variations cancel one another out.  In congregational surveys by Christian Research which have included this question it has been found that two-thirds or more of churchgoers agree that their churchmanship is the same as that of their church.  The proportions of churches and churchgoers are different, however, since some churchmanship's attract considerably more people than others, as the Table indicates.

 

Churches and churchgoers in England by churchmanship, 2005

 

The Table shows there are three broad groups: the first three (Catholic, and two of the Evangelical groups - Mainstream and Charismatic) have the largest proportions of both churches and churchgoers.  Because they have more churchgoers than churches their churches on average have the largest congregations.  The proportion of churchgoers which are Catholic has declined since 1989 (when they were 39% of churchgoers) but the two Evangelical groups have grown (from 8% and 13% respectively for Mainstream and Charismatic). 

The second group (Liberal, Broad and Low Church) generally have more churches supporting their ethos than attenders, so their congregations are among the smallest.  The proportion of churchgoers who attend these churches has not changed very greatly since 1989 (10%, 9% and 6% respectively).  The third group (Broad Evangelical, Anglo-Catholic and Others) have about the same proportions of churches as churchgoers, and have seen some change since 1989 (a fall from 9% for Broad Evangelicals but marginal increases from 4% and 2% respectively for the others).

Few Anglo-Catholic, Catholic, Broad or Mainstream Evangelical churches have switched their ethos between 1998 and 2005, but half the churches now Broad, Charismatic Evangelical or Liberal use the same descriptions now as they did in 1998, suggesting perhaps that some ministers gave their personal churchmanship rather than their congregations’ in answer to the question!

 

Methodology

Ministers are invited to tick up to 3 boxes (out of a range of 9 + the ubiquitous “other”) to answer this question, and their answers are then translated, according to a formula agreed by church leaders, into one of 6 churchmanships (plus “other”), although the “Evangelical” category is usually broken down into three separate sub-groups.  The six are: Anglo-Catholic, Broad, Catholic, Evangelical, Liberal and Low Church.  Definitions of the meaning of each group are deliberately not given.

 

Denominational affiliation

Some denominations are very largely one churchmanship.  Thus Pentecostals are 95% Evangelical, Baptists 88%, Independents and New Churches both 84%, and Smaller Denominations 52%.  Roman Catholics are 87% Catholic, Orthodox 100% Other and the URC are 51% Liberal.  The two most “mixed” denominations are the Anglicans and Methodists as the pie-chart indicates, although the Anglicans are more genuinely a “broad church” than the Methodists.

 

Churchmanship of Anglican and Methodist churchgoers in England, 2005 

 

The Anglican Evangelical percentage has grown since 1989 (when it was 26%) and the Liberal/Broad declined (from 38%).  The Methodist Liberal/Broad group has grown since 1989 (when it was 44%) and the Evangelical percentage halved (it was 34%), exactly the reverse of the Anglican movements.

 

Other comparisons

Age.  Charismatic Evangelicals are more frequent churchgoers than Liberals (52 to 43 times a year, with all others in between).  Charismatic Evangelicals are also the youngest churchgoers on average (average age 38) and Liberals the oldest (average age 50), again with all others in between.  Anglo-Catholic/Catholic priests were on the whole the oldest while Evangelicals were the youngest, although the difference was small (average ages respectively 58 and 53 with Broad/Liberals 55 ).

Gender.  Two-fifths, 43%, of male ministers are Broad or Liberal but 51% of female ministers.  In contrast a fifth, 21% of male ministers are Evangelical, but only 13% of female ministers.  One male priest in seven, 14%, is Anglo-Catholic or Catholic, but just 6% of female priests chose this description.  One fifth of male ministers, 22%, and 30% of female ministers described themselves as either Low Church or Other (and mostly Other) indicating not uncertainty about their beliefs but probably that the labels used were not sufficiently descriptive.  Words or phrases like “Traditional”, “Central”, “Middle of the road”, “Village church” or “Reformed” were preferred instead.  Perhaps women ministers are more interested in people than theology!

Ethnicity.  Almost two-thirds, 63%, of black churchgoers were Evangelical and another 24% were Anglo-Catholic/Catholic, leaving very few in the other groups.

Bible reading.  However, in reading the Bible, the Broad, Liberal and Broad Evangelicals were the highest, with a combined average for the group of 44%, against 26% for Mainstream Evangelicals.

 

Church growth

The Census yielded one more comparison - the proportion of churches which had grown or declined between 1998 and 2005.  The bar-chart shows how this varied by churchmanship, with the Evangelicals having the highest percentage of growing churches and the Catholic wing the lowest.

 

Church growth or decline 1998-2005 by churchmanship

 

So what?