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New statistics show the costs of church repairs

12 September 2005

New statistics show the financial contribution that volunteers are making across England to maintaining the nation’s parish churches.

They reveal that parishes across England spent more than £100 million on repairs to their church buildings in 2003 - but the cost of outstanding repairs could amount to nearly four times as much.  The cost of repairs undertaken does not include the hundreds of thousands of hours’ labour and other help given by volunteers who care for churches, or the cost of minor works and maintenance.

The figures are published today in Church Statistics 2003/4 that can be viewed on the Church of England website at www.cofe.anglican.org/info/statistics/churchstats2003/statisticsfront.html .

The volume includes financial statistics of parish giving and expenditure in 2003, a map showing dioceses with increasing adult attendance and 2004 statistics of licensed ministers, combined with the attendance statistics for 2003 that were published on 7 January (see under News at www.cofe.anglican.org).

For the first time, statistics on major church repairs are included in the figures. These accounted for more than £100 million spent by local churches and parishes in 2003.  An additional ‘one-off’ question, asked parishes for their estimates of repairs still outstanding. This amounted to more than £370 million, 87% of which is for listed churches.

Paula Griffiths, Head of the Cathedral and Church Buildings Division of the Archbishops’ Council, said: “The figures underline how much voluntary giving and fund-raising by local people is contributing to maintaining the nation’s Christian built heritage. In total, some 13,000 of the Church of England's 16,000 buildings are listed by the government as being of special architectural or historic interest, including 45% of all grade I listed buildings. English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund currently offer £25 million per annum in repair grants for listed churches. Welcome though this is, it meets only a small proportion of the total spent on repairs, and while costs continue to rise government support to the heritage sector has declined in real terms in recent years.

“The 2003 statistics also give an initial snapshot of how much parishes estimate they still need to spend on repairs to their church buildings, based on five-yearly inspection reports. We know that repair needs are substantial and it is important to quantify them carefully. We are working with English Heritage to update a more in-depth study, carried out in 1994, of repair needs in five areas of the country.”

The figures show that more than 1.7 million people attend church and cathedral worship each month in the Church of England, while 1.2 million attend each week and one million each Sunday.  They show a small but significant rise of one per cent in each of these measures of church attendance, although the traditional ‘usual Sunday attendance’ measure showed a drop of two per cent to just over 900,000.

Twenty-three dioceses* saw an increase in each of their Sunday, weekly and monthly adult attendance levels, while 19 showed such increases in their total attendances.

The Revd Lynda Barley, Head of Research and Statistics for the Archbishops’ Council, said: “For the first time local churches and cathedrals have clear evidence of an increase in people attending church services.  For every 50 people attending church on a typical Sunday, another 10 attend during the week.

“These latest findings endorse previous research revealing widespread contact and support for local churches and cathedrals. Churches in different parts of the country attract adults, young people and children on different occasions and in different ways. The Church continues to be a valued part of everyday life but the wider community is dependent on a declining core of committed church members.

“The traditional usual Sunday attendance measure is interpreted differently across the dioceses and is not a statistically accurate measure of national church attendance."

The total income of parish churches and PCCs (parochial church councils) in 2003 exceeded £700 million for the first time in 2003: total expenditure was £697 million, compared with income of £716 million. Tax efficient planned giving continued to rise to £7.55 per week on average for each subscriber. The Church now has 513,000 planned giving subscribers, 18% more than in 2000. The figures also show that, while 7% of PCCs’ expenditure went on fundraising and administration, 8% was given away in charitable donations.

 

Key features of the 2003/4 statistics:

 

Licensed Ministry

The number of people licensed to minister in the Church on a voluntary basis continues to increase.  There are now 1,855 non-stipendiary ministers, 545 locally ordained ministers and 8,426 licensed readers ministering across Church of England parishes. 

The number of stipendiary parish clergy has decreased by 6% since the turn of the millennium to 8,897 in 2004.  Ordination numbers fluctuate but are being maintained at about 500 overall each year.  This is split between stipendiary ministry (approximately 60%), non-stipendiary ministry (around 30%) and locally ordained ministry (about 10%).

The Church provides more than 1200 chaplains for institutions and organisations including the armed services, hospitals, prisons, schools, higher and further education, a figure that has decreased by 18% since 2000.

Church finance

More than £100 million was spent by local churches and parishes on major church repairs in 2003.  More than £370 million of repairs are estimated to remain outstanding, 87% of which is for churches listed for their historic or architectural significance.

Tax efficient planned giving by church attenders continued to rise over 2003 to £7.55 per week on average for each subscriber.  The number of people supporting their local church in this way has increased by 18% since 2000.

Adults, children and young people

Adult attendance at church and cathedral worship was 1 million over a typical week and 900,000 on a typical Sunday.  Both these figures increased by 2% in 2003 while adult attendance across a typical month (over 1.3 million) increased by 1%.

Eight dioceses (Blackburn, Canterbury, Chichester, London, Sheffield, Southwark, Southwell and Truro) saw increases in each of their Sunday, weekly and monthly attendance levels for children and young people.  430,000 children and young people attended church over a typical month in 2003 reflecting a small rise of 1%.

Similar numbers of children and young people attend activities other than worship but nevertheless connected with the local church.  Churches and parishes reported 375,000 children and young people less than 16 years of age attending such activities over a typical month in 2002/3.  This involved the support of around 100,000 adult volunteers.

Christmas and Easter

Attendance at festival services in 2003 on Christmas Day/ Eve and Easter Day/ Eve show a change in fortunes with both increasing by 2% to 2.65 million and 1.5 million respectively.  27 dioceses saw an increase in attendance on Christmas Day/ Eve and 30 dioceses saw an increase in attendance on Easter Day/ Eve.

Church ‘membership’

In 2003 parish electoral rolls stood at 1.2 million having experienced a small increase of 2% following the major revision in 2002.

Church weddings increased by 2% and church funerals by 3%, while the number of baptisms and confirmations fell by 5%.  Blessings in churches and cathedrals following civil marriage fell by 700 or 12 %.

 

Notes

The statistics tables can be viewed at www.cofe.anglican.org and will be published in booklet form later in the year.

  • *The 23 dioceses that saw an increase in each of their Sunday, weekly and monthly adult attendance levels are: Blackburn, Bristol, Canterbury, Chelmsford, Chester, Chichester, Coventry, Derby, Guildford, Hereford, Leicester, Lichfield, Liverpool, London, Peterborough, Rochester, St Edmundsbury & Ipswich, Sheffield, Sodor & Man, Truro, Winchester, Worcester and Europe.
  • Other key statistics are: 72 per cent of people in England are Christian (Government census 2001) 86 per cent of adults had visited a church/ place of worship in the past year; 63 per cent of adults would be concerned if their local church/ chapel was not there (ORB 2003).
  • In the tables relating to attendance at church services (attached) the following measures of church attendance are used:

Average Sunday attendance: the average number of attendees at Sunday church services, typically over a four-week period in October.

Average weekly attendance: the average number of attendees at church services throughout the week, typically over a four-week period in October.

Each of the above measures is provided separately for adults and children/young people aged under 16 years. The highest and lowest counts over the four-week period are calculated as follows:

Highest Sunday/weekly attendance: the sum of the highest Sunday (weekly) attendances over the four-week period. The ‘highest’ figures on the accompanying tables are proxies (in fact under-estimates) for monthly attendance levels.

Lowest Sunday/weekly attendance: the sum of the lowest Sunday (weekly) attendances over the four-week period.

Attendance figures are only included where local churches held at least one church-based service (which included adult presence) during the week under examination.

The traditional usual Sunday attendance (uSa) measure is interpreted differently across the dioceses and is therefore not regarded as statistically accurate as a comparison. The General Synod voted to replace uSa with Average Sunday and Average weekly attendance in July 2000.

Although different patterns are evident across the dioceses for 2003, at a national level uSa continued to produce declining figures for attendance at church by adults, children and young people.  This is at variance with the majority of diocesan attendance counts taken across October 2003.  In some dioceses attendance counts are utilised to measure usual Sunday attendance but in the majority a parish-based estimate is directly requested.

Figures for repair needs outstanding were obtained from a ‘one-off’ question for 2003. Parishes were asked to estimate the amount of repair work outstanding, based on their architect’s latest quinquennial inspection report.