How weekly church attendance halved during the pandemic

Data released by the Church of England (CoE) shows the "marked impact" of coronavirus, with adult average weekly attendance in the diocese - which covers most of Norfolk and parts of Waveney - falling from 15,000 in 2019 to 7,100 in 2020.

In March 2020, the CoE announced the closure of its churches for public worship and private prayer to "help prevent the spread of Covid".

Although they later reopened, most churches were again closed in November 2020 and those that remained opened were asked to ensure social distancing.

The figures for 2021 are not yet available so the extent to which congregations have returned is not yet clear.

The data is from the Church's Statistics for Mission 2020 report, which was published in December 2021.

Nationally, figures show of the 12,700 CoE churches that data was gathered from, the majority offered 'church at home' services - on Zoom or similar online platforms.

In total, 78pc of churches, 80pc of parishes and 91pc of benefices offered these services during the March to July 2020 lockdown.

At the height of lockdown, churches in the Diocese of Norwich were delivering more than 240 online services every week to their congregations.

Overall, the diocese, which has 158 benefices, 554 parishes and 640 churches, lost 1,200 of its worshipping community from 2019 to 2020 and saw its adult average weekly attendance decline from 15,000 in 2019 to 7,100 in 2020.

There were similar figures for its average Sunday attendance, which dropped from 12,300 to 5,900.

And attendance at services in Christmas 2020 - when the country was hit by the so-called Kent variant of Covid - was particularly badly hit, with statistics showing it reduced from 53,400 in 2019 to 9,300 in 2020.

The Rt Revd Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich, said he was in "awe" of and grateful for his clergy and colleagues who "stepped-up during the pandemic to master new skills to share Christ’s message of hope online" with their local communities, alongside providing Sunday and weekly services onsite.

The Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Rev Graham Usher (Image: Archant)

He said: "Such provision has enabled us to reach out further to those who perhaps through ill health, age or infirmity have had to 'self-isolate' for years.

"In some places more people have been joining online than ever did in church buildings."

The bishop added that while he was "far from being despondent" about the data for physical attendance he remained hopeful that the diocese's church communities continues to be "salt and light".

He said: "That’s not to say there aren’t challenges, the constant adaption to changing regulations and ensuring the vulnerable are kept safe, over such a long period of time, has taken its toll.

"Many are weary. But we have a sure and certain hope in God and that will carry us, and help us to carry others through.”

'Online services have opened the church to more people'

Reverend Matthew Price, vicar at St Mary Magdalene Church in Gorleston, said the pandemic has had a "massive impact" on attendance, but was unsure whether the figures reflect the number of people "engaging with church".

Reverend Matthew Price, vicar at St Mary Magdalene church in Gorleston, has been awarded a British Empire Medal for services to the community during the coronavirus lockdown. Picture: Diocese of Norwich. (Image: Archant)

He said: "When we submitted the churches figures for 2020 we were not able to include online worshippers in the attendance figures.

"Our experience in my parish was we had very strong online attendance during the period churches were closed in 2020.

"We were running Zoom services, the vast majority of our congregation were attending online.

"Even people in their 80s and 90s learnt how to use Zoom by using their telephone to dial-in to our services."

The vicar said they have since reopening the church building in the second half of 2020 they have adopted a "hybrid model", which sees people join both physically and online.

He said: "Online has opened our church services to a wider group of people than when we were perhaps meeting physically.

"The hybrid is here to say, what has been revealed is that their are some people, who are housebound or whatever, who want to engage with church but can't get out."

He added: "I can understand across the whole diocese church attendance has reduced but that has certainly not been our experience. There are a number of churches across the diocese which are growing."