Here are the women

Older, white women are C of E flock

by Bill Bowder

CONGREGATIONS in the Church of England are whiter, older, and more female than the rest of the country, a survey of the age and ethnicity of the “core” congregations of parishes has found. Nearly 113,000 adult congregation members from 1700 parishes parti cipated in the survey Celebrating Diversity in the Church of England: National parish congregation diversity monitoring produced by the Arch bishops’ Council’s research and statistics department, published last week. It will be presented to the General Synod next week. The survey suggests that the core congregations — those who attend C of E churches at least once a month — had half the pro portion of ethnic-minority mem bers found in the general population. Eth­nic minorities make up one in nine to one in ten of the general population. One reason given was that “The [church-goers on average are] almost 14 years older than the general adult popula tion of England.” Another reason given was the strength of the Church in rural areas, where there are fewer non-whites. “Very nearly half of the adults in core congregations are 65 or over. In this age group, the country boasts less than 400,000 from ethnic minor ities, out of eight million.” Among the 100,000 under-35s in core congregations, those who are from ethnic-minority groups in­creased to about 15 per cent, match ing the national population. Black and black British adults were more likely to belong to the Church of England than their white counter parts; so, in areas where there was a high presence of these groups, the congregations were larger. In London, ethnic minorities make up 40 per cent of the core worshippers. Across the country, however, the core congregations were mainly older, white women. (Some con­grega tions were disappointed be cause under-18-year-olds had to be excluded from the survey because of difficulties over data protection). Of the respondents to the survey, “Close to two in three (65 per cent) of the adults surveyed were female.” Forty dioceses participated in the survey; 69 per cent of their parishes completed the questionnaires; and half of those aged over 18 in each core congregation filled in the postal questions. Their average age was 61. Two-thirds of the Church’s minority core members live in three dioceses — London, Chelmsford, and Southwark — the last two of which conducted their own surveys. Their results were “interpolated”. The Revd Lynda Barley, author of the report and head of research and statistics for the Archbishops’ Coun cil, wrote that it was too soon to tell statistically whether the work of the Church’s Committee for Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns was mak ing any difference. To find out if its policies on diversity were working, more money should be spent on checking the research. “The cost needs to be set against the savings that become possible when decisions and actions (locally, nationally, and in dioceses) are made on the basis of real evidence rather than ‘hunches’”, she wrote in the re port. On Friday she added: “We have saved at least £20,000 by doing this centrally. In 2002, it was done by the dioceses.”