Giving Rises, Attendance Falls in Church of England
Episcopal News Service. December 12, 1995 [95-1333E]
(CT) Despite the revelation in 1992 of a loss of 800 million pounds in assets by the Church Commissioners and a 3 percent decline in attendance between 1992 and 1993, figures recently released in the booklet Church Statistics 1995 show that total giving to parochial church councils in the Church of England went up in every diocese in that time period. The booklet's forward warns that the 1993 figures are from a time when the extent of the damage to the Church's assets was not fully known, but it said that the prospects were encouraging. Jonathan Prichard, diocesan secretary in Chichester, said that the diocese was "thrilled that, by our own calculations, voluntary giving has gone up by 8 percent, and covenanted giving by 12 percent. The whole crisis has led to explaining more. Church folk tend to be mature people, and they go for it. I think that where the faith is strong the money follows."