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6 December 2005

Plummeting attendance shows Canadian church faces 'extinction'

Ferdy Baglo
Vancouver, Canada (ENI). Canada's churches are suffering such a serious decline in membership that some denominations face disappearance, a report presented to the Anglican Church of Canada's House of Bishops released by Can West News Service shows.

Keith McKerracher, a retired marketing expert who serves as an advisor to the church, published the data which shows that between 1961 and 2001, Anglican numbers plunged from 1.36 million to 642 000, a decline of 53 per cent. He said the Anglican church is losing 13 000 members each year and, at this rate, "is facing extinction by the middle of this century".

McKerracher reported that membership in the United Church of Canada fell from 1.04 million to 638 000 during the same period - a loss of 39 per cent. And during the same period, the Presbyterian Church in Canada membership dropped 35 per cent, Baptist seven per cent and Lutheran four per cent. He said Roman Catholic membership figures are not available. The Rev. Harry Oussoren, executive minister of the UCC Support to Local Ministries, told Ecumenical News International, "Generally not only across Canada but the entire Western world, we're aware of a trend that says that institutionalised religion is not central to peoples' lives as is individualised religion."

The group calling itself Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance says on its Web site http://www.religioustolerance.org/can_rel.htm, "Small non-Christian faith groups are increasing in number and popularity. The percentage of Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists, secularists, and persons of no religious adherence is increasing rapidly. Many Canadians identify themselves as adherents of a specific religion, religious group or denomination, but no longer attend services."

Other voices point to the decline in the birth rate among the Anglicans' traditional constituency - white Anglo-Americans and Anglo-Canadians - as one of the root causes of the drop in membership numbers.

Oussoren said the downward shift in support of institutions is also marked among the more traditional, conservative religious groups. "For example, in the 2001 census the Jehovah's Witnesses are showing a loss of 8.1 per cent; the Mennonites 7.9 per cent; Pentecostals 15.3," he said.

© 1994 - 2006 Ecumenical News International.

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