22.11.2024
Why go to church? A reflection by the Archbishop of Dublin
As the recent Church of Ireland census figures show, many people have moved away from weekly church attendance. On the evidence of people in the pew, there are now in the region of 5,000 of us in church on any given Sunday in Dublin and Glendalough. For context, the greater Dublin area has a population about 1.8 million people.
As I said at our Diocesan Synod in October, this is not sufficient. The Spirit of God moves over the face of the earth. The Spirit of God needs our footfall as Spiritual people to be known on the earth. We must do our bit where we live. It is called service and it is a work of discipleship not exclusively of ordination. Clergy cannot do it alone and we are ALL Spiritual people: we are all God’s children by our creation; we are all incorporated into the Body of Christ in baptism; we are all anointed with the sevenfold gifts of The Spirit in confirmation. The opportunities are Godgiven.
More of the people of the diocese need to attend church Sunday by Sunday. For those who cannot attend, the church needs to keep coming to them to be with them to celebrate their witness and their shared faith and to be open to finding a range of ways to engage and re–engage and engage anew people in the life of the church.
We need more people locally attending church to function in a way that we can share with those beyond the church. We need more people locally in church in order to engage the wider population confident of being able to offer welcome and involvement. We need more people to maintain and develop local churches for the use by future generations of Christians whoever they may be and however change comes to bear on us. This is why we need to go to church.
The census figures reflect numbers of people attending church services in Dublin and Glendalough, and throughout the entire Church of Ireland, on four specific Sundays during 2023.
The highest attendance in Dublin and Glendalough (on Sunday September 17 2023) was 5,619. The figures are based on returns from parish groups thoughout the dioceses from the preacher’s book for numbers attending church on February 5 2023 (4844), June 11 2023 (4773), September 17 2023 (5619) and November 26 2023 (5489). During the year parishes in Dublin and Glendalough had 327 baptisms, 51 weddings, 278 funerals and 473 young people were confirmed.
The figures are useful in many ways in that they provide a numerical snapshot of the state of the Church of Ireland in these dioceses on four given days.
As I suggested at Diocesan Synod, the reasons people are attending church less often are complex but I offer a personal perspective from a lifetime of service in the church of God. It may be the range and complexity of what is offered, the enormity of the task of service that we carry as a small church looking into a big society, a crisis of confidence in our part of the universal and indeed local church about how we discern the Spirit of God.
The census figures offer an opportunity for members of the Church to consider how they shape the life of their own parish and for parishes to consider how they engage with their community, both members of the Church of Ireland and otherwise. Some people may be shocked by the figures laid out in the census. The numbers attending church on a Sunday in the whole Church of Ireland would not now fill the Aviva Stadium on any of the four census Sundays.
As we approach Advent and the start of the new Church year, I encourage you all to rekindle your relationship with your church. I invite you to join your parish communities in that traditional spirit of waiting and anticipation that the journey through Advent brings. I call upon you to be the church and transform it, to bring your energy to it and in turn to bring the energy of your church to the wider community. We in the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough need to be present and to make noise if we are to have joy and give joy.
Throughout Advent 2024 we will be celebrating the life of parishes in the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough, both urban and rural, large and small. We will share stories of people in parishes who are working with dedication to reach out to people who are new to their communities, to those who have moved to the many new housing developments springing up or those who come to the country seeking sanctuary from war. There are stories of people exploring how to share the Good News of the Gospel with people who haven’t heard it, or who have forgotten about it. There is news of people carefully preserving their parish churches and buildings so they can continue to provide facilities to parishioners and the whole community and there are rural ministries which provide a focal point for their communities.
Join us on our diocesan website from Advent Sunday as we explore the signs of hope of the Spirit at work in Dublin and Glendalough. I invite you to reflect on these good news stories but also to share stories from your parishes so that we can continue to communicate the joy of parish life and fellowship with others.
+Michael Jackson
Dublin and Glendalough
Email your stories to dcodublin@gmail.com