'Church attendance figures are up' - or down, of course - says the Church Times once a year. The figures are compiled by the dioceses sending out annual questionnaires to churches, and I've just returned Swanvale Halt's - not even very late. But as well as asking us to list Easter and Christmas attendances and communicants, the authorities are well aware that all sorts of factors can affect one-off occasions like that (the weather this year, most obviously). A broader picture is needed. So we are asked to add up attendances in the month of October. All well and good. But the Church wants to be honest and present a credible picture, and so we parish clergy are asked, nay commanded, to exclude anyone who comes to the church on multiple occasions. Everyone should only be counted once, not only each Sunday, but also during the week too. Only additional attendances should be counted.
Of course this is virtually impossible. It's particularly difficult for us as we hold our Harvest Festival on the first Sunday of October, and the church is packed. I have only the very vaguest idea how many people came to both that and the Sung Eucharist in the evening, still less how many of the attenders at the midweek mass on a Tuesday were there on Sunday too. Actually, although Harvest is an acute instance of the problem, it's not absent for Christmas and Easter either; most irregular church worshippers are probably only there for one service over the season, but can I really remember how many folk who were there at the Midnight also came at 10am on Christmas Day? I ended up lopping off pretty arbitrary figures from each service based on - well, a few cursory glances out at the church. After all, I'm supposed to be praying while I'm at the altar ...
The figures are, being generous, not inaccurate, but their accuracy is, shall we say, impressionistic. Over time it doesn't matter, as one year won't be any more or less impressionistic than the one before, but it does make you wonder what any church with a congregation more than about a dozen does with its Annual Return.
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We have people who welcome you into church, who do a count. And then one of the church wardens stands at the back early on in the service, in a part where the congregation are sitting, and counts as well. It is hard to know who is there more than once, but I imagine my church has an accurate record of the number of adults present.
ReplyDeleteShare the work around - it is much easier, in lots of ways.
We do exactly the same! What I have to do, and haven't got around to doing yet, is making sure that everyone counts *in the same way*. 15 months here and I still don't quite understand what's happening. This morning was a case in point, when I was handed a slip of paper at the end reading '74 children & adults'. But the total number of communicants ended up as 75, so as at least 4 people didn't take communion there must have been at least 79 people there!
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