It is too early as yet to know the impact of the Covid-19 restrictions on church attendance in England.
Many expect it to drop because ‘live-streaming’ has become very popular, and it is much easier to watch on a screen in the comfort of one’s home than travelling to a church on a Sunday. On the other hand, others feel numbers may increase because many more folk have been watching on YouTube or whatever and may feel they want to join in. The issue for church leaders may well be how to accommodate both of these eventualities.
Meanwhile, American researchers did an interesting study. As in the UK, death is the obvious main reason for a decrease in churchgoing numbers; it is estimated that 9,000 English churchgoers will have died because of coronavirus. The second main reason is because churchgoers move house, also as in Britain. So the researchers asked people who had moved whether this meant leaving their existing congregation or not by the distance they had moved.
