Monthly Archives: September 2010

Thoughts on Trends in Church Attendance

Posted on September 30, 2010 by PeterBrierley

The recent debate over whether church attendance has reached a plateau, hosted here, at the Church Mouse blog, and The Guardian, has been of great interest. As a religious statistician and consultant, and editor of the seven editions of Religious Trends, I’m taking the opportunity to offer additional interpretation of the data. Continue reading →

Posted in church attendance, Measuring religion, Religion in the Press | Tagged Baptist Union, Christian Research, church attendance, Church Mouse, Church of England, English church census, mass attendance, Methodist Church, Pentecostalism, Presbyterianism, Roman Catholic Church, United Reformed Church | 1 Comment

UK Defence Statistics, 2010

Posted on September 29, 2010 by Clive D. Field

We reported earlier in the year (http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=151) on the statistics of religious affiliation in the armed forces collected by the Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) section of the Ministry of Defence and annually published online in UK Defence Statistics. … Continue reading →

Posted in Official data | Tagged Army, Defence Analytical Services and Advice, Integrated Household Survey, Ministry of Defence, Religious Affiliation, religious profession, Royal Air Force, Royal Navy, UK Defence Statistics | 1 Comment

Counting Catholics

Posted on September 27, 2010 by Siobhan McAndrew

Andrew Brown of the Guardian has just written a very interesting article on the problems of calculating the size of the Catholic community. The Catholic Church defines the Catholic community as those people who have been baptised living within England and Wales. Continue reading →

Posted in Historical studies, Measuring religion, Religion in the Press | Tagged Alan Gilbert, Andrew Brown, baptisms, Catholic Directory, Churches and Churchgoers, Lee Horsley, Pastoral Research Centre, Peter Brierley, religious trends, Robert Currie, Roman Catholics, Tony Spencer | 2 Comments

Methodist Statistics for Mission Report

Posted on September 25, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The Methodist Church of Great Britain has always been one of the most numerate of the Christian denominations in this country. It began the regular collection and publication of statistics as far back as 1766. In recent decades, while collection … Continue reading →

Posted in News from religious organisations | Tagged church attendance, church membership, community roll, Fresh Expressions, lay office-holders, Methodist Church, rites of passage | Leave a comment

Harvest Festivals

Posted on September 24, 2010 by Clive D. Field

Some form of public thanksgiving, secular or religious, for the successful bringing-in of the harvest can be traced back to pagan times in Britain. However, harvest festival services, in the sense with which most of us will be familiar from … Continue reading →

Posted in Survey news | Tagged Eat Seasonably, harvest festivals, YouGov | Leave a comment

Integrated Household Survey – First Release of Data

Posted on September 24, 2010 by Clive D. Field

New estimates of the religious profile of Great Britain were published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on 23 September, in the form of the first release of data from the Integrated Household Survey (IHS) for April 2009 to … Continue reading →

Posted in Official data, Survey news | Tagged Census, Integrated Household Survey, Muslims, Office for National Statistics | 6 Comments

The Sun Shines Some Light

Posted on September 22, 2010 by Clive D. Field

BRIN readers might not naturally think of The Sun, perhaps Britain’s most famous weekday tabloid newspaper, as a source of religious intelligence. However, as part of its polling contract with YouGov, it did add a couple of questions on topical … Continue reading →

Posted in Survey news | Tagged halal meat, Muslims, papal visit, Pope Benedict XVI, Roman Catholic Church, The Sun, YouGov | Leave a comment

How Many Muslims?

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life published on 16 September a table giving estimates of the Muslim population of each country in Western Europe in 2010. This formed part of a press release about a new Pew report … Continue reading →

Posted in Measuring religion, Official data, Religion in public debate | Tagged Census, Citizenship Survey, Eric Kaufmann, Labour Force Survey, Muslims, Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, Sophie Gilliat-Ray | 5 Comments

How Many Catholics?

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Clive D. Field

As part of its coverage of the papal visit, the BBC has compiled a webpage entitled ‘How many Catholics are there in Britain?’ This will be found at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/11297461 It brings together disparate data from several sources, in particular: Clerical … Continue reading →

Posted in Measuring religion, Religion in the Press | Tagged BBC, Clive Field, mass attendance, Pastoral Research Centre, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholics, Tony Spencer, vocations | Leave a comment

Sex Abuse and the Papacy

Posted on September 18, 2010 by Clive D. Field

The latest opinion poll connected with the papal visit was published by CNN (for whom it was conducted by ComRes) on 17 September, Pope Benedict’s first day in England. A representative sample of 2,028 adult Britons aged 18 and over … Continue reading →

Posted in Survey news | Tagged child abuse, CNN, ComRes, paedophilia, papal visit, Pope Benedict XVI, priests, Queen, Roman Catholic Church, sexual abuse | Leave a comment