Anglican Mainstream

By Peter Brierley Christian Research, from CEN

Ever since the NEAC 5 meeting at All Souls on November 15 there has been a flurry of articles in the Anglican Christian press about both that Conference and the different components of evangelical Anglican life. One or two of these comment that the overall relative strengths of conservatives, open evangelicals and others are not known. Well, they are in part, and this article looks at what is known.

The English Church Censuses since 1989 have asked each church leader to give an indication of the churchmanship of his congregation. Christian Research has had excellent response rates by Anglicans to these studies — 75 per cent in 1989 and 55 per cent in 2005 for example — much more than normally expected from such research. The question asks the minister to tick up to three boxes from a menu of nine items, with an open tenth “Other” option.

The nine options, stated without any description, are: Anglo- Catholic, Broad, Catholic, Charismatic, Evangelical, Liberal, Low Church, Orthodox and Radical. There are theoretically over 1,200 combinations that clergy might choose from these, but in practice just 147 were used in 2005 (see Page 5.13 in Religious Trends No 6, together with 1989 figures for comparison).

These various groups are then combined into one of nine specific churchmanships. Those who tick just “Evangelical” are, naturally, coded as “Evangelical”. Those who tick “Broad” and “Evangelical” are given as “Broad Evangelicals”. Those who tick either just “Charismatic” or “Charismatic” and “Evangelical” are coded “Charismatic Evangelicals” except for the few who also tick “Catholic” as this is a minor but important sub-set of charismatic at this time. To save confusion with the Broad and Charismatic Evangelicals the word “Mainstream” was put before Evangelical for the first group in 1989 and that has continued since. Those in this category are nothing necessarily to do with Anglican Mainstream which started later, although it is likely that there is probably a fair degree of correlation. Open evangelicals and conservatives are also likely to be part of this group as well. Liberal evangelicals are probably more likely to be included within the Broad Evangelical census category. These various groupings are analysed by denomination as well, so that the respective strength of Anglican evangelicals (combining all three census categories) can be known.

In 2005 there were just under 300,000 Anglican evangelical churchgoers on an average Sunday, some 34 per cent of all Anglicans, by far the largest group in the 870,000 Anglicans. Those who indicated they were Anglo-Catholic, Broad, Liberal or Low Church were all about equal at 13 to 15% each. Of the 34 per cent who were evangelical, 105,000 were Broad Evangelical, 77,000 were Mainstream Evangelical and 115,000 were Charismatic Evangelical, respectively 35 per cent, 26 per cent and 39 per cent of the overall Anglican Evangelical total. This may help get some of the respective groups in proportion.

The Table shows that the overall number of Anglican evangelicals has declined over the 19 years 1989 to 2008, due mainly to the rapidly reducing number of Broad Evangelicals. Mainstream and Charismatic Evangelicals have collectively grown in this period, from a total of 167,500 in 1989 to 199,200 in 2008, an overall average increase of one per cent per year. No other group in the Church of England has done the same. (The numbers who are Broad and Liberal have more than halved in the same period).

This growth in the Anglican Mainstream and Charismatic Evangelical group is important, and not to be ignored. It explains in part the increasing number of evangelical ordinands, and the continuing enthusiasm behind Alpha and Christianity Explored.

The growth means that the proportion of these two groups within the overall Anglican strength is increasing, from 13 per cent in 1989 to perhaps double that, 26 per cent, in 2008. This strength in church attendance is much greater than the number of evangelical churches, perhaps only 18 per cent in 2008, as evangelical congregations are larger than non-evangelical ones.

The growth is real, but it is not widespread. Much of it is concentrated in some of the largest Church of England churches in
the country. In 2005 the largest one per cent of C of E churches (defined as total Sunday attendance of at least 350 people) accounted for 10 per cent of total attendance, and 67 per cent of these churches are Mainstream or Charismatic Evangelical. A third, 34 per cent, of total Mainstream and Charismatic Evangelical Anglican attendance is seen in about 110 churches averaging about 600 each, and the remaining 127,000 people are distributed across 2,600 churches averaging 50 each. The Charismatic Evangelicals have declined slightly between 1989 and 2008, but the Mainstream Evangelicals have doubled in numbers.

However, the overall thrust from the Census results makes it clear that Evangelicals are an increasing force in the Church of England economy, and that it is the Mainstream Evangelicals who are growing, and quite rapidly. It should also be noted, though, that while this growth is real, the actual numbers are still relatively small, and that for every four Mainstream Evangelicals there are five Charismatic Evangelicals.
 

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