Huge rise in numbers attending Cathedrals

FIGURES from the Church of England’s Cathedral Research and Statistics report have shown that Cathedral attendance figures have grown by 23 per cent since 2004, with the sizeable increase coming from weekday attendance.

Those numbers rose from 11,400 in 2004 to 19,500 in 2013 and 18,500 in 2014.

Yorkshire and the Humber, London and the South East showed the highest growth for average adult Sunday attendance between 2004 and 2014, areas classed as higher in migration, economic and population growth. Sunday attendance figures dropped on the whole, with the greatest decrease in the East of England and the West Midlands.

The amount of children and adults attending services each week stood at 36,000 in 2014. The Dean of St Nicholas’ Cathedral in Newcastle, Christopher Dalliston, wrote in his blog that a noticeable number of visitors have visited the cathedral to explore the historical, cultural and architectural heritage of the cathedral.

Dean Dalliston has put part of the rise in attendance figure numbers down to a responsive chaplaincy initiative, where chaplains and ‘welcomers’ offer informal prayers for tourists and visitors.

“We are on the borderlines of the cathedral as a place of worship and as an historic asset. We try to find a way to bridge that and make sure the Christian heart of the place is understood, enjoyed, expressed and experienced,” he said.

He also put a large part of the growth down to meeting the needs of the ‘night time economy’ with a street pastors scheme outside the cathedral and opening its doors on Friday nights, of which he notes, 200-300 people have attended Compline services.