It all comes back to me

[tinyjo]

Suddenly I've remembered what it was that I was going to write yesterday. Which was that on Sunday night, I heard a really interesting Analysis programme on Radio 4 about the future of the Church of England. How can it hold itself together, continue to run the parish system, afford to keep up those old churches? One of the things I didn't realise is that the Church has more active members than all the political parties combined (although I'm not sure how they made that measurement. Maybe parishes submit average attendances). Also, it raises more money each year for the upkeep of heritage buildings (the churches) than any other organisation including English Heritage and the National Trust. But how long can it keep doing so? You can listen to it or read a transcript if you're interested - I highly recommend it.

Comments

[sparkymark.livejournal.com]

Methodists used to do a headcount on a given Sunday each year and assume that was everyone: this year they switched to handing out tickets at the end of every service in a month, with the understanding that you didn't take a ticket if you had already been given one on a previous Sunday, and counting the tickets they had left at the end of the month, in order to count people who didn't go to church every week.

Two things

[applez.livejournal.com]

1) on population stats - what about newsletter mail-lists?

2) on finance - well, I'm sure those rural churches that offer ATM/Cashpoint services get a tiny but cumulative cut.