Baptisms In Decline...

[agchristie]

I have just been made aware of the huge drop in Church of England baptisms which are nearly 50% down in the last 30 years.

Catholic baptisms are down though the downward trend is not as steep.

There seem to be a lot more godparents though...

Why are numbers of baptisms dropping so much?

[agchristie]

In 2002, a study showed that the UK population regularly attending church was the fourth worst in Europe underlining the declining attendance which started in the '50's....

[naomi24]

anneasquith, You can ignore the 'a' before 'nauseating'. A typo.

[sandyRoe]

The words uttered would go in one ear of the innocent and out the other. For 'nauseating' you'd need look no further than circumcision.

[naomi24]

agchristie, I wonder if those figures relate to CofE attendance? I think the 'happy clappy' varieties of Christianity may be experiencing an upsurge.

[Mamyalynne]

I agree that many have lost confidence in the organised church and also maybe fewer are sending their children on to faith schools which certainly used to require a child to have been christened.


Having said all that,christening a child does not restrict their choices in later life.It didn'tme or mine or my grandchildren.

[agchristie]

Naomi, yes I believe so.

[mikey4444]

Hardly anybody goes to any church these days, so its no wonder that ritual events like baptism are getting rarer. No great surprise to me agchristie !

[naomi24]

As I indicated, numbers in the Anglican church are falling, hence the perceived decline in the number of baptisms, but there are far more attending the evangelical churches than ever before.

This report is from 2012.

//As the number of people who are actively committed to the Church of England falls, the proportion of churchgoers who are serious about their faith—and its implications for private and public life—is growing. Peter Brierley, a collector of statistics on faith in Britain, reckons that 40% of Anglicans attend evangelical parishes these days, up from 26% in 1989.//

http://www.economist.com/node/21549943

[ll_billym]

In other human/water based ritual news the number of 'ice bucket challenges' has risen dramatically.

[ToraToraTora]

I am certain that unbrainwashed, any human being whose IQ is larger than their shoe size will arrive at the obvious very quickly. Perhaps their are more people like that than ever there were.