...on a snowy Sunday. The parish centre - a beautiful building, opened just a couple of years ago, built by the generosity of parishioners - was bright and welcoming, and the food delicious. There are over a thousand people at Mass in this parish on Sundays.
Statistics for church attendance are revealed in today's press: apparently more people are now worshipping, Sunday by Sunday, in churches of all denominations, than was the case a few years ago.
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That's great about the statistics Joanna. Of all the British I meet on the internet in non-religious oriented forums, I was beginning to think Britain had become nearly all atheist. Perhaps that's just a perception I get from the type of people who frequent literary forums.
Snow is always a pleasure prior or during the holidays, but a complete horror after the holidays. At least for me. Enjoy your Christmasy weather. :)
It's too early to say whether it's just a blip, but that's certainly good news.
Probably when you strip out factors like parents praying to get places at faith schools and immigrants from places like Poland, we're still declining. That was certainly true of my own parish, numbers were slightly but noticeably down from when it was amalgamated.
But trends don't follow straight lines. Decline eventually creates a new situation because the people who are left are different in kind to the people who leave, so you get a different type of Church.
I think it might be Poles, but in London it could be Brazilians, Portuguese, Filipino, Goan, African.
Somewhere like St Josephs in New Malden at Christmas time seems to have Catholics from all over the world.
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