MEAC Woolwich launched

When the Diocesan Minority Ethnic Anglican Concerns Committee was established it was considered that a local presence should be maintained. Woolwich Episcopal Area has responded with a small committee to monitor race issues in the area.

The Committee - endorsed at the Woolwich Area Council meeting on Tuesday 11 March - consists of Mrs Susan Findlater-Dainton, the Rev Julie Conalty, Mrs Wilhelmina Buckley and the Rev Jeremy Blunden, (photo above). The committee is pressing for better coverage of the Vocations Road Show within the Woolwich Area, specifically to recognise the gifts and experience of minority ethnic Anglicans in parishes that are predominately white. In addition they are urging further unpacking of issues arising from Stephen Lawrence's murder, which continue to be of concern within the Area.

Church attendance - let the numbers speak for themselves

Following the centre-spread in February's edition of the Bridge more recent figures show that in four of the six Archdeaconries the numbers of adults attending church went up in 2002 over 2001.

Not all the figures are yet in for Reigate and Croydon Archdeaconries but the numbers in the Reigate Archdeaconry rose in the year 2001 over 2000. These are figures for adult attendees, but there are also encouraging trends with young people. We have not been keeping figures for under 16 year olds for so long but, nevertheless, the number of children attending churches in 2002 increased overall in the Southwark Archdeaconry.

So, although the press trumpets the fact that the Church of England is declining and the television gives us all images of empty churches this is not the case in Southwark Diocese. In 2002, for example more adults attended church in the Wandsworth Archdeaconry than in any year in the past twenty.

In addition, on special occasions many pack out the churches. For instance, Southwark Cathedral saw an extra 15,000 people at worship over Advent and Christmas and St Mary's, Wimbledon, saw three thousand worshippers in Christmas week.

Two crib services

Several churches had to hold two crib services to get all the people in. Some, such as All Saints Putney, were turning people away from the crib services because fire regulations meant that they couldn't allow them all in.

There have been some really huge upturns in the numbers attending particular churches and this has helped to raise the numbers overall. St Mark's, Battersea Rise had a congregational count of 45 in 1982 and one of 372 last year. In 1990, 46 were in the congregation at the Ascension, Balham Hill and last year there were 164. In 1989 there were 67 at St Mary's with All Saints, Putney and last year 266.

Sometimes the growth can be sudden as at St Michael's, Southfields where there were 68 worshipers in 2001 and 236 last year. Or, at All Saints, Camberwell where there were 22 in the congregation in 1991 and 153 in 2002 and St Mark's, Kennington where there were 59 in 1999 and 108 in 2002.

Obviously some churches have declined in number and we must not be complacent. But overall the picture in Southwark is very encouraging. It's important to see if there are reasons for the growth in the statistics in Southwark. One reason might be that church plants from churches such as Holy Trinity, Brompton have played some part in this growth. Another important factor is the encouragingly large number of worshippers in many churches from Minority Ethnic Communities. In some churches there are clusters of people with Minority Ethnic backgrounds, such as the many Koreans who go to Christ Church, New Malden or the people from Asia who go to All Saints Battersea and Africans at St Michael's, Southfields.

More men...

Another encouraging factor is that there seem to be more men in our congregations. The old pattern of husbands staying at home whilst the wife and kids go to church seems to be being replaced with whole families going.

It's good to get a bit of good news on numbers in the Church of England sometimes and here, in Southwark we can give thanks that we can see growth when many others see decline. It will be important in the years to come for us to continue to identify good practice and ways in which to encourage this growth to continue.

Course for 'Thinking Christians' expands

A third teaching centre has been added for the Diocesan Certificate in Biblical and Theological Studies which starts again in September The course runs through to July with 30 sessions on Wednesday evenings at Trinity House and Croydon Parish Church, and now at St Mary's Putney on Thursday evenings.

The course includes lectures, group work, and short written assignments. The areas covered are: The Bible, Doctrine, Ethics, Worship And Spirituality. There are ten sessions per term and students can take different terms in different years with a minimum commitment to attend one complete term at a time. The cost is œ30 per term (which can be waived in the case of hardship).

For further details and an application form please contact Sue Maree, Diocesan Training Administrator, on 020 7939 9475, email: sue.maree@southwark.anglican.org