The Church of England has released its Cathedral Statistics for 2019. There is an accompanying press release, copied below.
Visitor and worshipper numbers to England’s cathedrals grew prior to lockdown
20/11/2020
England’s cathedrals continue to play a huge role in the worship, heritage, and civic life of the country according to the latest figures from the Church of England.
In 2019, 1.3 million people attended services at cathedrals across the country, with midweek service attendance continuing to grow.
England’s cathedrals also attracted nearly 10 million visitors a year, the new data predating Covid-19 restrictions shows.
In 2019, a weekly total of 37,300 people attended cathedral services – an increase of 13 percent from 2009. While Sunday attendance remained stable, attendance at midweek services grew by 35 per cent over the decade.
Christmas and Advent service attendance also rose over the same 10-year period, with 2019 showing record high reported numbers for advent events including carol services, concerts and nativity plays.
Attendances at public or civic services in cathedrals grew to just under 1.8 million people in 2019, which includes special services and graduation ceremonies.
Cathedrals reported a total of 9.7 million visitors in 2019, just below the highest-ever figure of 10.1 million reported in 2018.
Additionally, Westminster Abbey drew an additional 4,400 weekly worshippers, and totalled 1.27 million annual visitors meaning nearly 11 million people visited a cathedral or Westminster Abbey in 2019.
A 2014 study estimated that in normal times cathedrals contribute a total of £220 million to local economies, creating around 5,500 jobs. Cathedrals rely on visitor income to maintain excellence in worship, community outreach and heritage accessibility.
Much-needed support grants totalling £17.5 million have so far been received from Government, alongside additional contributions from Charities and the Church Commissioners in 2020. These have helped cathedrals to cope with the shortfall in visitor numbers caused by measures to minimise the spread of Covid-19.
Adapting to Covid-19 restrictions
Cathedrals have found new ways to engage worshippers and visitors safely since the introduction of lockdown restrictions. Every cathedral able to re-open to the public has achieved the Visit Britain‘s industry standard and consumer charter mark ‘Good to Go’ which means visitors can be confident that cathedrals are taking all the necessary steps to help ensure people’s safety in line with latest Government and Public Health guidance.
Across the Church of England, more than 17,000 online services and events have been provided following the introduction of the lockdown and restrictions on public worship in March, according to a report published in October.
Durham Cathedral recently launched an online prayer community, with around 1,500 people regularly engaging with daily streamed services.
Professional cathedral choirs were among the first to resume choral worship, including with weekly BBC Radio 3 broadcasts which reach an estimated audience of 300,000 each week.
Winchester Cathedral’s ‘Kings & Scribes’ Exhibition achieved the accolade of ‘most improved heritage development’ in the UK Heritage Awards. Elsewhere, St Paul’s Cathedral launched ‘Remember Me’ an online book of remembrance for the COVID-19 pandemic. St Paul’s also explored new ways to worship at home including ‘Choir of the Nation’ – a remote singing project that saw people sing hymns from their homes all over the world to celebrate Easter, VE day and St George’s Day.
Salisbury, Bradford, Lichfield, St Edmundsbury and Norwich Cathedrals all created virtual tour facilities for visitors with others, including Chelmsford, Carlisle, Salisbury and Ely, using external lighting to create a ‘Light of Hope’ installation for All Saints’ tide, while an outdoor pets’ blessing service was held at Southwell.
St Albans Cathedral launched a crowdfunding campaign to create a socially distanced firework display when the usual city fireworks could not go ahead – the event raised a record £30,000 for local charities.
Chichester Cathedral is currently virtually-showcasing work by 35 local artists who, as part of an arts festival, were asked to reflect on their experiences of the pandemic and the spirit of togetherness experienced in West and East Sussex.
Remembrance services went ahead either streamed or outdoors, and people were encouraged to take part from home. Cathedrals are currently re-imagining Christmas this pandemic year with a range of plans – from online Advent calendars to virtual Christingles all aiming to bring comfort and joy in challenging times. It is hoped that carol services and Christmas worship will be able to go ahead in a Covid-safe manner, pending Government guidance.
The Chair of the Association of English Cathedrals, Adrian Dorber, who is Dean of Lichfield, said: “It’s encouraging to see attendance at cathedrals holding steady up until the onset of COVID-19. Cathedrals continue to offer a reliable, accessible source of Christian presence and engagement with their communities.
“We’ve had to rise to the challenge of lockdown and restrictions in a variety of ways, but the crisis has catalysed our use of digital media and opened up a whole new way of reaching a new and diverse public.
“When we have been able to open for worship we’ve done so safely, meeting Covid-secure guidelines. Opening for daily private prayer has been welcomed by many, with innovative uses of time and space.
“Cathedrals receive many prayer requests online and people come to us wanting to light candles and stand still in holy, calm and beautiful places.
“Naturally, we’re also grateful for public and charitable funds which, recognising the roles we play in our communities, have enabled us to keep going during terrible financial weather and allowed us to come up with recovery and renewal plans.
“We’re up for fresh challenges – we just hope the scale of them won’t be as testing as those of 2020!”
More information:
Such a glowing positive report on Cathedral Statistics for 2019. At least the statistics for 2020 will be easy to collect. Holy Week zero Easter Day zero Ascension Day zero Whitsunday zero Advent Sunday zero Christmas Eve zero Christmas Day zero. Income down 95%. As the never ending cycle of lockdown, lift lockdown, reimpose lockdown is set to continue, maybe Easter 2021 will also be zero. Zero obviously doesn’t take into account Cathedral clergy who have not gone without communion this year, in both kinds.
But imagine, Michael, the rejoicing in two years’ time when these things will have gone up by a gazillion percent from the previous year… And while I am being flippant, I look forward to a cartoonist’s spoof on the flow chart about Fresh Expressions on the last page of the report. But to be serious, note that the statement “Attendances at public or civic services in cathedrals grew to just under 1.8 million people in 2019, which includes special services and graduation ceremonies” is not quite right. This refers to public and civic events, which includes conferences, concerts and meetings,… Read more »
A very good point about graduation ceremonies. People don’t attend a graduation ceremony because it is in a cathedral. They attend because of the event. I suppose it get people in through the door. Some may be struck by the sense of history and beauty and come back or contribute towards the maintenance.
When I was at Warwick University graduations were held at Coventry Cathedral. They are now held on campus, although Coventry University still holds its graduation ceremonies there.
Graduations and golf courses and helter skelters and cosmos exhibitions and flower festivals and orchestral concerts and corporate events such as dinners with entertainment …. are they all counted? Cathedrals ought to be doing well given the personnel and funds at their disposal compared to parish churches. I’ve said it before, but why not put all the resources into cathedrals? After all, the CoE’s role now is to minister to the entitled middle classes. Who cares any more about UPAs or the rural church? And when private transport becomes inordinately expensive people can listen to Evensong online. Sacraments could be… Read more »
“Sacraments could be available from strategically placed slot machines: insert token or flash icon and out pops Host and consecrated wine iced-lolly (juice for some), very refreshing in summer.”
I would have thought central consecration so that orders can be “fulfilled by Amazon” more likely.
Being serious, a church in which the Eucharist is only available to those able to travel ought to be regarded as unacceptable. If the number of churches decline, that has to be matched with a new model for community celebration of the Eucharist.