More marriages and Fresh Expressions of church

Published: 20 January 2012

The latest local church attendance figures from the Church of England for 2010 show that approaching 1.7 million people attend Church of England services each month, and around 1.1 million attend one of the Church of England’s 16,000 churches as part of a typical week.

The figures additionally highlight for the first time the results of innovative Church initiatives, such as the ecumenical Fresh Expressions movement and the Archbishops’ Council’s Weddings Project.

Following extensive work by the Weddings Project and the introduction of the 2008 Marriage Measure, marriages in the Church of England increased by four per cent in 2010.

Across all dioceses the statistics reveal at least 1000 fresh expressions and new forms of church, linked to the Church of England, reaching into communities. There are an estimated 1000 fresh expressions within the Methodist Church.

The full statistics are available online in the Resources sidebar.

What are Fresh Expressions?

These aim to provide new forms of church which are different in ethos and style from the church which planted them because they are designed to reach a different group of people than those already attending the original church. The emphasis is on planting something which is appropriate to its context rather than cloning something which works elsewhere.

Nationally, around 30,000 people attend fresh expressions each month who don’t attend traditional regular services, equating to about 40 people per participating parish exploring new forms of church.

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