The Church of England yesterday claimed that by using improved counting methods it had found an extra 90,000 worshippers in its pews which took figures for church attendances back over the 1m mark. After years in which the established church has been contesting claims of its declining popularity as measured by attendance at services, its officials breathed a sigh of relief that the church was not quite as unpopular as they had been led to believe.
When attendance figures fell below 1m a few years ago the church refused for a time to publish them on the grounds that they were a "clumsy tool ... of Anglican worldly wellbeing".
The new figures, drawn up over four weeks in October 2000, replace earlier more notional figures taken as a snapshot of communicants on a particular Sunday, and take account of those attending services and less formal prayer meetings during the week.
Even so, they show that the Church of England's average attendance on a Sunday is only 1,058,000. Although attendance is higher at peak festivals, the church attracts only 7% of the English population.