Church of England is mainly cradle christians, report suggests

Posted on: May 27, 2016 9:51 AM

A Church of England congregation: research published this week suggests that in a group of 100 Anglicans from England and Wales, 93 will have been brought up as such, five will have started life in another Christian denomination, and only two would have belonged to no religion.

Photo Credit: Diocese of Leeds

Related Categories: England, evangelism, mission, statistics, Wales

[Church Times] Only two per cent of Anglicans in England and Wales are converts, a new study suggests.

The director of the Benedict XVI Centre at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, Dr Stephen Bullivant, has gathered statistics on religious affiliation from the annual British Social Attitudes surveys. His report, Contemporary Catholicism in England and Wales, launched on Tuesday in the House of Commons, deals mainly with the Roman Catholic Church, but looks at other denominations for comparisons.

His deduction is that, in a group of 100 Anglicans, 93 will have been brought up as such, five will have started life in another Christian denomination, and only two would have belonged to no religion. The sample group was 1681 Anglicans.