The Death of Christian Britain

— The Death of Christian Britain —
locating. Urban religious occasions could be exceedingly diverse, including
not just a myriad of mission and Bible groups on weekdays as well as
Sundays, but events such as the Pleasant Sunday Afternoons for men and
Pleasant Monday Evenings for women in the Edwardian period. 13
Occasions of religious worship in towns were held at more irregular hours
in more diverse types of place than in country areas, and were often ignored
by enumerators. Sunday schools, which were more important in urban
dissenting areas than in rural Anglican areas, were characteristically not
counted in religious censuses after 1851, again exaggerating the difference
in religiosity between town and country.
The most impressive evidence of such problems comes from the Daily
News census of churchgoing in London in 1902–3, probably the most accurate
and full census ever undertaken in Britain. As an experiment, Chelsea
was the only borough in the census where every detectable church service
at all times of day on a Sunday (and Saturday for Jews), though not on
other days of the week, was subjected to enumeration. The results showed
that 17,061 attendances were recorded at ‘ordinary service’ times in midmorning
and evening, but a further 7,263 attendances occurred outwith
those services. Of these, 5,348 were attendances at Sunday schools.
Although some of these children are likely to have also attended worship
(and been already counted), it still means 42.6 per cent extra attendances.
Applying these ratios to the total for the County of London, as shown in
Table 7.2, would raise the census compiler’s overall final attendance rate
for the capital from 18.6 per cent to 25.8 per cent of population. This indicates
a serious underscoring of religiosity in the capital, Britain’s largest
Table 7.2 How contemporaries underestimated churchgoing: adjusting the results
of the London Religious Census of 1902–3
Total population of London County 4,536,451
Crude church attendances and rate 1,003,361 22.1%
Adjusted crude attendances and rate 1,430,793 31.5%
(+42.6% of attendances to allow for
un-enumerated services)
Adjustment to exclude residents of institutions 1 32.0%
Adjustment for 39% of attendances being by ‘twicers’ 2 25.8%
Census compiler’s adjusted attenders’ rate 3 18.6%
Source: Figures calculated from data in R. Mudie-Smith, The Religious Life of London, London,
Hodder & Stoughton, 1904.
Notes
1 66,237 people lived in residential institutions where attendances at services were not
enumerated. Discounting these leaves a net population of 4,470,214.
2 The adjustment involves deducting 39% from the total morning attendances. The calculation
by the census investigators to make this adjustment for their total figure for London
County is either wrong or involved some further unrecorded adjustment.
3 This excludes the 42.6% increase.
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