The Death of Christian Britain
The Death of Christian Britain
The Death of Christian Britain
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— <strong>The</strong> Statistics <strong>of</strong> ‘<strong>Christian</strong> Progress’ 1800–1950 —<br />
+0.6163, and levels <strong>of</strong> women churchgoers attending in the evening +0.7183.<br />
<strong>The</strong>se results indicate that churchgoing by children was significantly<br />
weighted towards the mornings in high-status boroughs and towards the<br />
evening in low-status boroughs, and that the proportion <strong>of</strong> women<br />
attending in the evening was the most influential factor (producing an R 2<br />
<strong>of</strong> 0.52). Taken together, these results demonstrate that children’s attendance<br />
at church in high-status boroughs was more likely to be in the<br />
morning – when, as we saw earlier – women in those boroughs tended to<br />
attend, whilst in low-status boroughs they tended to go in the evening<br />
when women did.<br />
Overall, the London data for 1902–3 show that women were critical<br />
to the churchgoing habits <strong>of</strong> the population as a whole. Where women went<br />
to church more, men and children tended to go more. Where women were<br />
more numerous in the population, overall churchgoing was higher. Where<br />
a borough was more strongly working class in character, women tended to<br />
go in the evening and to attract children with them. In those boroughs that<br />
contained a strong representation <strong>of</strong> high-status households, women’s morning<br />
attendance was higher than elsewhere and, again, they attracted children<br />
with them. In short, women were the pivotal factor in determining the<br />
churchgoing habits <strong>of</strong> the people as a whole.<br />
This throws considerable importance upon the way in which women<br />
organised their Sundays. One factor that many contemporary commentators<br />
and later social historians highlighted was the role <strong>of</strong> domestic<br />
servants. <strong>The</strong> numbers <strong>of</strong> domestic servants as a proportion <strong>of</strong> households<br />
in London in 1902–3 varied between a high <strong>of</strong> 80 per cent <strong>of</strong> the number<br />
<strong>of</strong> families in Kensington and only 5.7 per cent in Shoreditch. As we saw<br />
earlier, the level <strong>of</strong> domestic servants per household produced a significant<br />
correlation with churchgoing levels <strong>of</strong> +0.5373 (and an adjusted R 2 <strong>of</strong><br />
0.26), but this was not the strongest single variable. However, further<br />
investigation shows that the influence <strong>of</strong> female servants was critical to<br />
distinguishing church attendance patterns for morning and evening services.<br />
Table 7.5 shows that in Metropolitan London in 1902–3, the proportion<br />
<strong>of</strong> servants per household determined 44 per cent <strong>of</strong> the variations between<br />
the boroughs in the total church attendance at morning worship, but a<br />
statistically insignificant amount (3 per cent) in the evening. In the morning,<br />
it is clear that variations in domestic servants between boroughs was<br />
vital in varying the levels <strong>of</strong> male, female and child attendance. This impact<br />
was almost equally noticeable upon women and men in the morning,<br />
but in the evening it had a slight impact upon men but absolutely none<br />
upon women.<br />
<strong>The</strong> implications <strong>of</strong> this are far-reaching. It indicates that the single<br />
largest occupational group amongst women – domestic servants – was<br />
critical to determining variations in morning churchgoing between communities.<br />
It shows that churchgoing was closely related to the nature <strong>of</strong> the<br />
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