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Church attendance

Church attendance is a central religious practice for many Christians; some Christian denominations, such as the Catholic Church require church attendance on the Lord's Day (Sunday); the Westminster Confession of Faith is held by the Reformed Churches and teaches first-day Sabbatarianism (Sunday Sabbatarianism),[2] thus proclaiming the duty of public worship in keeping with the Ten Commandments.[3] Similarly, The General Rules of the Methodist Church also requires "attending upon all the ordinances of God" including "the public worship of God".[4] The Lutheran Christian theologian Balthasar Münter [da] stated that church attendance is the "foundation for the Christian life" as "the Christian Bible and the sacraments provide the framework for the faith"; he also states that it is important for believers because it aids in the prevention of backsliding, as well as offers "the company of other believers".[5] Until 1791, the government of the United Kingdom required attendance at church services of the Church of England (the mother Church of the Anglican Communion and a state Church) at least twice a year.[6]

Many Christians attend church services on Christmas Eve, the Christian vigil that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.[1]

In addition to being based upon the spirit of the Ten Commandments, the importance of church attendance in Christian theology is delineated in Hebrews 10:25, which implores the believers: "Let us not neglect our church meetings, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near."[7][8][9]

About two-thirds of Latin American Christians and 90% of African Christians (in Ghana, Nigeria, Rwanda and Zimbabwe), according to the World Values Survey, said they attended church regularly.[10] South Africa is the only African country where just 55% of people attend church regularly.[11] According to a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center, Christians in Africa and Latin America and the United States have high levels of commitment to their faith.[12] Data from the European Social Survey in 2012 showed that around a third of European Christians said they attend services once a month or more.[10] The Gallup International, a self-reporting survey conducted via telephone, indicates that 37% of Americans report that they attend religious services weekly or near-weekly in 2013.[13] The Pew Research Center stated, however, that there is a "sharp increase in church attendance around the two most significant Christian holidays, Christmas and Easter."[14] As such, on Christmas (a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church, a Festival in the Lutheran Churches and a Principal Feast in the Anglican Communion), LifeWay Research found that "six out of 10 Americans typically attend church".[15] Countries that hold or have held a policy of state atheism have actively discouraged church attendance and church membership, often persecuting Christians who continued to worship.[16]

Theology

 
Depiction of early Christian worship in the Catacomb of Callixtus

The holding of church services pertains to the observance of the Lord's Day in Christianity.[17] The Bible has a precedent for a pattern of morning and evening worship that has given rise to Sunday morning and Sunday evening services of worship held in the churches of many Christian denominations today, a "structure to help families sanctify the Lord’s Day."[17] In Numbers 28:1–10 and Exodus 29:38–39, "God commanded the daily offerings in the tabernacle to be made once in the morning and then again at twilight".[17] In Psalm 92, which is a prayer concerning the observance of the Sabbath, the prophet David writes "It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night" (cf. Psalm 134:1).[17] Church father Eusebius of Caesarea thus declared: "For it is surely no small sign of God’s power that throughout the whole world in the churches of God at the morning rising of the sun and at the evening hours, hymns, praises, and truly divine delights are offered to God. God’s delights are indeed the hymns sent up everywhere on earth in his Church at the times of morning and evening."[17] The early Christians attended two liturgies on the Lord's Day, worshipping communally in both a morning service and evening service, with the purpose of reading the Scriptures and celebrating the Eucharist.[18] Throughout the rest of the week, Christians assembled at the church every day for morning prayer (which became known as lauds) and evening prayer (which became known as vespers), while praying at the other fixed prayer times privately; Christian monastics came to gather together to corporately pray all of the seven canonical hours communally.[19][20][21]

In addition to being based upon the spirit of the Ten Commandments (which includes the injunction to "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy"), the importance of church attendance in Christian theology is delineated in Hebrews 10:25, which implores the believers: "Let us not neglect our church meetings, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near."[7][8] Among Sunday Sabbatarians (First-day Sabbatarians), observance of the Lord's Day often takes the form of attending the Sunday morning service of worship, receiving catechesis through Sunday School, performing acts of mercy (such as evangelism, visiting prisoners in jails and seeing the sick at hospitals), and attending the Sunday evening service of worship, as well as refraining from Sunday shopping, servile work, playing sports, viewing the television, and dining at restaurants.[22][17][23]

The majority of Christian denominations hold church services on the Lord's Day (with many offering Sunday morning and Sunday evening services); a number of traditions have mid-week Wednesday evening services as well.[A][24] In some Christian denominations, church services are held daily, with these including those in which the canonical hours are prayed, as well as the offering of the Mass, among other forms of worship.[25] In addition to this, many Christians attend services of worship on holy days such as Christmas, Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Ascension Thursday, among others depending on the Christian denomination.[26]

Statistics

 
 
Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are two days within the Christian penitential season of Lent that are popular days for churchgoing. The image on the left depicts a Lutheran Divine Service on Ash Wednesday while the image on the right depicts a Roman Catholic Good Friday service.[27]

The Gallup International, a self-reporting survey conducted via telephone, indicates that 37% of Americans report that they attend religious services weekly or near-weekly in 2013.[13] Self-reporting surveys conducted online indicate substantially lower weekly attendance rates,[28] and methods of measurement that do not rely on self-reporting estimate even lower rates; for instance, a 2005 study published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion found that just 22% of Americans attend services weekly.[29] This compares to other countries' claims such as 15% of French citizens, 10% of British citizens,[30] 8.8% of Australian citizens and 5.6% of Dutch citizens.[31] In the U.K., in 2011, an average once-a-week attendance in Anglican churches went down by 0.3% compared with 2012, thus exhibiting a stabilizing trend.[32] Previously, starting from 2000, an average rate of weekly church attendance in Britain was dropping down 1% annually. In 2013, the Pew Research Center reported that 37% of all Americans attended church on a weekly basis.[33] In its turn, Gallup estimated the once-a-week church attendance of the Americans in 2013 as 39%.[34]

Based on 1990–1991 data, it was estimated that the country with the highest rate of church attendance in the world was Nigeria (89%) and with the lowest – the Soviet Union (2%).[35] Nigeria's data was notable, as Nigeria is very religiously diverse – the population is 50.1% Muslim and 48.2% Christian. The state authorities in the USSR, which dissolved in 1991, discouraged church construction; they had a hostile relationship with traditional organized religions and instead promoted Marxist-Leninist ideology, which espoused state atheism.[36][37] A survey commissioned by the Época Magazine in 2005 showed that 29% of Brazilians attend church weekly, and indicated that it is lesser than in the United States but higher than in Western Europe and Japan, indeed showing that contrary to the local popular belief, Brazilians of the time could indeed be regarded as a religious people even in practice (though it is ponderable that the growth of the population declaring to be solely irreligious in nationwide censuses grew about 100% between 2000 and 2010, and 200% between 2000 and 2013, from 4% to 12%, and general secularization also grew among the portion of the population that remained religious).[38]

A 2006 Financial Times (FT)/Harris Poll conducted online surveyed 12,507 adults over 16 years old in the United States (2,010 U.S. adults were surveyed) and five European countries (France, Italy, Germany, Great Britain and Spain). The survey found that only 26% of those polled attended religious services "every week or more often", 9% went "once or twice a month", 21% went "a few times a year", 3% went "once a year", 22% went "less than once a year", and 18% never attend religious services. Harris Interactive stated that the magnitude of errors cannot be estimated due to sampling errors and non-response bias.[39] A previous nearly identical survey by Harris in 2003 found that only 26% of those surveyed attended religious services "every week or more often", 11% went "once or twice a month" 19% went "a few times a year", 4% went "once a year", 16% went "less than once a year", and 25% never attend religious services.

Calculating the church's average weekend attendance is important since it determines the size of a given church. For example, in the U.S., an average weekend attendance of more than 2,000 people separates a mega church from a large church, and an average weekend attendance between 51 and 300 people defines the large church; while a small church is the church with an attendance lower than 50 people.[40] (Alternative definitions, such as house church, simple church, intentional community, were proposed by the Barna Group, an American private consulting firm.[41]) A narrow definition of a regular church attendee can be viewed as a synonym for a Sunday service visitation, while a broad definition, names as a regular attendee a person who comes to church during three out of eight weekends.[42]

Attendance by country

The frequency at which Christians attend church services varies greatly around the world. In some countries weekly attendance at religious services is common among Christians, while in others weekly attendance is rare. The following attendance statistics are mostly based on self-reporting surveys and may not accurately reflect real attendance figures.

Percentage of Christians who attend church at least once a week
Country Percentage
Nigeria (2009)[43]
89%
Zambia (2009)[43]
85%
Haiti (2008-2009)[43]
85%
Tanzania (2008-2009)[43]
83%
Central African Republic (2009)[43]
83%
Ghana (2009)[43]
83%
Liberia (2009)[43]
82%
Mozambique (2009)[43]
81%
Uganda (2009)[43]
81%
Kenya (2008)[43]
80%
Ethiopia (2009)[43]
78%
Cameroon (2009)[43]
76%
Guatemala (2013-2014)[44]
74%
Democratic Republic of the Congo (2009)[43]
72%
Rwanda (2008)[43]
70%
Guinea-Bissau (2009)[43]
66%
Jamaica (2009)[43]
66%
Honduras (2014)[44]
64%
Botswana (2008-2009)[43]
62%
El Salvador (2013)[44]
61%
South Africa (2008)[43]
60%
Nicaragua (2013)[44]
55%
Costa Rica (2013)[44]
51%
Colombia (2013-2014)[44]
50%
Japan (2017)[45]
50%
Dominican Republic (2013-2014)[44]
48%
Panama (2013-2014)[44]
48%
United States (2018)[46]
47%
Puerto Rico (2013-2014)[44]
47%
Brazil (2013-2014)[44]
45%
Mexico (2013-2014)[44]
45%
Bolivia (2013-2014)[44]
41%
Poland (2017)[47]
41%
Venezuela (2017)[47]
41%
Ecuador (2013-2014)[44]
38%
Israel (2014-2015)[48]
38%
Italy (2019) [49]
37%
Malta (2017)[50]
36.1%
Peru (2013)[44]
35%
Bosnia and Herzegovina (2017)[47]
35%
Armenia (2020)[51]
34%
Paraguay (2013-2014)[44]
32%
Ireland (2017)[47][52]
32%
Slovenia (2009)[53]
26%
Croatia (2017)[54]
24%
Romania (2017)[47]
24%
Cyprus (2013)[44]
22%
Spain (2019)[55]
21.5%
Portugal (2011)[56]
19%
Ukraine (2017)[47]
19%
Chile (2014) [44]
19%
Argentina (2019)[57]
17.4%
Greece (2017)[47]
17%
Netherlands (2013)[58]
16%
Canada (2013-2014)[59]
15%
Uruguay (2014) [44]
13%
Armenia (2017)[47]
10%
Hungary (2017)[47]
9%
Bulgaria (2017)[47]
9%
Russia (2013)[60]
8%
Latvia (2017)[47]
8%
Austria (2017)[47]
7%
Sweden (2016)[61]
5%
United Kingdom (2015)[62]
5%
Norway (2011)[63]
5%
Cuba (2012)[64]
5%
Denmark (2015)[65]
3%
Estonia (2017)[47]
2%

The following church attendance statistics are taken from the 2004 Gallup report, based on self-reporting telephone surveys. However, it is unclear whether the survey was solely of Christians in the respective country or the entire population (including non-Christians).

Country Year Attendance (%)
Austria 2004 18%[66]
Cyprus 2004 22%[66]
Denmark 2004 3%[66]
Czech Republic 2004 11%[66]
Estonia 2004 4%[66]
Finland 2004 5%[66]
Greece 2004 27%[66]
Hungary 2004 12%[66]
Ireland 2004 54%[66]
Italy 2004 31%[66]
Latvia 2004 7%[66]
Lithuania 2004 14%[66]
Malta 2004 74%[66]
Norway 2002 3%[67]
Poland 2004 63%[66]
Portugal 2004 29%[66]
Slovakia 2004 33%[66]
Slovenia 2004 18%[66]
Spain 2004 21%[66]
Sweden 2004 5%[66]

A study by the European Social Survey conducted in 2008 found these rates of respondents never attending religious service (excluding special occasions):[68]

Respondents never attending religious services
Percentage Countries
<10% Cyprus, Greece, Poland, Bosnia-Herzegovina
10–20% Croatia, Italy, Ukraine
20–30% Turkey, Portugal, Russia
30–40% Estonia, Germany, Sweden
40–50% Israel, Spain, Netherlands
50–60% Belgium, United Kingdom, France
>60% Czech Republic

Attendance by U.S. state

The frequency by which adults attend church services also vary on a state-by-state basis in the United States.

Percentage of adults who attend church at least once a week (2014):[69]
State Percentage
Alabama
55%
Utah
53%
Tennessee
51%
Mississippi
49%
South Carolina
47%
West Virginia
46%
Louisiana
46%
Virginia
44%
Oklahoma
43%
Georgia
42%
Texas
42%
Arkansas
41%
Nebraska
39%
Kentucky
39%
North Carolina
39%
Washington, D.C.
39%
Wyoming
38%
Ohio
38%
Indiana
37%
Kansas
37%
Missouri
37%
Rhode Island
36%
Iowa
36%
South Dakota
36%
New Mexico
36%
Idaho
35%
Florida
35%
New Jersey
35%
Delaware
34%
Pennsylvania
34%
Minnesota
34%
Arizona
34%
Illinois
34%
Michigan
33%
North Dakota
33%
Montana
31%
Maryland
31%
Nevada
31%
California
31%
Washington
30%
Alaska
30%
Colorado
30%
Oregon
29%
New York
29%
Hawaii
28%
Connecticut
28%
Wisconsin
27%
Massachusetts
23%
New Hampshire
22%
Maine
22%
Vermont
21%

Demographics

 
A Swedish Christian girl leads a church procession on Saint Lucy's Day

The Pew Research Center studied the effects of gender on religiosity throughout the world, finding that women are generally more religious than men, yet the gender gap is greater for Christians than Muslims. Pew Research Center data in 53 countries, found that 53% of Christian women and 46% of Christian men say they attend services at least once a week. While Christians of both genders in African countries are equally likely to regularly attend services.[70]

Church attendance remains stronger among older demographics, and more common for women in the West.[71][72][73] There is evidence that links church attendance with health benefits. The Pew Research Center, which conducts the extensive research and information program Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, has linked regular church attendance with happiness.[74] Several studies associated church attendance with decreased risk of Alzheimer's disease.[75] Research by Rita W. Law and David A. Sbarra demonstrated that "church attendance was found to have a protective effect against the emergence of mood problems among older adults."[76] Graham et al. discovered that "consistent pattern of lower systolic and diastolic blood pressures among frequent church attenders was found compared to that of infrequent attenders which was not due to the effects of age, obesity, cigarette smoking, or socioeconomic status."[77] Oman D et al. found that "infrequent (never or less than weekly) attenders had significantly higher rates of circulatory, cancer, digestive, and respiratory mortality (p < 0.05), but not mortality due to external causes."[78] With respect to students, Glanville et al. found "that religious attendance promotes higher intergenerational closure, friendship networks with higher educational resources and norms, and extracurricular participation."[79] Research conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health found "that regularly attending church services together reduces a couple’s risk of divorce by 47 percent".[80]

A 2018 sociological survey found that in the United States, "Donald Trump voters who attend church regularly are more likely than nonreligious Trump voters to have warmer feelings toward racial and religious minorities, to be more supportive of immigration and trade, and to be more concerned about poverty."[81][82] A 2005 European Union survey found that religious belief increased with age and was higher among women, those who were leaning towards right-wing politics, and those reflecting more upon philosophical and ethical issues.[83] In particular, the Iona Institute documented increasing church attendance in Ireland, despite sex-abuse scandals that plagued the Catholic Church.[84] Some suggest[who?] the rise is due to the effects of the economic recession.

Research shows that there is a correlation between church attendance and the level of education. For instance, in a Pew Research study from 1996, approximately 34% of high school dropouts went to church on a typical Sunday, while 44% of those with a college degree or higher did.[85] 48% of married individuals attended church on a typical Sunday, compared with 29% of divorced and 31% of never-married individuals. While it is likely that the well-educated and married might over-report their church attendance more often, these findings nevertheless demonstrate that they have maintained a stronger church-going identity than other Americans. In the United Kingdom, research in 2018 demonstrated that "Students at Oxford, Cambridge and Durham are twice as likely to worship on a Sunday as the general population"—colleges at these universities maintain approximately fifty-six chapels for worship.[86]

According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center, overall, American Christians are more likely to have college degrees than the general population.[87] The study found that highly educated Christians in the United States are more likely to attend church than those with lower education levels.[87] On a scale measuring levels of religious commitment, over 70% of Christians in the United States who are educated demonstrate high levels of religiosity.[87]

Influence of parents

Several research studies in the USA and Europe found that church attendance practices of parents, especially fathers, can be highly influential in forming the future church attendance practices of their children.

In Switzerland, the Fertility and Family Survey was commissioned by the Federal Statistical Office (Switzerland) to enable Switzerland to take part in this international project launched by the UNECE Population Activities Unit. The survey was conducted between October 1994 and May 1995, with the results being published in 2000 by the Council of Europe. The results are representative of Switzerland's permanent resident population aged 20–49 and presented in the table below.[88]

Practice of religion according to practice of parents (%)

Practice of parents Practice of children
Father Mother Regular Irregular Non-practicing
Regular Regular 32.8 41.4 25.8
Regular Irregular 37.7 37.6 24.7
Regular Non-practicing 44.2 22.4 33.4
Irregular Regular 3.4 58.6 38.0
Irregular Irregular 7.8 60.8 31.4
Irregular Non-practicing 25.4 22.8 51.8
Non-practicing Regular 1.5 37.4 61.1
Non-practicing Irregular 2.3 37.8 59.9
Non-practicing Non-practicing 4.6 14.7 80.7

A non-practicing mother with a regular father will see a minimum of two-thirds of her children ending up at church. In contrast, a non-practicing father with a regular mother will see two-thirds of his children not attending church. If his wife is similarly non-practicing that figure rises to 80 percent.[89][90]

An American study found similar results on the impact of fathers:[91]

  • When both parents attend Sunday school, 72% of the children attend Sunday school when grown.
  • When only the father attends Sunday school, 55% of the children attend when grown.
  • When only the mother attends Sunday school, 15% of the children attend when grown.
  • When neither parent attends Sunday school, only 6% of the children attend when grown.

Invitations

Research on individuals residing in the United States and Canada concluded that "Ninety-six percent of the unchurched are at least somewhat likely to attend church if they are invited."[92] In July 2018, LifeWay Research found that "Nearly two-thirds of Protestant churchgoers say they’ve invited at least one person to visit their church in the past six months".[93]

Trends

 
The Christian season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, most notably by the public imposition of ashes. In this photograph, a woman receives a cross of ashes on Ash Wednesday at an Episcopal Christian church.

Church attendance in advanced industrial societies is in gradual general decline with people shifting from weekly to monthly or holiday attendance. Sociologists have attributed this trend to a number of reasons, starting from a simple boredom during services and lack of motivation, to generational incompatibility of belief systems and social changes attributed to modernity.[94] Research across 65 different nations showed that out of 20 advanced industrial countries, 16 demonstrated a declining rate of monthly church attendance.[95]

An article published in the Christianity Today Magazine in 2007 suggested that in America, church attendance since the 1990s had remained stable.[96]

The percent of Americans who regularly attend religious services has fluctuated over time, but presently is at a low point.[97] In Gallup Poll surveys, the yearly aggregate of those who answer "yes" to the question "Did you, yourself, happen to attend church or synagogue in the last seven days, or not?" was 36% in 2014, 2015, and 2016.[98] This is a very long-running Gallup question: "In 1939, when Gallup first asked this question, 41% said 'yes.' That percentage dropped to 37% in 1940 and rose to 39% in 1950. It continued to climb, reaching as high as 49% at multiple points in the 1950s. Attendance then settled down to figures around 40% for decades, before dropping to 36%" beginning in 2014.[97]

The decline in church attendance is more pronounced in developed European countries, where it is suggested that the secular culture overrides interest in religion. In Poland, church attendance has declined from more than 50% in 1979 to 40% in 2012.[99]

Disparity between self reported and actual attendance

In the early 1990s, American sociologists Kirk Hadaway, Penny Marler, and Mark Chaves found that weekly attendance at Protestant and Catholic churches in one rural county in Ohio was only about 20%, whereas self-reported church attendance was 36%.[100] The following studies confirmed a long-suspected gap between actual and self-reporting church attendance.[101][102] The researchers have been wary of accusing over-reporters of dishonesty, as they found in the study that those who over-report do so mainly to maintain perceptions of themselves as "churched" Americans, not because they are afraid to reveal to the interviewer that they are "bad Christians."[103] The findings point to a bigger issue as many people in the world may be over-reporting church attendance because of their self-perception and identity as churchgoing people, indicating a certain psychological aspect to the over-reporting of church attendance. Although surveys of church attendance are aimed to study religious behavior, many respondents view them as questions about their identity. This is especially true among Americans who consider themselves "regular churchgoers."[104][105]

See also

References

Notes

  1. ^ The majority of Christian denominations teach that Sunday is the Lord's Day on which all the faithful must assemble to offer worship to God (cf. first-day Sabbatarianism). A minority of Christian denominations that follow seventh-day Sabbatarianism organize worship on Saturdays.[22]

Citations

  1. ^ Jespersen, Knud J. V. (21 June 2011). A History of Denmark. Macmillan International Higher Education. p. 91. ISBN 9780230344174. It is quite normal to go to church on Christmas Eve, and many people like to celebrate a christening or wedding in church. The Church is especially important at the end of a life; by far the majority of funerals are still conducted in a church by a minister.
  2. ^ Wigley, John (1980). The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Sunday. Manchester University Press. p. 800. ISBN 9780719007941. Following the formulation of the Westminster Confession, fully fledged Sabbatarianism quickly took root too, being embodied in an Act of 1661, then spreading northwards and westwards as the Highlands were opened up after the '46, during which time the doctrine lost its original force and vigour in the Lowlands.
  3. ^ McKim, Donald K. (2011). More Presbyterian Questions, More Presbyterian Answers: Exploring Christian Faith. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 72. ISBN 9780664503086. The Westminster Confession urges a strict observance of the Lord's Day as a day of rest and worship, away from "works, words, and thoughts" about "worldly employments and recreations." The whole time is to be devoted to "public and private exercises of [God's) worship, and in duties of necessity and mercy" (BC 6.119). In the United States, many "blue laws" relating to Sunday originated from this general prescription observed by American Puritans of the Reformed tradition.
  4. ^ Abraham, William J.; Kirby, James E. (24 September 2009). The Oxford Handbook of Methodist Studies. OUP Oxford. p. 253. ISBN 9780191607431.
  5. ^ Roos, Merethe (2013-03-08). Enlightened Preaching: Balthasar Münter's Authorship 1772-1793. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 99. ISBN 9789004249899.
  6. ^ Day, Cathy (26 September 2014). Wiltshire Marriage Patterns 1754-1914: Geographical Mobility, Cousin Marriage and Illegitimacy. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 198. ISBN 9781443867924. Attendance at an Anglican church service at least twice a year was a legal requirement for all people until 1791 and some parishioners endured the minimum church attendance requirement in order to avoid a fine.
  7. ^ a b O’Hare, Terrence D. (1 December 2011). The Sabbath Complete: And the Ascendency of First-Day Worship. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 228-229. ISBN 978-1-62189-134-5.
  8. ^ a b Brattston, David W. T. (2014). Traditional Christian Ethics 4. WestBow Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-1-4908-0205-3.
  9. ^ Richardson, John R. (1966). Christian Economics: Studies in the Christian Message to the Market Place. St. Thomas Press. p. 91.
  10. ^ a b Christianity and church attendance
  11. ^ Mitchell, Travis (2018-06-13). "3. How religious commitment varies by country among people of all ages". Pew Research Center's Religion & Public Life Project. Retrieved 2022-12-26.
  12. ^ "The world's most committed Christians live in Africa, Latin America – and the U.S." Pew Research Center. 22 August 2018.
  13. ^ a b "Religion: Gallup Historical Trends". www.gallup.com. Gallup, Inc. 8 June 2007. Retrieved 29 August 2015.
  14. ^ Kuriakose, Noble (18 April 2014). "When Easter and Christmas near, more Americans search online for "church"". Pew Research Center. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
  15. ^ Stetzer, Ed (14 December 2015). "What Is Church Attendance Like During Christmastime? New Data From LifeWay Research". Christianity Today. Retrieved 27 December 2016.
  16. ^ Athena Magazine, Issues 41-55. International Studies Association. 1991. p. 86. It has also shrunk through the trial, 'as by fire', of decades of totalitarian state atheism, in which simply to profess the Christian Faith automatically ranked one as a dissident and church attendance was not infrequently the first step towards martyrdom.
  17. ^ a b c d e f "Why an Evening Worship Service?". Christ United Reformed Church. 8 December 2010. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  18. ^ Bradshaw, Paul F. (1 October 2008). Daily Prayer in the Early Church: A Study of the Origin and Early Development of the Divine Office. Wipf and Stock Publishers. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-60608-105-1.
  19. ^ González, Justo L. (30 June 2020). Teach Us to Pray: The Lord's Prayer in the Early Church and Today. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4674-5958-7. These words make it clear that Hippolytus is dealing both with prayers that are to take place at home or during the day's business and with the prayers and times of study that take place in the community of the church. The prayers upon rising, on the third hour either at home or away from it, and before going to bed at night are sometimes held in private and sometimes in the company of other believers in the same household. But Hippolytus refers to other gatherings which offer, besides prayer, an opportunity for instruction and inspiration. Thus, we see here the beginning of the practice of setting aside certain times for private prayer as well as others for communal prayer.
  20. ^ Bercot, David W. (28 December 2021). Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs: A Reference Guide to More Than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. ISBN 978-1-61970-168-7. Morning and Evening Prayer were liturgical services held each day at the local church, during which psalms were sung and prayers were offered to God.
  21. ^ Beckwith, Roger T. (2005). Calendar, Chronology And Worship: Studies in Ancient Judaism And Early Christianity. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 193. ISBN 978-90-04-14603-7.
  22. ^ a b Hughes, James R. (2006). "The Sabbath: A Universal and Enduring Ordinance of God" (PDF). Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  23. ^ Jones, M. (12 June 2015). "Organized Sports on Sundays?". Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  24. ^ The Korean Repository, Volume 3. Trilingual Press. 21 August 1896. p. 361. The Sunday morning service has been well attended, as have also the Sunday evening and Wednesday evening services.
  25. ^ "Times of Worship". Saint Paul's Free Methodist Church. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
  26. ^ Morgan, Bonnie (19 December 2019). Ordinary Saints: Women, Work, and Faith in Newfoundland. McGill-Queen's Press. ISBN 978-0-2280-0028-0. Starting with Shrove Tuesday (locally known as Pancake Day), and proceeding through Ash Wednesday to Good Friday, families increased their church attendance and, especially, engaged in the embodies practices of fasting and/or "giving up something for Lent."
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church, attendance, central, religious, practice, many, christians, some, christian, denominations, such, catholic, church, require, church, attendance, lord, sunday, westminster, confession, faith, held, reformed, churches, teaches, first, sabbatarianism, sun. Church attendance is a central religious practice for many Christians some Christian denominations such as the Catholic Church require church attendance on the Lord s Day Sunday the Westminster Confession of Faith is held by the Reformed Churches and teaches first day Sabbatarianism Sunday Sabbatarianism 2 thus proclaiming the duty of public worship in keeping with the Ten Commandments 3 Similarly The General Rules of the Methodist Church also requires attending upon all the ordinances of God including the public worship of God 4 The Lutheran Christian theologian Balthasar Munter da stated that church attendance is the foundation for the Christian life as the Christian Bible and the sacraments provide the framework for the faith he also states that it is important for believers because it aids in the prevention of backsliding as well as offers the company of other believers 5 Until 1791 the government of the United Kingdom required attendance at church services of the Church of England the mother Church of the Anglican Communion and a state Church at least twice a year 6 Many Christians attend church services on Christmas Eve the Christian vigil that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ 1 In addition to being based upon the spirit of the Ten Commandments the importance of church attendance in Christian theology is delineated in Hebrews 10 25 which implores the believers Let us not neglect our church meetings as some people do but encourage and warn each other especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near 7 8 9 About two thirds of Latin American Christians and 90 of African Christians in Ghana Nigeria Rwanda and Zimbabwe according to the World Values Survey said they attended church regularly 10 South Africa is the only African country where just 55 of people attend church regularly 11 According to a 2018 study by the Pew Research Center Christians in Africa and Latin America and the United States have high levels of commitment to their faith 12 Data from the European Social Survey in 2012 showed that around a third of European Christians said they attend services once a month or more 10 The Gallup International a self reporting survey conducted via telephone indicates that 37 of Americans report that they attend religious services weekly or near weekly in 2013 13 The Pew Research Center stated however that there is a sharp increase in church attendance around the two most significant Christian holidays Christmas and Easter 14 As such on Christmas a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church a Festival in the Lutheran Churches and a Principal Feast in the Anglican Communion LifeWay Research found that six out of 10 Americans typically attend church 15 Countries that hold or have held a policy of state atheism have actively discouraged church attendance and church membership often persecuting Christians who continued to worship 16 Contents 1 Theology 2 Statistics 2 1 Attendance by country 2 2 Attendance by U S state 3 Demographics 3 1 Influence of parents 3 2 Invitations 4 Trends 5 Disparity between self reported and actual attendance 6 See also 7 References 7 1 Notes 7 2 CitationsTheology EditFurther information first day Sabbatarianism Depiction of early Christian worship in the Catacomb of Callixtus The holding of church services pertains to the observance of the Lord s Day in Christianity 17 The Bible has a precedent for a pattern of morning and evening worship that has given rise to Sunday morning and Sunday evening services of worship held in the churches of many Christian denominations today a structure to help families sanctify the Lord s Day 17 In Numbers 28 1 10 and Exodus 29 38 39 God commanded the daily offerings in the tabernacle to be made once in the morning and then again at twilight 17 In Psalm 92 which is a prayer concerning the observance of the Sabbath the prophet David writes It is good to give thanks to the Lord to sing praises to your name O Most High to declare your steadfast love in the morning and your faithfulness by night cf Psalm 134 1 17 Church father Eusebius of Caesarea thus declared For it is surely no small sign of God s power that throughout the whole world in the churches of God at the morning rising of the sun and at the evening hours hymns praises and truly divine delights are offered to God God s delights are indeed the hymns sent up everywhere on earth in his Church at the times of morning and evening 17 The early Christians attended two liturgies on the Lord s Day worshipping communally in both a morning service and evening service with the purpose of reading the Scriptures and celebrating the Eucharist 18 Throughout the rest of the week Christians assembled at the church every day for morning prayer which became known as lauds and evening prayer which became known as vespers while praying at the other fixed prayer times privately Christian monastics came to gather together to corporately pray all of the seven canonical hours communally 19 20 21 In addition to being based upon the spirit of the Ten Commandments which includes the injunction to Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy the importance of church attendance in Christian theology is delineated in Hebrews 10 25 which implores the believers Let us not neglect our church meetings as some people do but encourage and warn each other especially now that the day of his coming back again is drawing near 7 8 Among Sunday Sabbatarians First day Sabbatarians observance of the Lord s Day often takes the form of attending the Sunday morning service of worship receiving catechesis through Sunday School performing acts of mercy such as evangelism visiting prisoners in jails and seeing the sick at hospitals and attending the Sunday evening service of worship as well as refraining from Sunday shopping servile work playing sports viewing the television and dining at restaurants 22 17 23 The majority of Christian denominations hold church services on the Lord s Day with many offering Sunday morning and Sunday evening services a number of traditions have mid week Wednesday evening services as well A 24 In some Christian denominations church services are held daily with these including those in which the canonical hours are prayed as well as the offering of the Mass among other forms of worship 25 In addition to this many Christians attend services of worship on holy days such as Christmas Ash Wednesday Good Friday Ascension Thursday among others depending on the Christian denomination 26 Statistics Edit Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are two days within the Christian penitential season of Lent that are popular days for churchgoing The image on the left depicts a Lutheran Divine Service on Ash Wednesday while the image on the right depicts a Roman Catholic Good Friday service 27 The Gallup International a self reporting survey conducted via telephone indicates that 37 of Americans report that they attend religious services weekly or near weekly in 2013 13 Self reporting surveys conducted online indicate substantially lower weekly attendance rates 28 and methods of measurement that do not rely on self reporting estimate even lower rates for instance a 2005 study published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion found that just 22 of Americans attend services weekly 29 This compares to other countries claims such as 15 of French citizens 10 of British citizens 30 8 8 of Australian citizens and 5 6 of Dutch citizens 31 In the U K in 2011 an average once a week attendance in Anglican churches went down by 0 3 compared with 2012 thus exhibiting a stabilizing trend 32 Previously starting from 2000 an average rate of weekly church attendance in Britain was dropping down 1 annually In 2013 the Pew Research Center reported that 37 of all Americans attended church on a weekly basis 33 In its turn Gallup estimated the once a week church attendance of the Americans in 2013 as 39 34 Based on 1990 1991 data it was estimated that the country with the highest rate of church attendance in the world was Nigeria 89 and with the lowest the Soviet Union 2 35 Nigeria s data was notable as Nigeria is very religiously diverse the population is 50 1 Muslim and 48 2 Christian The state authorities in the USSR which dissolved in 1991 discouraged church construction they had a hostile relationship with traditional organized religions and instead promoted Marxist Leninist ideology which espoused state atheism 36 37 A survey commissioned by the Epoca Magazine in 2005 showed that 29 of Brazilians attend church weekly and indicated that it is lesser than in the United States but higher than in Western Europe and Japan indeed showing that contrary to the local popular belief Brazilians of the time could indeed be regarded as a religious people even in practice though it is ponderable that the growth of the population declaring to be solely irreligious in nationwide censuses grew about 100 between 2000 and 2010 and 200 between 2000 and 2013 from 4 to 12 and general secularization also grew among the portion of the population that remained religious 38 A 2006 Financial Times FT Harris Poll conducted online surveyed 12 507 adults over 16 years old in the United States 2 010 U S adults were surveyed and five European countries France Italy Germany Great Britain and Spain The survey found that only 26 of those polled attended religious services every week or more often 9 went once or twice a month 21 went a few times a year 3 went once a year 22 went less than once a year and 18 never attend religious services Harris Interactive stated that the magnitude of errors cannot be estimated due to sampling errors and non response bias 39 A previous nearly identical survey by Harris in 2003 found that only 26 of those surveyed attended religious services every week or more often 11 went once or twice a month 19 went a few times a year 4 went once a year 16 went less than once a year and 25 never attend religious services Calculating the church s average weekend attendance is important since it determines the size of a given church For example in the U S an average weekend attendance of more than 2 000 people separates a mega church from a large church and an average weekend attendance between 51 and 300 people defines the large church while a small church is the church with an attendance lower than 50 people 40 Alternative definitions such as house church simple church intentional community were proposed by the Barna Group an American private consulting firm 41 A narrow definition of a regular church attendee can be viewed as a synonym for a Sunday service visitation while a broad definition names as a regular attendee a person who comes to church during three out of eight weekends 42 Attendance by country Edit The frequency at which Christians attend church services varies greatly around the world In some countries weekly attendance at religious services is common among Christians while in others weekly attendance is rare The following attendance statistics are mostly based on self reporting surveys and may not accurately reflect real attendance figures Percentage of Christians who attend church at least once a weekCountry PercentageNigeria 2009 43 89 Zambia 2009 43 85 Haiti 2008 2009 43 85 Tanzania 2008 2009 43 83 Central African Republic 2009 43 83 Ghana 2009 43 83 Liberia 2009 43 82 Mozambique 2009 43 81 Uganda 2009 43 81 Kenya 2008 43 80 Ethiopia 2009 43 78 Cameroon 2009 43 76 Guatemala 2013 2014 44 74 Democratic Republic of the Congo 2009 43 72 Rwanda 2008 43 70 Guinea Bissau 2009 43 66 Jamaica 2009 43 66 Honduras 2014 44 64 Botswana 2008 2009 43 62 El Salvador 2013 44 61 South Africa 2008 43 60 Nicaragua 2013 44 55 Costa Rica 2013 44 51 Colombia 2013 2014 44 50 Japan 2017 45 50 Dominican Republic 2013 2014 44 48 Panama 2013 2014 44 48 United States 2018 46 47 Puerto Rico 2013 2014 44 47 Brazil 2013 2014 44 45 Mexico 2013 2014 44 45 Bolivia 2013 2014 44 41 Poland 2017 47 41 Venezuela 2017 47 41 Ecuador 2013 2014 44 38 Israel 2014 2015 48 38 Italy 2019 49 37 Malta 2017 50 36 1 Peru 2013 44 35 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2017 47 35 Armenia 2020 51 34 Paraguay 2013 2014 44 32 Ireland 2017 47 52 32 Slovenia 2009 53 26 Croatia 2017 54 24 Romania 2017 47 24 Cyprus 2013 44 22 Spain 2019 55 21 5 Portugal 2011 56 19 Ukraine 2017 47 19 Chile 2014 44 19 Argentina 2019 57 17 4 Greece 2017 47 17 Netherlands 2013 58 16 Canada 2013 2014 59 15 Uruguay 2014 44 13 Armenia 2017 47 10 Hungary 2017 47 9 Bulgaria 2017 47 9 Russia 2013 60 8 Latvia 2017 47 8 Austria 2017 47 7 Sweden 2016 61 5 United Kingdom 2015 62 5 Norway 2011 63 5 Cuba 2012 64 5 Denmark 2015 65 3 Estonia 2017 47 2 The following church attendance statistics are taken from the 2004 Gallup report based on self reporting telephone surveys However it is unclear whether the survey was solely of Christians in the respective country or the entire population including non Christians Country Year Attendance Austria 2004 18 66 Cyprus 2004 22 66 Denmark 2004 3 66 Czech Republic 2004 11 66 Estonia 2004 4 66 Finland 2004 5 66 Greece 2004 27 66 Hungary 2004 12 66 Ireland 2004 54 66 Italy 2004 31 66 Latvia 2004 7 66 Lithuania 2004 14 66 Malta 2004 74 66 Norway 2002 3 67 Poland 2004 63 66 Portugal 2004 29 66 Slovakia 2004 33 66 Slovenia 2004 18 66 Spain 2004 21 66 Sweden 2004 5 66 A study by the European Social Survey conducted in 2008 found these rates of respondents never attending religious service excluding special occasions 68 Respondents never attending religious services Percentage Countries lt 10 Cyprus Greece Poland Bosnia Herzegovina10 20 Croatia Italy Ukraine20 30 Turkey Portugal Russia30 40 Estonia Germany Sweden40 50 Israel Spain Netherlands50 60 Belgium United Kingdom France gt 60 Czech RepublicAttendance by U S state Edit The frequency by which adults attend church services also vary on a state by state basis in the United States Percentage of adults who attend church at least once a week 2014 69 State PercentageAlabama 55 Utah 53 Tennessee 51 Mississippi 49 South Carolina 47 West Virginia 46 Louisiana 46 Virginia 44 Oklahoma 43 Georgia 42 Texas 42 Arkansas 41 Nebraska 39 Kentucky 39 North Carolina 39 Washington D C 39 Wyoming 38 Ohio 38 Indiana 37 Kansas 37 Missouri 37 Rhode Island 36 Iowa 36 South Dakota 36 New Mexico 36 Idaho 35 Florida 35 New Jersey 35 Delaware 34 Pennsylvania 34 Minnesota 34 Arizona 34 Illinois 34 Michigan 33 North Dakota 33 Montana 31 Maryland 31 Nevada 31 California 31 Washington 30 Alaska 30 Colorado 30 Oregon 29 New York 29 Hawaii 28 Connecticut 28 Wisconsin 27 Massachusetts 23 New Hampshire 22 Maine 22 Vermont 21 Demographics Edit A Swedish Christian girl leads a church procession on Saint Lucy s Day The Pew Research Center studied the effects of gender on religiosity throughout the world finding that women are generally more religious than men yet the gender gap is greater for Christians than Muslims Pew Research Center data in 53 countries found that 53 of Christian women and 46 of Christian men say they attend services at least once a week While Christians of both genders in African countries are equally likely to regularly attend services 70 Church attendance remains stronger among older demographics and more common for women in the West 71 72 73 There is evidence that links church attendance with health benefits The Pew Research Center which conducts the extensive research and information program Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has linked regular church attendance with happiness 74 Several studies associated church attendance with decreased risk of Alzheimer s disease 75 Research by Rita W Law and David A Sbarra demonstrated that church attendance was found to have a protective effect against the emergence of mood problems among older adults 76 Graham et al discovered that consistent pattern of lower systolic and diastolic blood pressures among frequent church attenders was found compared to that of infrequent attenders which was not due to the effects of age obesity cigarette smoking or socioeconomic status 77 Oman D et al found that infrequent never or less than weekly attenders had significantly higher rates of circulatory cancer digestive and respiratory mortality p lt 0 05 but not mortality due to external causes 78 With respect to students Glanville et al found that religious attendance promotes higher intergenerational closure friendship networks with higher educational resources and norms and extracurricular participation 79 Research conducted at the Harvard School of Public Health found that regularly attending church services together reduces a couple s risk of divorce by 47 percent 80 A 2018 sociological survey found that in the United States Donald Trump voters who attend church regularly are more likely than nonreligious Trump voters to have warmer feelings toward racial and religious minorities to be more supportive of immigration and trade and to be more concerned about poverty 81 82 A 2005 European Union survey found that religious belief increased with age and was higher among women those who were leaning towards right wing politics and those reflecting more upon philosophical and ethical issues 83 In particular the Iona Institute documented increasing church attendance in Ireland despite sex abuse scandals that plagued the Catholic Church 84 Some suggest who the rise is due to the effects of the economic recession Research shows that there is a correlation between church attendance and the level of education For instance in a Pew Research study from 1996 approximately 34 of high school dropouts went to church on a typical Sunday while 44 of those with a college degree or higher did 85 48 of married individuals attended church on a typical Sunday compared with 29 of divorced and 31 of never married individuals While it is likely that the well educated and married might over report their church attendance more often these findings nevertheless demonstrate that they have maintained a stronger church going identity than other Americans In the United Kingdom research in 2018 demonstrated that Students at Oxford Cambridge and Durham are twice as likely to worship on a Sunday as the general population colleges at these universities maintain approximately fifty six chapels for worship 86 According to a 2017 study by the Pew Research Center overall American Christians are more likely to have college degrees than the general population 87 The study found that highly educated Christians in the United States are more likely to attend church than those with lower education levels 87 On a scale measuring levels of religious commitment over 70 of Christians in the United States who are educated demonstrate high levels of religiosity 87 Influence of parents Edit Several research studies in the USA and Europe found that church attendance practices of parents especially fathers can be highly influential in forming the future church attendance practices of their children In Switzerland the Fertility and Family Survey was commissioned by the Federal Statistical Office Switzerland to enable Switzerland to take part in this international project launched by the UNECE Population Activities Unit The survey was conducted between October 1994 and May 1995 with the results being published in 2000 by the Council of Europe The results are representative of Switzerland s permanent resident population aged 20 49 and presented in the table below 88 Practice of religion according to practice of parents Practice of parents Practice of childrenFather Mother Regular Irregular Non practicingRegular Regular 32 8 41 4 25 8Regular Irregular 37 7 37 6 24 7Regular Non practicing 44 2 22 4 33 4Irregular Regular 3 4 58 6 38 0Irregular Irregular 7 8 60 8 31 4Irregular Non practicing 25 4 22 8 51 8Non practicing Regular 1 5 37 4 61 1Non practicing Irregular 2 3 37 8 59 9Non practicing Non practicing 4 6 14 7 80 7A non practicing mother with a regular father will see a minimum of two thirds of her children ending up at church In contrast a non practicing father with a regular mother will see two thirds of his children not attending church If his wife is similarly non practicing that figure rises to 80 percent 89 90 An American study found similar results on the impact of fathers 91 When both parents attend Sunday school 72 of the children attend Sunday school when grown When only the father attends Sunday school 55 of the children attend when grown When only the mother attends Sunday school 15 of the children attend when grown When neither parent attends Sunday school only 6 of the children attend when grown Invitations Edit Further information Evangelism Research on individuals residing in the United States and Canada concluded that Ninety six percent of the unchurched are at least somewhat likely to attend church if they are invited 92 In July 2018 LifeWay Research found that Nearly two thirds of Protestant churchgoers say they ve invited at least one person to visit their church in the past six months 93 Trends Edit The Christian season of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday most notably by the public imposition of ashes In this photograph a woman receives a cross of ashes on Ash Wednesday at an Episcopal Christian church Church attendance in advanced industrial societies is in gradual general decline with people shifting from weekly to monthly or holiday attendance Sociologists have attributed this trend to a number of reasons starting from a simple boredom during services and lack of motivation to generational incompatibility of belief systems and social changes attributed to modernity 94 Research across 65 different nations showed that out of 20 advanced industrial countries 16 demonstrated a declining rate of monthly church attendance 95 An article published in the Christianity Today Magazine in 2007 suggested that in America church attendance since the 1990s had remained stable 96 The percent of Americans who regularly attend religious services has fluctuated over time but presently is at a low point 97 In Gallup Poll surveys the yearly aggregate of those who answer yes to the question Did you yourself happen to attend church or synagogue in the last seven days or not was 36 in 2014 2015 and 2016 98 This is a very long running Gallup question In 1939 when Gallup first asked this question 41 said yes That percentage dropped to 37 in 1940 and rose to 39 in 1950 It continued to climb reaching as high as 49 at multiple points in the 1950s Attendance then settled down to figures around 40 for decades before dropping to 36 beginning in 2014 97 The decline in church attendance is more pronounced in developed European countries where it is suggested that the secular culture overrides interest in religion In Poland church attendance has declined from more than 50 in 1979 to 40 in 2012 99 Disparity between self reported and actual attendance EditIn the early 1990s American sociologists Kirk Hadaway Penny Marler and Mark Chaves found that weekly attendance at Protestant and Catholic churches in one rural county in Ohio was only about 20 whereas self reported church attendance was 36 100 The following studies confirmed a long suspected gap between actual and self reporting church attendance 101 102 The researchers have been wary of accusing over reporters of dishonesty as they found in the study that those who over report do so mainly to maintain perceptions of themselves as churched Americans not because they are afraid to reveal to the interviewer that they are bad Christians 103 The findings point to a bigger issue as many people in the world may be over reporting church attendance because of their self perception and identity as churchgoing people indicating a certain psychological aspect to the over reporting of church attendance Although surveys of church attendance are aimed to study religious behavior many respondents view them as questions about their identity This is especially true among Americans who consider themselves regular churchgoers 104 105 See also Edit Christianity portalChristian Church Christian denomination Church membership Church service Service of worship Jumu ah Muslim weekly congregation for prayer Shabbat Jewish weekly day of rest References EditNotes Edit The majority of Christian denominations teach that Sunday is the Lord s Day on which all the faithful must assemble to offer worship to God cf first day Sabbatarianism A minority of Christian denominations that follow seventh day Sabbatarianism organize worship on Saturdays 22 Citations Edit Jespersen Knud J V 21 June 2011 A History of Denmark Macmillan International Higher Education p 91 ISBN 9780230344174 It is quite normal to go to church on Christmas Eve and many people like to celebrate a christening or wedding in church The Church is especially important at the end of a life by far the majority of funerals are still conducted in a church by a minister Wigley John 1980 The Rise and Fall of the Victorian Sunday Manchester University Press p 800 ISBN 9780719007941 Following the formulation of the Westminster Confession fully fledged Sabbatarianism quickly took root too being embodied in an Act of 1661 then spreading northwards and westwards as the Highlands were opened up after the 46 during which time the doctrine lost its original force and vigour in the Lowlands McKim Donald K 2011 More Presbyterian Questions More Presbyterian Answers Exploring Christian Faith Westminster John Knox Press p 72 ISBN 9780664503086 The Westminster Confession urges a strict observance of the Lord s Day as a day of rest and worship away from works words and thoughts about worldly employments and recreations The whole time is to be devoted to public and private exercises of God s worship and in duties of necessity and mercy BC 6 119 In the United States many blue laws relating to Sunday originated from this general prescription observed by American Puritans of the Reformed tradition Abraham William J Kirby James E 24 September 2009 The Oxford Handbook of Methodist Studies OUP Oxford p 253 ISBN 9780191607431 Roos Merethe 2013 03 08 Enlightened Preaching Balthasar Munter s Authorship 1772 1793 Brill Academic Publishers p 99 ISBN 9789004249899 Day Cathy 26 September 2014 Wiltshire Marriage Patterns 1754 1914 Geographical Mobility Cousin Marriage and Illegitimacy Cambridge Scholars Publishing p 198 ISBN 9781443867924 Attendance at an Anglican church service at least twice a year was a legal requirement for all people until 1791 and some parishioners endured the minimum church attendance requirement in order to avoid a fine a b O Hare Terrence D 1 December 2011 The Sabbath Complete And the Ascendency of First Day Worship Wipf and Stock Publishers p 228 229 ISBN 978 1 62189 134 5 a b Brattston David W T 2014 Traditional Christian Ethics 4 WestBow Press p 33 ISBN 978 1 4908 0205 3 Richardson John R 1966 Christian Economics Studies in the Christian Message to the Market Place St Thomas Press p 91 a b Christianity and church attendance Mitchell Travis 2018 06 13 3 How religious commitment varies by country among people of all ages Pew Research Center s Religion amp Public Life Project Retrieved 2022 12 26 The world s most committed Christians live in Africa Latin America and the U S Pew Research Center 22 August 2018 a b Religion Gallup Historical Trends www gallup com Gallup Inc 8 June 2007 Retrieved 29 August 2015 Kuriakose Noble 18 April 2014 When Easter and Christmas near more Americans search online for church Pew Research Center Retrieved 27 December 2016 Stetzer Ed 14 December 2015 What Is Church Attendance Like During Christmastime New Data From LifeWay Research Christianity Today Retrieved 27 December 2016 Athena Magazine Issues 41 55 International Studies Association 1991 p 86 It has also shrunk through the trial as by fire of decades of totalitarian state atheism in which simply to profess the Christian Faith automatically ranked one as a dissident and church attendance was not infrequently the first step towards martyrdom a b c d e f Why an Evening Worship Service Christ United Reformed Church 8 December 2010 Retrieved 6 October 2020 Bradshaw Paul F 1 October 2008 Daily Prayer in the Early Church A Study of the Origin and Early Development of the Divine Office Wipf and Stock Publishers p 42 ISBN 978 1 60608 105 1 Gonzalez Justo L 30 June 2020 Teach Us to Pray The Lord s Prayer in the Early Church and Today Wm B Eerdmans Publishing ISBN 978 1 4674 5958 7 These words make it clear that Hippolytus is dealing both with prayers that are to take place at home or during the day s business and with the prayers and times of study that take place in the community of the church The prayers upon rising on the third hour either at home or away from it and before going to bed at night are sometimes held in private and sometimes in the company of other believers in the same household But Hippolytus refers to other gatherings which offer besides prayer an opportunity for instruction and inspiration Thus we see here the beginning of the practice of setting aside certain times for private prayer as well as others for communal prayer Bercot David W 28 December 2021 Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs A Reference Guide to More Than 700 Topics Discussed by the Early Church Fathers Tyndale House Publishers Inc ISBN 978 1 61970 168 7 Morning and Evening Prayer were liturgical services held each day at the local church during which psalms were sung and prayers were offered to God Beckwith Roger T 2005 Calendar Chronology And Worship Studies in Ancient Judaism And Early Christianity Brill Academic Publishers p 193 ISBN 978 90 04 14603 7 a b Hughes James R 2006 The Sabbath A Universal and Enduring Ordinance of God PDF Evangelical Presbyterian Church Retrieved 6 October 2020 Jones M 12 June 2015 Organized Sports on Sundays Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals Retrieved 6 October 2020 The Korean Repository Volume 3 Trilingual Press 21 August 1896 p 361 The Sunday morning service has been well attended as have also the Sunday evening and Wednesday evening services Times of Worship Saint Paul s Free Methodist Church Retrieved 5 August 2021 Morgan Bonnie 19 December 2019 Ordinary Saints Women Work and Faith in Newfoundland McGill Queen s Press ISBN 978 0 2280 0028 0 Starting with Shrove Tuesday locally known as Pancake Day and proceeding through Ash Wednesday to Good Friday families increased their church attendance and especially engaged in the embodies practices of fasting and or giving up something for Lent The Living Church Volume 138 Morehouse Gorham Company 1959 p 221 Case after case was noted where parish church attendance had doubled tripled and in some cases quadrupled at all services on Ash Wednesday As the weeks of Lent rolled along reports continued to come in mentioning that attendance at all services during Lent was far greater than at any other period during many of the churches histories Grossman Cathy Lynn 2014 05 17 Poll Americans stretch the truth on attending church Religion News Service Religion News LLC Retrieved 29 August 2015 Hadaway C Kirk Marler Penny Long 2005 How Many Americans Attend Worship Each Week An Alternative Approach to Measurement Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 44 3 307 22 doi 10 1111 j 1468 5906 2005 00288 x JSTOR 3590599 One in 10 attends church weekly BBC News NCLS releases latest estimates of church attendance National Church Life Survey Media release Baker David New church attendance figures do the numbers add up Comment 16 May 2013 Lipka Michael What surveys say about worship attendance and why some stay home Pewresearch org September 13 2013 Church Attendance Today Similar to 1940s Archived 2014 01 22 at the Wayback Machine Gallup January 19 2014 How many people outside of North America go regularly to religious services Bourdeaux Michael 2002 Eastern Europe Russia and Central Asia 2003 Taylor amp Francis p 46 ISBN 9781857431377 The experiment forcibly to impose gosateizm state atheism in the USSR lasted just 70 years Until Lenin Vladimir Ilych Ulyanov s first Decree on the Separation of Church and State of January 1918 no government in history had sought to enforce a system that rejected all forms of religion Brugger Winfried 2007 On the Relationship between Structural Norms and Constitutional Rights in Church State Relations In Brugger Winfried Karayanni Michael eds Religion in the Public Sphere A Comparative Analysis of German Israeli American and International Law Beitrage zum auslandischen offentlichen Recht und Volkerrecht Vol 190 pp 21 86 doi 10 1007 978 3 540 73357 7 2 ISBN 978 3 540 73355 3 Epoca O brasileiro em numeros in Portuguese Archived 2013 10 29 at the Wayback Machine Religious Views and Beliefs Vary Greatly by Country According to the Latest Financial Times Harris Poll Harrisinteractive com 2006 12 20 Archived from the original on 2012 05 23 Retrieved 2012 03 17 Church Sizes USA Churches org Accessed on January 19 2014 New Statistics on Church Attendance and Avoidance Archived 2014 01 20 at archive today Barna Group March 3 2008 Barnes Rebecca and Lindy Lowry 7 Startling Facts An Up Close Look at Church Attendance in America Churchleaders com Accessed on 19 January 2014 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Tolerance and Tension Christianity and Islam in Sub Saharan Africa PDF Archived from the original PDF on 30 April 2018 Retrieved 9 February 2017 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Archived copy PDF www pewforum org Archived from the original PDF on 12 January 2016 Retrieved 15 January 2022 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint archived copy as title link Missions to East Asia s People omf org Retrieved 12 April 2020 World s most committed Christians live in Africa Latin America U S a b c d e f g h i j k l m Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Eastern Europe pewforum org Pew Research Center May 10 2017 Israel s Religiously Divided Society In Italy views of Church from the papers and the pews seem very different The Independent Census finds increasingly aging church going population only 36 1 of Catholics attend Mass Caucasus Barometer 2017 Armenia After Francis what s the future for the church in Ireland RTE 23 August 2018 Retrieved 2 October 2019 Notes on International Mass Attendance georgetown edu Retrieved 2020 04 12 Religious Belief and National Belonging in Central and Easter Europe PDF pewresearch org Retrieved 12 April 2020 page needed Centro de Investigaciones Sociologicas Centre for Sociological Research October 2019 Macrobarometro de octubre 2019 Banco de datos Document Poblacion con derecho a voto en elecciones generales y residente en Espana nacional con Ceuta y Melilla PDF in Spanish p 77 Retrieved 4 February 2020 The question was Como se define Ud en materia religiosa catolico a practicante catolico a no practicante creyente de otra religion agnostico a indiferente o no creyente o ateo a the weight used was PESOCCAA which reflects the population sizes of the Autonomous communities of Spain Missas dominicais perderam 23 mil fieis desde 2001 Mallimac Fortunato Gimenez Beliveau Veronica Esquivel Juan Cruz Irrazabal Gabriela 2019 Sociedad y Religion en Movimiento Segunda Encuesta Nacional sobre Creencias y Actitudes Religiosas en la Argentina PDF in Spanish Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones Laborales CEIL CONICET ISSN 1515 7466 Retrieved November 19 2019 Church attendance in decline cbs nl 23 December 2013 Retrieved 12 April 2020 Mass attendance in Canada more than doubles on Christmas Day survey finds December 20 2016 Chastota posesheniya religioznyh sluzhb Religious service attendance Sreda in Russian 27 August 2013 Willander Erika The Religious Landscape of Sweden PDF www myndighetensst se p 27 Retrieved 17 May 2020 Christianity in the UK Measuring the Christian population in the UK Faith Survey Retrieved 15 May 2022 Hvor mange aktive kristne finnes i Norge How many active Christians are there in Norway idag no in Norwegian 5 December 2004 Archived from the original on 24 July 2011 Comunidades de Fe en Cuba Primera parte de la serie de fondo de WOLA sobre la religion en Cuba Communities of Faith in Cuba First part of WOLA s background series on religion in Cuba wola org in Spanish 26 March 2012 Retrieved 11 April 2020 Rasmusse Morten 10 June 2008 Kun 2 4 procent gar i kirke hver uge Only 2 4 percent attend church each week kristeligt dagblad dk in Danish Retrieved 12 April 2020 a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Religion in Europe Trust Not Filling the Pews Gallup September 21 2004 Norway Church attendance In which European countries are people least likely to attend religious services The Economist August 9 2010 Based on a European Social Survey Religion in America U S Religious Data Demographics and Statistics The Gender Gap in Religion Around the World Pew Research Center s Religion amp Public Life Project 2016 03 22 Retrieved 2020 09 17 Gender profile of church attenders 2013 NCLS Research Attender Demographics 2013 NCLS Research Young Americans more loyal to religion than Boomers Reuters 2010 08 06 How Income and Church Attendance Affects Happiness Pewsocialtrends org November 3 2010 Church attendance helps combat depression study finds The Church of England Newspaper May 28 2010 p 7 Law R W Sbarra D A 2009 The Effects of Church Attendance and Marital Status on the Longitudinal Trajectories of Depressed Mood Among Older Adults Journal of Aging and Health 21 6 803 23 doi 10 1177 0898264309338300 PMID 19535821 S2CID 24049609 Graham T W Kaplan B H Cornoni Huntley J C James S A Becker C Hames C G Heyden S 1978 Frequency of church attendance and blood pressure elevation Journal of Behavioral Medicine 1 1 37 43 doi 10 1007 bf00846585 PMID 556112 S2CID 9777385 Oman D Kurata J H Strawbridge W J Cohen R D 2002 Religious attendance and cause of death over 31 years International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine 32 1 69 89 doi 10 2190 rjy7 crr1 hcw5 xveg PMID 12075917 S2CID 12521030 Glanville Jennifer L Sikkink David Hernandez Edwin I 2008 Religious involvement and educational outcomes The role of social capital and extracurricular participation Sociological Quarterly 49 1 105 37 doi 10 1111 j 1533 8525 2007 00108 x JSTOR 40220059 S2CID 143311606 Stanton Glenn 22 March 2018 Does Faith Reduce Divorce Risk The Witherspoon Institute Retrieved 1 April 2018 Most recently research conducted at Harvard s School of Public Health reveals that regularly attending church services together reduces a couple s risk of divorce by a remarkable 47 percent Many studies they report have similar results ranging from 30 to 50 percent reduction in divorce risk Happily this holds largely true for white black Asian and Latino couples Ekins Emily 5 February 2019 Religious Trump Voters How Faith Moderates Attitudes about Immigration Race and Identity Cato Institute Retrieved 21 February 2020 Ekins Emily 24 September 2018 How Faith Moderates Attitudes About Immigration Race Identity RealClearReligion Eurobarometer 225 Social values Science amp Technology PDF Eurostat 2005 Retrieved 2007 07 21 Press Release by the Iona Institute 2 November 2009 Religion and Politics Survey 1996 The Association of Religion Data Archives ARDA Accessed on 19 January 2014 Burgess Kaya 28 March 2018 Holier than thou students most likely to attend church The Times a b c In America Does More Education Equal Less Religion PDF Pew Research Center Werner Haug Philippe Wanner January 2000 IV The demographic characteristics of linguistic and religious groups in Switzerland The Demographic Characteristics of National Minorities in Certain European States Population Studies No 31 Vol 2 Germany Council of Europe p 154 ISBN 978 92 871 4159 0 Retrieved 12 November 2013 Low Robbie June 2003 The Truth About Men amp Church Touchstone The Fellowship of St James 16 5 Retrieved 2013 12 01 Egan Richard September 2002 Church Attendance The family feminism and the declining role of fatherhood AD2000 15 8 Archived from the original on 2016 12 30 Retrieved 2016 12 30 Bruce Robert Bruce Debra Fulghum 1996 Becoming Spiritual Soulmates With Your Child Nashville Broadman amp Holman Publishers p 52 ISBN 978 0 8054 6269 2 Rainer Thomas Ten Surprises About the Unchurched Christianity Today Smietana Bob 12 July 2018 Two Thirds of Churchgoers Have Invited Someone to Church LifeWay Research Why People Don t Go to Church Accessed through Internet Archives on 19 January 2014 Inglehart Ronald Baker Wayne E 2000 Modernization Cultural Change and the Persistence of Traditional Values PDF American Sociological Review 65 1 19 51 doi 10 2307 2657288 JSTOR 2657288 Archived from the original PDF on 2010 07 14 Retrieved 2014 01 20 Hunter Baker Is Church Attendance Declining 11 August 2007 a b Frank Newport Five Key Findings on Religion in the US Gallup Poll December 23 2017 Religion Gallup Poll last accessed May 12 2017 Praktyki niedzielne Polakow dominicantes iskk pl Archived from the original on 2015 12 22 Retrieved 2015 12 21 Hadaway C Kirk Marler Penny Long Chaves Mark December 1993 What the polls don t show A closer look at U S church attendance PDF American Sociological Review 58 6 741 52 doi 10 2307 2095948 JSTOR 2095948 Hadaway C Kirk Marler Penny Long May 6 1998 Did You Really Go To Church This Week Behind the Poll Data The Christian Century 115 14 472 5 Archived from the original on April 16 2012 Retrieved January 19 2014 Hadaway C Kirk Marler Penny Long Chaves Mark February 1998 Overreporting church attendance in America Evidence that demands the same verdict PDF American Sociological Review 63 1 122 30 doi 10 2307 2657484 JSTOR 2657484 Marler Penny Long Hadaway C Kirk 1999 Testing the Attendance Gap in a Conservative Church Sociology of Religion 60 2 175 86 doi 10 2307 3711747 JSTOR 3711747 The Church Attendance Gap A look at two older studies whose findings should be taken more seriously Archived 2013 11 30 at the Wayback Machine Hartford Institutes for Religious Research News and Notes Vol IV No 1 Pew Research Religious Landscape Survey dead link full citation needed Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Church attendance amp oldid 1129661567, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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