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The Church of England has admitted men are “underrepresented” in congregations as attendance at Sunday services remains below pre-pandemic levels.
In a question submitted to the General Synod, the Church’s legislative body, about what it was doing to encourage “evangelism” among men, a Church officer said men were under-represented in many parishes.
The Rev Will Pearson-Gee, of Buckingham Parish Church, asked the Synod: “What resources has the Church developed to help people think about and practise evangelism amongst men?”
A representative of the Archbishops’ Council responded: “Within the Church of England ,as we seek to be a Church which represents the communities we serve in age and diversity, we recognise that in many churches men are underrepresented in the congregation.
“The council encourages dioceses to consider this as they develop their mission plans for future funding.”
The spokesman added that the Church and surrounding organisations had developed resources to “help people think about and practise evangelism amongst men”.
The Church last estimated its male and female membership in 2014, when the ratio of women to men was thought to be 59:41 – about six women to every four men.
That is despite the gender balance among clergy weighing heavily in favour of men, with 2018 figures showing 30 per cent of the estimated 20,000 active clergy in the Church of England are female.
The number of male clergy is also in decline. Figures show that while the number of female clergy rose steadily from 5,310 in 2013 to a record high of 5,690 in 2016, the total for men declined by about 860 in this time.
Although average weekly attendance at Church of England services rose by almost 5 per cent in 2023 – the third year of consecutive growth – total attendance remains nearly 20 per cent below pre-pandemic levels.
Meanwhile, year-on-year attendance has decreased by 3 per cent on average over the past decade.
Telegraph analysis this year revealed that Sunday church attendance is 80 per cent of what it was in 2019 despite the Church of England claiming that it has “bounced back” after the pandemic.
In 2023, The Telegraph also published an investigation that revealed that parishes are closing at a record rate, prompting fears that the Church had been “dealt a death knell”.
Addressing the decline in Church of England male worshippers, the Rev Ian Paul, a member of the General Synod and the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England, said: “The Church of England is declining in attendance – though many churches in England are not, and are growing.
“One of the things that those growing churches do well is engage with men.
Rev Paul added: “Why don’t we do the work in this area – how to reach men, and in particular how to reach working-class men.”
It comes as the Bishop of Oxford accused Christians threatening to breakaway from the Church over a forthcoming vote on blessings for same-sex couples of “catastrophising” and causing “hurt” to LGBTQ Christians and their familes in a letter seen by the Telegraph.
Bishops have proposed that gay and lesbian couples could receive blessings from Anglican priests in standalone church services as part of a pilot, before a formal vote is held on whether the change should become permanent.
However, more than 25 Church leaders have written to leading Church of English bishops warning that such a change could amount to “unlawfulness” and have threatened to create a “parallel province”, a separate autonomous grouping within the Church.
In Rt Rev Dr Steven Croft’s response, he wrote: “A third province and a church within a church undercuts the very essence of Anglican ecclesiology and represents a red line we cannot cross.”
The Synod is sitting in York until Tuesday.