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Church of England vicars underreporting attendance to avoid tax
2002-031-1
2/4/2002
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[Episcopal News Service]
London's Daily Telegraph reports that Church of England vicars have 'deliberately' underestimated attendance at services to reduce the amount of apportionment they pay to their dioceses.
The newspaper says that true average attendance in the Church of England is almost 1,400,000, significantly higher than the most recent reported figure of 995,700.
Two years ago, when official annual statistics revealed that usual Sunday attendance had dropped below one million for the first time, the church undertook a revision in the way statistics were collected. The figures were used by many dioceses to calculate the 'parish share' or annual tax levied on each church. Some vicars apparently used figures from sparsely-attended services to keep their parish share as low as possible, and there was no common method used for collecting the figures.
Under the new system, coordinated by the church's internal statistics department, all clergy make the count over a four-week period in October, and include weekly services and the growing number of elderly and housebound people receiving communion at home.
The new figures show that attendance figures approach three million during some seasons of the year, and the research will be hailed by church leaders as evidence that the church is far from the moribund institution depicted by its critics.
The research has also established that Sunday services have declined in popularity, and that many more people attend midweek services or just once a month, using other Sundays in the month for shopping or visiting families.
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