RECORD attendance at church Christmas services across Chester have been reported.
The parish Church of St Thomas of Canterbury in Parkgate Road has seen a steady increase in the size of its congregation over the past few years and there was standing room only at the Christmas Eve carol service.
Father Peter Walsh, the vicar of St Thomas’ Church, said: “We have all prayed and worked hard to welcome people to our church and we are delighted that more and more people are joining our church community.”
The story was the same at Catholic churches in the city and Father Paul Shaw of St Werburgh’s reckons that more than 2,000 worshippers visited his church on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
“We have six Masses over the two days including a Polish Mass on Christmas Day in the afternoon. All of the services were very, very popular.”
The Rev Paul Dawson, of St Mary’s-Without-The-Walls in Handbridge, believes that the popularity of Christmas and Easter services has been on the increase nationally over the past five years.
“We had four different services over the two days and I would say that about 800 people attended one or another of them. It is all very encouraging.”
The story was much the same in the countryside. Canon Les Thomas of the Sandstone Trail churches said there was a general impression there were more people at church over Christmas.
“The people who come tend to be visiting family or people who only go to church maybe once or twice a year.
“I think people feel there is something more to Christmas than just the material aspect. There is something innate that makes them feel the spiritual side of the festivities.”
According to figures from a survey by Christian Research, attendances at Church of England Sunday services have almost halved in a generation – from 1.6 million in 1968 to just over 850,000 in 2006.
The survey, for The Sunday Telegraph, states the number of Roman Catholics attending Mass, bolstered by an influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe and Africa, stood at 861,000 last year.
