Adelaide’s Anglicans deserve credit for openly reporting their stats, but sympathy for what they show. A reader pointed out to The Other Cheek that the attendance stats for each region of the diocese are included in the synod (church parliament) papers for the Adelaide Anglicans and here they are:
Adding up the overall figures gives
• A 2015 attendance of 7178.
• A 2025 attendance of 3138
The Cathedral is not included in the City and the Port region’s figures. Let’s assume a possibly generous figure of 400. This would give the current diocesan attendance of 3538.
The Adelaide Anglican scene is complicated by the existence of the Trinity Network, of evangelical Church Plants Across the City.
In a report for EFAC (Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion) Paul Harrington the Rector of Holy Trinity writes of planting 13 churches in the network statting from North Terrace “In 2001, the city congregation sent about 80 people (10 % of its members) to start a new church at Aldgate, about a 25-minute drive to the southeast of the city.” and later includes this stat. “Over the last 20 years, God has graciously tripled the number of people who are part of the Trinity Network. But we are still only scratching the surface of the desperate gospel need in our part of the world.”
This means that the Trinity Network is now 2400 strong. Let’s assume that the two churches outside the diocese at Victor Harbor and Mt Barker account for 250 people.
That leaves 2150 inside the diocesan boundary. Lets make another assumption that Trinity City now has 600 people – which is excellent regrowth from so much sending.
To the Trinity evangelicals we can add the thirty percent of churches in the Adelaide diocese that are also evangelical. Thats 30 per cent of 3538 minus the 600 in Trinity = 30 per cent of 2538 = 761 people. (It may mean the Evangelicals are undercounted because their churches may be larger than the avaerage.)
So this rough calculation shows that of the Anglicans, the evangelicals in both Trinity Network and diocese number 2400 plus 761 = 3161 attenders.
The Non Evangelicals number in the diocese are the 2538.
This calculation carries the strong implication that Adelaide needs an evangelical bishop if they are to be (re-)united.
Conversely if the current trends continue, in ten years time Trinity, conservatively, will have grown to 3000 on its own, and the Diocese (without Trinity in the City) might be at 1300 attenders.
Chris McLeod, Dean of Adelaide’s St Peters Cathedral and National Aboriginal Bishop has sent this comment “We are seeing growth at the Cathedral especially by younger people embracing liturgical worship. We are all reaching people in the name of Christ together. I rejoice in people turning to Jesus wherever he finds them.”