Iirsh Mass Attendance

nomull27

What percentage of Irish Catholics go to Mass each week and month?
And what % of Church of Ireland(ers?) go to service each week?

gimmebroadband

Might find some info at following link!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland

philologos

nomull27 wrote: »

And what % of Church of Ireland(ers?) go to service each week?

At a guesstimate 10%.

PDN

philologos wrote: »

At a guesstimate 10%.

Really? That seems extraordinarily low.

philologos

PDN wrote: »

Really? That seems extraordinarily low.

Higher in rural areas, lower in urban areas seems to be the general norm. In some urban areas you may have 1000 - 2000 CofI members in an area and a church attendance of between 100 - 200. Even if there were much more it wouldn't be viable for there to be 100% church attendance.

lottpaul

PDN wrote: »

Really? That seems extraordinarily low.

Not really.

• In many rural areas of Munster and Connacht you may have to travel 15-30km to your nearest church. There are practicalities involved
• many older people - more likely to attend - don't want to drive that far and may not get a lift every week.
• in many rural areas churches may have a service once or twice a month, rotating with other, often distant churches - and its difficult to gauge attendance accurately.
• I often wonder if the official C of I figures are not overstated in the census, since anyone who puts down "Protestant" is lumped in as Anglican - so 10% of what?? its difficult to know
• speaking for my own area the "native" C of I folk attend pretty well but there are families who emerge only at Easter etc and others we only see at funerals and the like. (periscope Protestants who pop up occasionally)

And I suppose most fundamentally there is not the same "compulsion" in the Protestant churches generally to attend weekly. Some people only attend e.g. Communion services or at intervals they feel comfortable with.

And in any case I like to think my late grandmother summed it up very well :
Mr Business/Farmer/Teacher/etc etc went to church,
he never missed a Sunday,
but Mr Business went to Hell,
for what he did on Monday

(source unknown, but I'd love to see the full version)

irishh_bob

lottpaul wrote: »

Not really.

• In many rural areas of Munster and Connacht you may have to travel 15-30km to your nearest church. There are practicalities involved
• many older people - more likely to attend - don't want to drive that far and may not get a lift every week.
• in many rural areas churches may have a service once or twice a month, rotating with other, often distant churches - and its difficult to gauge attendance accurately.
• I often wonder if the official C of I figures are not overstated in the census, since anyone who puts down "Protestant" is lumped in as Anglican - so 10% of what?? its difficult to know
• speaking for my own area the "native" C of I folk attend pretty well but there are families who emerge only at Easter etc and others we only see at funerals and the like. (periscope Protestants who pop up occasionally)

And I suppose most fundamentally there is not the same "compulsion" in the Protestant churches generally to attend weekly. Some people only attend e.g. Communion services or at intervals they feel comfortable with.

And in any case I like to think my late grandmother summed it up very well :
Mr Business/Farmer/Teacher/etc etc went to church,
he never missed a Sunday,
but Mr Business went to Hell,
for what he did on Monday

(source unknown, but I'd love to see the full version)

nonesense , nowhere in ireland are you fifteen to thirty km from a church , this isnt the australian outback

mass attendance in ireland would be around forty percent , seventy percent in rural ireland but less than half that in the citys

philologos

irishh_bob wrote: »

nonesense , nowhere in ireland are you fifteen to thirty km from a church , this isnt the australian outback

From a Church of Ireland church.

Reekwind

According to this Irish Times article (paywall, unfortunately) weekly church attendance was 46% in 2009

lottpaul

irishh_bob wrote: »

nonesense , nowhere in ireland are you fifteen to thirty km from a church , this isnt the australian outback

mass attendance in ireland would be around forty percent , seventy percent in rural ireland but less than half that in the citys

1. If you took the trouble to read the full post you'd see I'm referring to Church of Ireland churches.
2. If my RC neighbours in very rural Ireland are anything to go by 70% is just wishful thinking. 30% or less.

CiaranMT

Reekwind wrote: »

According to this Irish Times article (paywall, unfortunately) weekly church attendance was 46% in 2009

I find that figure very hard to believe.

gimmebroadband

I've seen an increase in Mass attendence where I live, and i go to several different churches, the recession may have something to do with it - ppl praying for help and all that, the ususal fairweather Christians!!

CiaranMT

Always amuses me when you hear the above ^ comment.

Christianity is, according to most folks on here, the Truth. And yet when more people show up at mass, they're sneered at.

philologos

Personally I don't think it is anyone's business to judge someone by how little they've been to church. It's up to the individual to decide if they would like to explore Christianity for themselves. If they do and if they find something worthwhile in it they will keep coming.

gimmebroadband

CiaranMT wrote: »

Always amuses me when you hear the above ^ comment.

Christianity is, according to most folks on here, the Truth. And yet when more people show up at mass, they're sneered at.

You're being judgemental, when you assumed I was sneering when I wasn't - it's great to see a good attendance at Mass!

It happens that some people re/turn to God in times of trouble. The Prodical Son springs to mind! Sometimes God sends us crosses to give us a wake up call!!

gimmebroadband

philologos wrote: »

Personally I don't think it is anyone's business to judge someone by how little they've been to church. It's up to the individual to decide if they would like to explore Christianity for themselves. If they do and if they find something worthwhile in it they will keep coming.

The OP is enquiring about MASS, and Catholics are required to attend every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation!

philologos

gimmebroadband wrote: »

The OP is enquiring about MASS, and Catholics are required to attend every Sunday and Holy Day of Obligation!

The OP asked about the Church of Ireland too. There is no need to get defensive with me about what I say. I disagree with you that there should be a compulsion about going to church. People should go to church and feel that they are welcome there irrespective of whether or not they miss the odd Sunday.

Reekwind

CiaranMT wrote: »

I find that figure very hard to believe.

*Shrugs* Then dispute it. Find me some figures that say otherwise. There's a lot of guessing and not many sources in this thread