The Church of Ireland is bucking trends with growth, writes Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent

THE NATURE OF ADHERENCE to religious institutions is changing, says the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill.

Where once believers were wedded to Sunday worship, today "they might only attend at special occasions, or at the occasional routine service, but still describe themselves by proclamation as members of a particular church".

His comments are an attempt to explain figures in the 2002 and 2006 censuses which show a significant increase in the number of people on the island declaring membership of a mainstream church - an increase which has not been reflected in church pews.

He says: "We are heading towards a time when people's experience of church and the method of belonging is going to change. The way of being church is changing. It is too early to say what its shape will be. At the moment that is not clear."

He believes the 8.7 per cent increase (10,000) in the Republic's Church of Ireland population between 2002 and 2006 (to 125,600) is due in part to immigration. "Many new immigrants were cradle Anglicans who wanted to remain and be recognised as Anglicans."

But, he says, there is another factor involved, namely that a lot of children of mixed marriages now tend to be reared as Protestant, where once this was impossible.

When the Catholic Church's Ne Temere decree was first introduced in 1908, mixed marriages only got approval from the Catholic Church where both partners gave a written assurance that all children would be raised as Catholics. In the decades towards the end of the 20th century, however, the demand was "softened" and an oral commitment to raise the children as Catholics from the Catholic partner was deemed adequate.

Meanwhile, the number of Church of Ireland ordinands - men and women preparing for ministry - is on the increase. Dr Neill feels this is driven partly by the greater number of non-stipendiary (unpaid) ministers, and by women priests.

Many of the newer ordinands are also older. "On reaching 40-plus, people tend to reconsider their careers, resulting in a lot of vocations. This was the absolute exception years ago," he says.

REFERRING TO THESE changes in his presidential address to the Dublin and Glendalough diocesan synods last October, he said: "We have to get away from the idea either that the Church of Ireland community is in decline - it is now bigger than it was 50 years ago - or that the church is going to shrink. We only shrink if we cease to plan for growth, if we fail to grasp the new opportunities that God is putting there for us to grasp, or we simply cling to everything as it always was. The signs are that God still has a purpose for this church."

Elaborating on the theme, Dr Neill says there are challenges presented by growth. "The first is that, as a church, we are being opened up to a much richer and cultural mix, and that an increasing number of people do not share the historical sensibilities . . . or prejudices, if you prefer . . . that once defined a member of the Church of Ireland."

He continues: "The second challenge is closely related - it is that we live in an increasingly secular society, one where Christian belonging, let alone allegiance to a particular church, is often much looser. The number at worship in a given area does not always reflect the growth of the Anglican population of that area."

Reflecting on what he calls an "increasingly secular society", he says: "It has often been remarked that a great number of Ireland's urban dwellers are only a generation away from the rural. It has been a very quick change for very many people and has meant leaving behind the family structures so important to rural life."

It also means "there was a new emphasis on the nuclear family, with other forms of relationship emerging. It often meant that parish life was harder [to organise] in the city. There was a fragmentation and volatility [of movement] involved, a dissolution of community, and people who regularly attended worship at a particular church might not live in that parish at all."

Furthermore, "an individualism is becoming evident, which presents itself in a hedonistic lifestyle. There is the huge problem of addiction and corruption of various kinds, arising from a pursuit of instant gratification".

He says there is "the breakdown of family life, individualism, availability of money, the vast problem of heroin addiction and still no meaning to life".

He believes "the gospel is not being presented as it should be. Often, it is fringe groups which are most successful at this. The churches are often perceived as being more judgmental. Such groups are often more accepting of people where they are."

He feels that, in the past, the churches had "preached more morals than faith. In a much more rigid society with tight social structures, you could get away with that, but not in today's more open world."