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Largest Unitarian congregations by membership 2016

Posted without comment to bookmark for future research and reflection.

Membership numbers:

1. London New Unity:  83 (=)
2. London Hampstead: 79 (=)
3. Birmingham Hollywood (Kingswood): 63 (-2)
4. Dean Row: 60 (+8)
4. Edinburgh: 60 (=)
5. Bolton Bank Street: 58 (=)
6. Mansfield: 57 (=)
6. London Kensington: 57 (+7)
7. Kendal: 55 (=)
8. Portsmouth: 53 (=)
9. Norwich: 50 (-5)
9. London Golders Green: 50 (-4)
10. Bury 48 (-6)

Comments

Anonymous said…
This looks ominous sitting here.

1) The recent leading congregations for growth (New Unity (Pakula) and Kingswood (Howe)) are showing as stagnant (= and -2).
2) These "Top 10" congregations account for 25% of the ~3000 total.
3) This list shows an overall loss of 2 members adding up the +s and -s which is trivial.

THEREFORE:
The remainder of the loss of 157 has been sustained in the smaller congregations.

Yikes!
4:12 pm
Anonymous said…
Some more thoughts:

1. There is no congregation with 100 members.
2. Have any groups ceased to function?
3. What does it look like towards the middle and bottom?

4. New Unity is the name given to the merged churches at Islington and Newington Green.

I mention this because I thought NU was Islington. I did not appreciate it was Islington and Newington Green. It had been a joint ministry for some while before becoming an actual joint entity.

From the New Unity website
New Unity has two buildings, each of which was formerly a completely independent congregation: Newington Green Unitarian Chapel and Unity Church Islington. The congregation voted in October 2014 to legally merge these two independent institutions into one Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO).
10:08 am
Anonymous said…
Unitarianism is finished as a denomination.
9:57 am
Kenneth Robertson said…
Having recently become one of 5 new members of a congregation that has gradually grown since I started attending about 6 years ago I view these statistics faairly sceptically

what is tha average attendance at the churches listed seems to me far more to the point ; some churches may have some members who are care home residents but still on the roll, some may have drifted away but still subscribe.

what is the age profile of the congregation ? How many children attend regularly ? Raw data tells little of importance and may depress members of smaller yet vibrant congregations.

An interesting question might be to enquire how many congregations have actively invited new adherents in the past year .
5:02 pm
Stephen Lingwood said…
Kenneth, the Executive put out a survey 18 months (two years?) ago to ask these questions. But the results where never published.
10:50 am
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