Move FM Global News

CHICAGO, Illinois: A report by the Pew Research Center found that following the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person church attendance was slightly lower than before the outbreak.

The comprehensive report released this week, entitled, “How the Pandemic Has Affected Attendance at U.S. Religious Services,” surveyed 11,377 American adults in November 2022.

The percentage of respondents who regularly attended religious services at least once a month dropped from 33 percent in 2019 before the COVID-19 outbreak to 30 percent in 2022, the report found.

Some 20 percent said that they now attend in person less often than they did before the pandemic, it added, noting that the percentage of US adults who take part in religious services in some way each month has remained steady.

The ranks of regular parishioners dropped from 300 before COVID-19, to about 200 now, said the Rev. John Ardis from the the historic Old St. Mary’s Cathedral, a Catholic church that is heavily dependent upon older worshippers and tourists, lost most of its revenue after parishes closed during the pandemic.

“About 40 percent of our regular parishioners have chosen not to return,” Ardis said, according to Reuters, adding that most parishioners are elderly and those who returned are still wearing masks at services.

Thomas Groome, professor of theology and religious education at Boston College, said, “There are some signs that attendance is coming back, but it will probably never come back to where it was before the pandemic,” as reported by Reuters.

“I think people learned how to nurture their spiritual lives and faith without necessarily going to their local church every Sunday,” he added, noting he was not surprised about the report’s findings.

Pew’s report focused mainly on Christian and Jewish denominations, and due to sample size limitations, it did not analyze the attendance patterns of Buddhists, Hindus Muslims, and other smaller non-Christian religious groups.