ABSTRACT
Gill’s ‘Empty Church’ research (2003, 1994, 1993, 1989) is an exceptional analysis of church attendance decline and growth in England that attempts to understand the processes involved by analysing extensive primary sources. Gill observes that the data from which secularization theory is developed are often sparse, of questionable quality and inconsistent both in terms of comparability and in application. He argues, for example, that the attempt by the influential Currie et al. (1977) to compare national Free Church membership with Anglican Easter communicants and Roman Catholic estimated populations resulted in significant inaccuracies. Gill concludes that, instead, ‘an intense study of churches at a local level and over a sufficient period of time (using records of local attendances rather than national membership figures) is a prerequisite for investigating the social factors underlying church decline’ (Gill 2003: 14). Accordingly, he draws upon detailed empirical data from a variety of censuses, surveys, Anglican clergy returns to bishops, Catholic and Free Church records, records of Sunday attendances and British Army statistics.
