Continuing the Conversation on Canada: Changing Patterns of Religious Service Attendance

Abstract

David Eagle's article on changing patterns of religious service attendance appeared in the March 2011 issue of Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. He presented a comprehensive analysis of three data sets that allow social scientists to estimate the rate of religious service attendance in Canada: Project Canada Survey (PCS), the General Social Survey (GSS), and the Canadian Survey of Giving, Volunteering, and Participating (GSGVP). Reginald Bibby initiated the PCS in 1975, 10 years before Statistics Canada began conducting the GSS in 1985, and 22 years before the GSGVP began in 1997. He comments on the Eagle article, cautions scholars to be mindful of important methodological differences across samples, and offers his own analysis of trends in religious service attendance.

Measuring religious polarization: Application with American and Canadian data

“…As such, the observed growth in the number of seculars is entirely fuelled by the fall in religiosity of individuals at the religious middle ground, for instance, the nominal and ambivalent affiliates (Olson and Beckworth, 2011; Voas, 2009). Patterns congruent with the polarization hypothesis have been reported for many Western countries, most of them with a long history of secularization (Achterberg et al, 2009; Bibby, 2011; Dilmaghani, 2018; Kaufmann et al, 2012; Reimer, 2017; Ribberink et al, 2013; Wilkins-Laflamme, 2014, 2016a). The present article contributes to this literature by proposing a methodology to quantify the degree of religious polarization.…”

Emerging Churches in Post-Christian Canada

“…7 Yet, the outlook is not entirely gloomy. Statistics from 2010 show that while only 28% of Canadians attend religious services on a monthly basis, 65% say that spirituality and religious issues are important to their everyday life ( [7], Table 2, p. 835). The story of emerging Christians in Canada connects with this larger story of Christianity in Canada.…”

“…5 Since the 1970s the percentage of people who never attend religious services doubled (from 20% to 40%). The overall decline of participation in Christian religious activities seemed to reach a bottom at just under one in three Canadians in the late 1990s ( [7], Table 2, p. 835). 6 The accelerating decline among the younger generations, however, may make optimism on the overall figures over the next decades seem Panglossian.…”

“…They all agree that religious participation among Canadians is in decline and the only categories that show any meaningful growth are non-attendance and no religious affiliation. See [7][8][9][10][11]. 7 Eagle believes this transition reflects the process of secularization.…”

“…See [7][8][9][10][11]. 7 Eagle believes this transition reflects the process of secularization. He does not see secularization as the inevitable result of the rise of modern culture, but the undeniable historical phenomenon taking place in Canada.…”