By Melissa Kosowan
As a little girl growing up in Poland, Anna (her name has been changed because she wishes to remain anonymous) looked forward to church every Sunday. She moved to Italy, then to Canada at the age of 10, and attending church became impractical while her family began a new life.
Now 23, the University of Ottawa student has returned to religion after being introduced to the Metropolitan Bible Church on Bank Street by a friend.
“I went back to what made me feel really good as a young girl — the Bible,” she says.
Anna is one of many Canadians who, according to religion expert Reg Bibby in his recent study, are returning to church after a steady decline since the 1950s.
Sunday services in some Centretown churches are certainly drawing more people.
Rev. Randy Jost, an associate pastor at the Metropolitan Bible Church on Bank Street, attributes the increase in attendance to rising spirituality in society.
“There is a hunger — a desire to know God,” he says.
Jost also credits the church’s growth to the popularity of senior pastor Rev. Rick Reed, who came to the church in 1998. Jost says attendance has risen from about 500 since Reed arrived, to last Sunday’s staggering total of almost 1,700 people.
“There is a way in which pastor Rick communicates that I think is very compelling,” he says.
To deal with the overcrowding, the church now holds four services between its Carleton University and Bank Street locations.
“We’re still on the way up,” Jost says, which is why the building campaign for a new church is being launched in October. The church will be located near the airport and will have a capacity of close to 2,000.
Attendance at some churches, such as the First United Church on Kent Street, is increasing because of church policy, says Rev. Daniel Bogert-O’Brien.
“In the case of this church it’s because of the gay and lesbian community, which we serve,” he says. “It’s also comfortable for street people . . . for people who are struggling with various situations of abuse, so it’s a place of comfort and care.”
He cites demographics as another factor in the increase.
“It looks like we’re having a bit of a bump again in terms of young families with young children. I’m speculating . . . as people have kids – and there seems to be more of that occurring – they are coming back to church,” he says.
Other Centretown churches, such as St. George’s Anglican Church, the Christ Church Cathedral and Christ the Saviour Orthodox Church, are also watching their congregations grow.
Not all are experiencing rapid attendance increases though. Rev. Joseph Burke of Dominion-Chalmers United Church on Cooper Street says the church is just starting to rebound from decreased attendance since renovations began on it over a year ago.
“We’re looking forward to picking up where we left off,” he says.
Both Bogert-O’Brien and Jost say they see a wide range of ages at church, but Rev. Tom Sherwood, a chaplain at Carleton University, says it’s young families that make him skeptical about Bibby’s findings.
He says church growth lies in the suburbs where young families live.
“The young families that are looking for the weekly services of a church will go where the buildings are,” he says, referring to why people attend churches close to home, rather than driving into the city.
He says he doesn’t think Bibby painted an accurate picture of inner city churches.
“He is picking up that in the suburbs there are a lot of congregations who want formal religious service for the critical moments of their lives,” Sherwood says. “That isn’t changing, but he’s giving that a little more emphasis.”
Sherwood also says the increase in attendance might not be at Sunday service, but rather “passages of right” such as funerals, baptisms and marriages.
But the two can coexist, as Anna demonstrated. She started going to church on Sundays to give her direction at a point in her life when she is beginning to think of marriage and a family.
“I knew I had to make some decisions and set some rules to live by — a standard to follow and believe.”