Changing demographics. That is one of the reasons the All Saints’ Cathedral, Nairobi, gives for the sharp drop in the number of people turning up for physical worship on Sundays post the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ms Evena Nabwire, the communications officer of the premier Anglican Church of Kenya worship centre, said on Friday in an interview with Nation.Africa that many factors are at play.
“When we do our tally, we have lost members. Members transfer. Members relocate. Members pass away,” she admitted.
She was responding to data in the cathedral’s 2022 report which shows that, in the year when in-person worship returned fully, the number of those who went to the church for Sunday services dropped from an average of 275,000 annually between 2017 and 2019 to 160,000 last year.
The report said in part: “Physical service attendance has been relatively stable even though … more than half of those that had been congregating physically have not resumed.”
“It is a whole spectrum; it’s not just Covid per se; there are other demographic factors,” she said.
She explained that the church has had a sustained programme of broadcasting its services online, noting that the number of online attendants should be considered when calculating the total figure of the congregation.
The cathedral’s annual report says the total online viewing in 2021 was 230,444.
That number dropped to 22,062 in 2022, the first full year since 2019 to have no church closure as a result of Covid-19. The main Sunday service of the church is also aired on KBC and TV47, besides being broadcast on the church’s Facebook and YouTube channels.
“The Church has found itself in a space where it no longer only caters for a physical audience. It is also catering for the online one,” Ms Nabwire explained.
“Ministries have found themselves working for two different congregations: an online one and a physical one. And at the end of the day, all of these are your congregants. When you’re doing that tally, you will add the online numbers to the physical ones because you have ministered to the two segments,” she added.
She went on: “Sometimes the physical attendance is dropping not because we’re not doing enough but just because they are embracing the online side. So, whatever numbers we are losing on the physical are maybe being absorbed online. So, it’s not like we are losing them completely.”
After Nation.Africa’s earlier story on the drop in attendance at All Saints’ Cathedral and a number of city churches, Kenyans on social media gave various factors for the decline.
Elly O stated on NTV’s Facebook page that many churches ask for contributions at a time when the economy is hurting, making believers stay away.
Winnie W wrote: “We stream live on TV, send tithe on M-Pesa and move forward.”
Wagura W observed: “It’s the realisation of the unanswered questions in the Christian religion. People are becoming woke by the day.”
Saint P posted: “There is no money. Going to church is now (more) expensive than going to the club.”
We asked Ms Nabwire what All Saints is doing to keep young people interested in worship. She explained that to bring some of them back, the church is engaging in a cell group method.
“We reach them directly through cell groups, which incorporate people in certain areas for instance Lavington or whichever estate they are in. In those cell groups, we are able to reach you and find out why you didn’t come, if you are okay, if everything is okay, if there are any challenges. That is the point where the church can go, then you have to make a decision of coming or you say, ‘No, I’m just okay with online.’ But we do reach them out through the cell groups, we do fellowship with them. It’s not like if someone fails to come, we don’t do a follow-up. We are still able to reach these people at a cell group level,” she explained.
And regarding the theory that Nairobi residents have turned away from God due to having better lives and “seeing no need to pray”, Ms Nabwire said it is all about the foundation.
“If your foundation is right and you know that silver and gold are not yours, they belong to some other person who can easily take them away,” she noted, using a biblical analogy.
Meanwhile, the cathedral’s report indicates that the income from main services is on a steady rise since declining in 2020. However, it is yet to reach the pre-Covid figures.
Main services brought in Sh191 million in 2022 compared with Sh181.7 million in 2021 and Sh167.1 million in 2020.
