The Church of England has reported its first ever decline in planned donations since records started being kept, with some leaders pointing to millennials who are not giving as much as previous generations.
According to The Telegraph, figures from the General Synod discussion on the Archbishops’ Council’s budget for 2019 revealed that in 2016, planned giving fell by 0.4 percent, or £1.35 million, which amounts to around $1,786,000.
“We need to address the issue of giving by our millennial generation, the future of the church, but they are saddled with student debt and looking at being unable to buy a house,” said Julie Dziegiel, the treasurer of a parish in the diocese of Oxford.
John Spence, chair of the Archbishops’ Council Finance Committee, also noted that young people are not as likely to attend church compared to previous generations.
“An 81-year-old is eight times more likely to go to church than an 18-year-old. And that’s having its impact on finance. The numbers of people in our planned giving schemes declined by 13 percent since 2010,” Spence argued.
“Their commitment has grown individually by 27 percent or roughly four percent a year, enabling the overall sum to rise by 10 percent,” he added.
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