Seniors and Church

The participants surveyed represented eleven different churches of four different denominations. Figure 5 gives the denominational background of the participants. The majority of participants (sixteen) attend United churches, three attend Baptist churches, and the remainder attend Anglican churches – of either the Anglican Network in Canada or the Anglican Church of Canada.

Despite the different denominations represented there was agreement amongst the participants about the importance of church attendance with most respondents (94%) rating church attendance as a vital or important aspect of their faith (see Figure 6).

This factor was also reflected in the regularity of church attendance both before and during the pandemic. Before the pandemic (Figure 7), one hundred percent of respondents attended church services that included singing at least weekly (84%) or even more frequently (16%). Although attendance during the pandemic was much more varied (Figure 8), it is important to note that the question was phrased to ask specifically about services that included singing. Attendance at services that did not include singing was not accounted for in the survey, though several respondents mentioned an increase in the availability of virtual services that did not include singing when responding to open-ended questions. 

Attendance at virtual services that included singing was much more varied (Figure 8) than at in-person servies before the pandemic: 47% of respondents reported attending weekly, while 21% reported never attending an online service that involved singing.

As noted by several participants in the interviews, although in general there were services with less singing, or services where singing was not possible, there was an increase in events that did not invlove singing, for example: spoken services or prayer meetings and other community events that occurred via Zoom or other online platform. One participant even acknowledged that these services helped to fill the void, “making up for some of the music loss.”

Since most churches turned to broadcasting their services via online platforms, the pandemic also meant parishioners had the opportunity to attend services in addition to those offered by the church they regularly attended. Figure 9 shows the frequency with which participants attended these additional services - 74% of participants reported doing so at least monthly, while only 26% reported never doing so.