‘Wouldn’t it be nice if more people came to church!” This thought must have been in the minds of many church leaders and churchgoers over the last 100 years. Be careful what you wish for! There was indeed a time when many people came, and it produced as many problems as are now caused by their absence.

From about the 900s, when a network of local churches began to spring up, lay people were encouraged to come to the one in whose parish they lived. By about the 1200s, the Church was establishing a disciplinary system which aimed to enforce church attendance on Sundays and about 40 festival days: around a hundred days in the year. Enforcement continued through the Reformation and, after falling apart during the Civil War, reappeared under Charles II. Only in 1689, with the passing of the Toleration Act, did compulsory church attendance come to an end.