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Future of religion bright in Canada
6-02-2015
Ignore those doomsday forecasts, says Reg Bibby. The future for religious groups in Canada is “very bright.”
But not all will prosper, he told an audience at the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs, Thursday. Catholics’ numbers will grow, Bibby said, and so will the numbers of Canadians embracing Islam and some other world faiths.
There’s also millions of Canadians who don’t attend church – but would if they found more reasons to participate, he pointed out.
“About 60 per cent would be open to greater involvement if they thought it would be worthwhile,” he said. “What groups will service that market?”
New research is underway to see what might motivate those fence-sitters, he reported.
Bibby, the Board of Governors Research Chair at the University of Lethbridge, has been tracking religious and social trends across Canada since the 1980s. Author of numerous books and studies, he’s working on a new volume updating his more recent studies – and another on the state of the Catholic faith in Canada.
“Don’t fear for the future of religion in Canada,” Bibby said. Most Canadians value their faith, even if they only attend major celebrations like Christmas and Easter.
Even in Quebec, where record low numbers of Catholics attend services, he said studies show 97 per cent of the no-show Catholics say they’d never consider a different Christian church.
“It’s a hard sell for Protestant missionaries,” he observed.
But it’s immigration, not missionary enterprise, that’s swelling the ranks for Catholics and a handful of others, he said. The majority of newcomers are not arriving here from northern Europe, the United Kingdom or other nations where Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians and other historically significant denominations have their roots.
That’s why “mainstream” Protestant numbers in Canada are continuing to decline. In response to that, Bibby said, there’s active interest in ecumenical activity and even “brand” amalgamation.
“We need a new United Church of Canada to bring all the ‘mainliners’ together,” he suggested, alluding to the historic merger of the nation’s Methodists, Congregationalists and Presbyterians in 1925.
Despite reports of their demise, Bibby said, the nation’s churches and other places of worship attract 17 per cent of the population to their services weekly, another 11 per cent at least once a month, plus another 28 per cent once or twice a year.
Responding to questions, Bibby said there’s little evidence that the level of income affects church affiliation or attendance in Canada. Previously, pentecostal groups here – as in the U.S. – were believed to have the greatest appeal to lower-income families.
At the same time, he said, there’s nothing to show that immigrants bringing their non-Christian faith here are any more fervent than others.
“Globally, you see the same variations,” Bibby said.
“There are people who embrace or reject (their family’s beliefs) and those in the middle.”
Among younger Canadians, Bibby reported, there’s much greater acceptance of people from other faith traditions – no matter how recently their families came here.
“They were born into a nation where pluralism is the norm.”
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