ITEMS OF INTEREST May 1, 2006 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

with contributions from Ben Gelinas, R. Scott Macintosh, Chris Herlinger

"ORGANIZED RELIGION is making a comeback after years in decline. This is according to Reginald Bibby, a sociologist at the University of Lethbridge [Alberta] who spent 25 years chronicling the demise of traditional congregations.

"'There's new life in churches,' Bibby told a crowd of 80 United Church members, Anglicans, Baptists, Unitarians, Presbyterians, Catholics, and agnostics [April 1] at McDougall United Church [in Edmonton]. Churches are doing a better job of fulfilling people's spiritual needs these days, he said....

"Most who were ignoring their church kept their faith, Bibby said. 'Relatively few people were actually abandoning their religion. They just weren't showing up as much.' In the last five years, the number of consistent churchgoers has increased....

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