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Wednesday, March 01, 2006

"The Methodist Church suffered a net loss of about 300 churches, and the Church of England fell by more than 100 during this period.

It follows figures released by the Church of England at the beginning of the year, that showed little sign that its long-term decline was being reversed."

"The headline figures however mask underlying changes which saw more than 1,000 new Christian churches also created.

All the major denominations opened new churches but the biggest growth was among the black Pentecostal churches.

About half of the new congregations were created by the Pentecostal churches, with help from other ethnic minorities such as the Chinese and the Croatians.

New initiatives such as "Fresh Expressions" and other alternative churches, accounted for a fifth of new congregations."