the state has taken over many of the functions that the church used to perform, whereas religion once pervaded to the private sphere of the individual and the family
the clergy- one measure of the institutional weakness of the churches is the number of clergy, during the 20th century this fell from 45,000 to 34,000, had it kept pace with the population growth the clergy would now number over 80,000
the number of catholic priests fell by a third between 1965 and 2011
the clergy are also an ageing workforce, only 12% of Anglican clergy are under 40, as a result churches have reached a tipping point with a sharp decline in the number of clergy to be expected in near future
Woodhead says- to put is bluntly there are no longer enough troupers left to keep the show on the road
Bruce agrees with Wilson that all the evidence of secularisation has now been pointing in the same direction for many years