Love Matters For Single People in the Church

The Church of England Commission on Families and Households yesterday published its ‘Love Matters’ report.

One of the report’s 5 stated ambitions is to ‘Honour singleness and single person households.’Single Friendly Church welcomes the acknowledgement that the position of single people in church requires a new focus from the Church of England. 

Single Friendly Church has been working effectively with churches for 10 years to address this issue. The organisation was established after researching the perspectives of thousands of single Christians. It provides practical resources and training to help churches welcome, value and include single people. Single Friendly Church are referenced in the full Love Matters Report on pages 50-51.

Over 400 churches have already committed to undertake an audit of their response to single people. Single Friendly Church is building a network of Single Friendly Churches across the UK who have completed our audit and are committed to making positive changes in their churches. Our vision is for all churches to welcome, value and include single people of all ages and circumstances.40% of UK adults are single. On average 27% of UK households are single person households.  

Half of single adults are over 37.5 years of age.  Singleness is growing fastest in the 50-65 age group

Mike Simpson of Single Friendly Church says, “The recognition by the Church of England that they haven’t been doing enough for single people is long overdue. We are grateful that the report acknowledges the work of Single Friendly Church over the last decade, but the aspirations expressed need to be translated into meaningful actions. We believe all churches would benefit from practical support to welcome and include single people. We are ready to support churches responding to this challenge.”Single Friendly Church was set up in response to research commissioned by UK dating site Christian Connection. Findings from 3,000 single Christians showed many felt isolated, invisible and misunderstood by their churches. SFC provides resources and training for churches to change this narrative.
For more information see www.singlefriendlychurch.com