Many have the impression that United Church people are more public spirited than average in Canada. Such an impression might be due to the strong and sometimes controversial stands taken by the Church on social justice issues. Well now we have abundant evidence that greater involvement is indeed the case. Of 48 indicators of community involvement, 40 of the indicators for United Church affiliates exceeds those of Canadians generally – see the table, first column. They are twice as inclined as the Canadian average to volunteer in environmental and religious organizations, and over 50% more likely to volunteer in health organizations and to donate money to environmental organizations. They are between 26% and 48% more inclined to involve themselves in ten other ways, including overall volunteering, membership in civic and political associations, donating to food banks and to health and social services organizations, and visiting the elderly informally. On a per donor basis, they donate 29% more money to charity than the Canadian average.

Some of the intensities of involvement, however, are on the weak side. The hours volunteered per volunteer in the health, education and social services sectors is slightly below the Canadian average; and 17% and 23% below the Canadian averages in the environment and religion sectors, respectively. Also, the dollars donated per year to social services organizations are just below the average, and 18% below the average for education organizations. Overall, however, United Church volunteers contribute the same number of hours as all Canadians, and, as noted above, their total donations to charity exceed the Canadian average by a wide margin.

The 1991 census shows 3,093,120 United Church affiliates, 11.5% of the population, including 165,755 immigrants, 13% of immigrants, and 2,630 non-permanent residents, 1.2% of non-permanent residents. Religion data from the 2001 census will be available in 2003.

If we look at just the regular church attenders, those who attend either weekly or monthly, a similar picture emerges. Again, the United Church people outperform the Canadian average in most of the community involvements, 41 of the 48 (table, second column). They are well over twice as inclined to volunteer in and donate to environmental organizations (2.6% volunteer versus 1% in Canada, and 10% donate versus 4.4% in Canada). They are over 25% more inclined than the Canadian average to be a volunteer, and to volunteer in religious, social service, health and education organizations, to be a charitable donor, and to donate to health, social service, and education organizations, and to donate to food banks. These contributions are impressive but represent only some of the many ways United Church affiliates are more committed to their community than the average Canadian. The United Church regular attenders are only weak, compared with the Canadian average, in some of the intensities of involvement: hours volunteered per volunteer, hours volunteered per social service, religion and education volunteer, and dollars donated per donor to environmental and educational organizations.

One community involvement is not noted in the table, though it is not without interest: church attendance. In the survey used in this study, 18% of the United Church affiliates report weekly attendance, 2 percentage points less than the Canadian average, which includes many with no religion, and 9 points less than the Christian population (see the chart). By way of contrast, some 31% of non-Christians and English Catholics attend religious services weekly, 50% of Baptists, and 60% of Pentecostals. The weekly rate of French Catholics is about the same as the United Church rate. The United Church weekly rate is slightly higher, however, than the rate for Anglicans, Lutherans and Presbyterians. A recent book, Acts of Faith, by Rodney Stark and Rodger Fink, analyses why the liberal faith communities have lower rates of attendance than the conservative faiths, and concludes that it is mainly because of the perceived benefit-cost ratios. The cost of membership is higher in the conservative faiths, they argue, but the perceived benefits too are greater, and are thought to outweigh the cost by a wider margin than in the liberal faiths. It would be tempting to also attribute the lower rates of church attendance to an over-emphasis on good works, in contrast to faith development, except for the fact that the conservative faiths are not far behind the liberal faiths in terms of many community involvements, and ahead in some areas besides church attendance and rates of volunteering in religious organizations.