Collective Production and Aging Women in the Church of England

This Christian Today article describes a serious issue in the Church of England.

The Church of England is facing a demographic time bomb as an entire generation of active lay women is starting to pass away, according to new research.

The research found that the unpaid work in cleaning, furnishing, catering, fundraising, and supporting midweek services by 70,000 older women effectively keeps the church from collapse.

There is no evidence that younger people are coming up to replace them.

In religious congregations that rely heavily on volunteers to contribute towards the production of services, there is an ever-present challenge to replace in the future those individuals that contribute a lot in the present.  We will discuss this particular challenge later in the course when discussing the free-rider problem.  Just what can a religious group do to solve this problem?  And what might have the religious group done incorrectly to put itself in this position?