The bleak assessment of the future of Anglicanism emerges in a unique study of the role of older women in congregations by Dr Abby Day, a sociologist and expert on religion in society at Goldsmiths, University of London.

She concludes that the full extent of the contribution of the "silver ladies" of parishes, has been consistently underestimated and overlooked, she argues, going far beyond filling the pews on Sunday mornings to organising and facilitating the day-to-day-life of most parishes.

Their absence will, she concludes, trigger an "inevitable acceleration" in the long-running decline in numbers.

In a unique study, Dr Day spent months mixing with the women she calls "Generation A" to assess the role of a key group of churchgoers who, she said, were largely "invisible" in official documents.

Because the women were "uniformly suspicious and tired of surveys", she instead adopted a similar approach as that taken by anthropologists, spending months "immersed in the field", joining them cleaning and serving food or making tea.

But instead of requiring her to live in a remote settlement, her fieldwork involved attending "spring and autumn lunches in churches and village halls; the Queen's Jubilee parties, Christmas parties and private events at people's homes".

The paper, published as part of a new collection of essays entitled "Powers and Pieties", uses sociological terminology to analyse how the women assert their position in the hierarchy through "food rituals".

But she notes: "The types of food prepared or, increasingly, bought as the women's energy faltered, were mainly resonant of that generation: prawn cocktails, coronation chicken, cheese on sticks, trifle."

Visiting Anglican or Episcopal churches in England, Scotland, the US, Canada and Sri Lanka, she was struck by the "startling" similarities from the style of pews and the "near-ubiquitous eagle lectern" to the "same musty, candle-wax, wood-infused smell".

"Those 'silver ladies' were always conservatively dressed, with hair coiffed neatly in the sort of style rendered by weekly visits to the hairdresser using curlers and big hood hairdryers," she observed.

"The natural, blow-dried look favoured by their daughters and granddaughters was never theirs."

"Those 'silver ladies' were always conservatively dressed, with hair coiffed neatly in the sort of style rendered by weekly visits to the hairdresser using curlers and big hood hairdryers."

And in each place, they played the same central role going far beyond providing the bulk of congregations at services.

"They -- even in their 80s -- clean the church, wash the vestments, polish the brasses, organise bring-and-buy sales or jumbles, bake cakes and visit vulnerable people in their homes.

"Their often invisible labour not only populates the physical space of the church, it ensures its continuity and enriches surrounding communities."

She adds: "Generation A is irreplaceable and unique ... when this generation finally disappears within the next five to 10 years, its knowledge, insights and experiences will be lost forever."

Crucially, she concludes, that the real root of the Church of England's demise is not its failure to attract 21st century young people, but a failure by the oldest generation to retain their own children in the church.

"Counterintuitively, the church's emphasis on attracting young people has been wholly misplaced: it is the 'middle' generation they should have retained, the baby-boomer sons and daughters of Generation A who left in large numbers and, in turn, failed to socialise their children into churchgoing beliefs and behaviours."

She remarks: "Generation A is unique and its passing signals an inevitable acceleration of the decline of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion of the global North ... [it] may well be the final active generation in the Church of England and, potentially, in wider sections of 'mainstream' Christianity that have depended on their labour."

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