Posted on 07/14/2011 6:09:32 AM PDT by Cronos
The Church of England will no longer be functionally extant in 20 years time according to some projections, a member of the General Synod has warned.
The Rev Dr Patrick Richmond, from Norwich, told members of the Churchs national assembly that they were facing a perfect storm of ageing congregations and falling clergy numbers.
The average age of congregations was 61, with many above that, he said.
These congregations will be led by fewer and fewer stipendiary clergy ... 2020 apparently is when our congregations start falling through the floor because of just natural wastage, that is people dying.
Another 10 years on, some extrapolations put the Church of England as no longer functionally extant at all.
The first Church Estates Commissioner Andreas Whittam Smith said the demographic time bomb of 2020 for Anglicans was a crisis,
One problem may be that decline is so slow and imperceptible that we dont really see it coming clearly enough, he said.
We know about it in theory but we dont really know about it in practice.
He added: I wish that all of us would have a sense of real crisis about this.
(Excerpt) Read more at yorkshirepost.co.uk ...
“The average age of congregations was 61, with many above that, he said.”
Um, I’m guessing that about half are above that and half are below 61.
i’m her 8th old man named Henery, Henery the VIIIth I am
Leftist ideologies mixed with theology leads to heresies. The Anglican church has been wracked by heresies for 40 years or more. The death of this church will be a deserved one as they have largely left Christ behind and picked up the torch of social justice. (The same can be said of several other mainline churches.)
Maybe being the first Christian denomination to cave on contraception back in 1930 wasn’t such a good idea after all ...
If being socially relevant is your goal, you will become socially-irrelevant.
And within a hundred years that denomination disappears
“These congregations will be led by fewer and fewer stipendiary clergy...”
What does ‘stipendiary clergy’ mean? Government-paid clergy?
If you look at the Lutheran ELCA churches people are leaving them like no tomorrow because they are so Leftist.
Well, when the UK and the rest of Europe separated themselves from spiritual belief and decided to embrace secularism, it left the vacuum that nature so abhors.
Not hard to guess who’s stepping up to fill that spiritual vacuum.
Bingo. We couldn’t leave our old ELCA church fast enough. The Music Director (who was gay) thought it was hysterical that the church next to the meeting hall where the ELCA bigwigs decided to allow Gay and Lesbian clergy got hit by lightning within hours of the decision.
That Church has become one big leftist social club.
and Russia is returning in droves back to Christianity.
did you join the LCMS, if I might add? I think it’s a very conservative Lutheran Church, no gay pastors, no pastoresses, no nonsense.
Another 10 years on, some extrapolations put the Church of England as no longer functionally extant at all.
Maybe because they use words like “extant” instead of presenting relevant teaching in normal English to a younger population. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a place for churchy language, but not when you’re trying to make a point to the world at large.
Exactly. By giving away to every PC social issue they have resigned themselves to moral ambiguity.
“Do you own thing, Man. It’s cool. Who am I to judge your behavior as good or evil. In fact, it’s not necessary to go to church or even bring you children up with a religious education”
that’s something I think about too — I think we need to retain the beauty and prayerfulness of the original liturgy, but sermons or discussing like this “extant” are not “churchy” language, rather a lame attempt at obfuscation by utilizing obscure words
Maybe being the first Christian denomination to cave on contraception back in 1930 wasnt such a good idea after all ...ROTFLMAO! So caving on contraception is the culprit? LOL!
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