Posted on 11/22/2013 6:43:22 PM PST by marshmallow
Only 1.5% of the English population attends Anglican Sunday services, and a former Archbishop of Canterbury gives the church just one more generation before extinction. How did this happen?
Christianity is dead in England - or at least it could be in a generation, says former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey.
“In many parts of Britain churches are struggling, some priests are diffident and lack confidence; a feeling of defeat is around. [...] The burden seems heavy and joy in ministry has been replaced by a feeling of heaviness.”
His comments come in response to a report given atthe Anglican Church’s recent General Synod which warned that shrinking congregations are an existential threat to the centuries-old national institution. According to the report, only 807,000 Englishmen attend Anglican services on a typical Sunday. That number represents just 1.5% of England’s population of 53 million.
In the land that built the beautiful Westminster Abbey, helped evangelize Europe, and inspired the Inklings, what went wrong?
The Irrelevance of Relevance
“[T]he Church of England is dying because it has opted for the course taken by liberal Protestantism,” says Paul Gondreau, Professor of Theology at Providence College, “which is to say a course that conforms itself more and more to the modern secular world.”
(Excerpt) Read more at aleteia.org ...
From the progressive point of view, nothing went wrong.
There are a lot of Muslims in the Leeds, Birmingham area too.
The decline started when the English started ridiculing Queen Victoria for her strong faith. It has never stopped.
You’re right and that is the precise reason the Catholic Church has lasted 2,000 years.
If a king of France could say “Paris is worth a mass”, I guess an Englishman could say hedonism means everything now.
England is dead, English culture will soon follow, and you are correct in identifying the cause.
And the number is only going to rise until it turns into Londonistan.
What I wonder is how they pay their bills given this lack of worshipers? I wondered if as the Church of England they get a subsidy from the government, but that does not seem to be it. What I found on line suggested given to them is up a good amount.
Then I wondered if they were selling off assets all the time, but if so what I found was not transparent about that. Now I am wondering if the giving increase are mostly bequests from a dying group of believers they are not replacing? It is very curious to me that the economics of this church has not forced it to change.
Fathers were not with their families for long periods of time, and some never returned at all, so their kids missed out on that strong influence. Mothers tried hard to hold down the fort, and they may have done, economically, but spiritually, they got tired, and without back up, it's easy to let things slide.
What you said about England could be said for Europe in general, so many of the best men of England, France, Germany, etc. wiped out in those two wars. Europe will never completely recover from those wars.
Interesting parallel to the Byzantine/Persian wars of the 7th century, which weakened both empires and opened the way for Moslem expansion.
Can anyone say, “Gay.”
They suppressed the truth of God in their unrighteousness. They traded the truth for a lie, the Creator for the creation. They decided they no longer wanted God and in his wrath he gave them what they asked for. He gave them over to the depth of the depravity which lies in the hearts of all men. He removed his common grace and they began the long spiral into more and more sin and self. It is the ultimate fate of all civilizations and it is happening here also, we just aren’t as far down the spiral as England it. There is a way that seems right to men but its end is death.
Gay and female pastors, tithing which is not a Christian doctrine, the Sunday Sabbath,every thing except the gospel.
Rev 12
3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.
4 His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.
We here in the U.S. have freedom of religion, does that mean that we have to make Jesus ( Christianity ) into a religion?
Jesus said that his truth would be taught in all of the world as a witness to men and then the end would come.
Teaching that truth is our job, not teaching religion, the fiery red dragon don,t need any help on that.
“Gay” is a PC word that sodomites coopted to try and make normal people believe they are exactly like the rest of us, instead of being mentally deranged sexual deviates. I refuse to use the phrase, which for years meant nothing more than happy go-lucky. The majority of sodomites are anything but happy and most are miserable because they know their sexual deviancy if wrong and they refuse to admit it; lashing out at anyone that suggest they need God in their lives.
I agree completely but am reticent to use the word that truly applies.
I agree completely but am reticent to use the word that truly applies.
ENGLAND? Nope. The Irish and Welsh yes, but not the English...
The Catholic Church is doing well — churches overflowing with the young. There are a few Baptist Churches that are also full. And the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox are also large.
I’m an OT believer. ‘About to go to SC to visit granddaughter and family. One Sunday I’ll visit their Missouri Synod Lutheran church, and the next I’m going to a “mega-church” with one of daughter’s co-workers.
I love the idea of fellowship within these. But I’m still an OT believer.
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