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 The burden seems heavy and joy in ministry has been replaced by a feeling of heaviness.”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 ...
socialism and the destruction of traditional culture.
next question.
It happened because people became self-sufficient. That illusion of self-sufficiency must be unquestionably destroyed in order for them to realize their dependency upon a creator.
Taking Christ and the Bible truths out of any church calling itself Christian condemns it to a sure death.
Living in Britain a few decades ago, my church regularly had 3-4 people in the pews at the Sunday morning service. Socialism and ‘Humanism’ happened in Britain. And now it’s happening here. And people wonder why feral youths are knocking random people down/out for fun.
It started with Condoms and went straight to Gay sex.
That’s what killed it.
What happens in the UK is probably a precursor to what will happen in the USSA. We already have a Marxist atheist POTUS.
Religions that actually stand for something are still growing, those that seek to create a “big tent” however are in terminal decline.
Tale - tell signs that social policy went a rye....and when it crumbles - and it will - what will the socialists control then...Britain needs to stop worrying about God Save the Queen and start worrying about their own behinds!
One word: liberalism.
Wrong-way pews and horrid music killed it.
“Wrong-way pews and horrid music killed it.”
___________________________________________________
Homosexuals and “progressives” killed the once great Episcopal church of the USA. It is so sad.
The 1.5% aren’t even the Godless homosexuals that this denomination decided to cater to. If the Homosexuals just showed up 1.8% of the pews would be full.
When a religion stands for nothing it ceases to be necessary.
Actually, I think it is the COE that is dying. The RC and Protestant churches such as Baptist still have people attending. My daughter lives in the UK. The Anglican churches are empty but others are not. So unless Christianity is only expressed in the CoE then the article is a reach
But yes the issue is that COE responded in exactly the wrong way to a number of issues starting in the late 19th century
when my brother lived in London his church was filled with young people. It was a nondenominational church that didn’t embrace liberal heresy.
When churches embrace and preach the liberal amorality in secular society then I can understand secular people not attending since the church is doing the same thing they are.
The Catholics are not doing quite so badly, in England, according to the article, but their numbers are not large. Are there any other significant PRACTICING Christian denominations in England, at present?
Well, that is good to hear: A glimmer of light and the way out of the darkness, IF the COE would listen. But since they have embraced liberalism and humanism, they probably won’t.
Just think of the stout bowmen of old. Of the toffy upperclass that would face death with a stiff upper lip and a debonair wave of the hand. The Nation that conquered the world and brought civilized values to the four corners.
The importation of millions of strange foreigners with no appreciation for the old values has killed them. The English have rotted from the inside out.
My church was Methodist but out in the hinterlands. I was struck by the lack of religiosity in Britain when I lived there. Maybe in London there are more believers. But the last time we were there, I was shocked at the number of Muslims in London.
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