Heading downhill

Statistics can be very depressing.

The blog Church Growth Modelling is written by John Hayward, a mathematician committed to the revival of the Church. It has lots of downward curves.

I find this one particularly interesting: 

In essence, roughly since the end of the First World War (or the Second, in Wales) Anglican Church affiliation in the West has headed south.

Second, the percentage of the population was not that great in the twentieth century, even at peak membership -  just over 10% for the CofE in the 1910s. And membership of the CofE was never the same as regular attendance. As Haywood says: "Churches in the West have never been as popular as they have perceived themselves to be."

And, third, through this century the population has grown significantly. This itself has helped buoy up absolute numbers while disguising the rate of decline.

Statistics are always retrospective. The question is whether, given the background rate of decline in affiliation Christianity, any one Church - or even all of them acting together - can do anything effective to counter a cultural shift.

Strawberry Fête

 

St Hilda's Summer
Strawberry Fête

Saturday 25 July

1.30pm to 3.30pm

Entry £2 - everyone invited 

(Tickets available beforehand and on the door)

Stalls - cakes, jams and jewellery

Raffles and tombola

and, of course,

delicious Strawberry Teas

Doing things differently

Calvert Navvy Mission Sunday School on an outing
in Buckinghamshire. c. 1897 Page 

Christians have never been solely locked into their churches, Some have always been inspired to go out to where people are.

Sometimes this means going to where people physically are. The Navvy Mission, for example, sent missionaries out to the gangs of men building canals across Britain. Admittedly they only really got  going at the end of the canal building boom but they quickly adapted to serving those building the railways.

The mobile chapel of the
South African Railway Mission

And in South Africa, in the early 20th century, distances were great and missionaries few. So the South Africa Railway Mission fitted out a railway wagon as a chapel and took it to whichever towns and villages the railway reached.

A modern mobile Chapel

Transport for Christ is a modern expression of the impulse behind the Navvy and  Railway Missions. On the basis that Christian Truckers can't get to church regularly, they take church to them with mobile chapels and chaplains. Guardian Article.

This missionary instinct to go to where people also applies to those seeking to engage people where they are emotionally, culturally, intellectually. It was what got Shleiermacher into such trouble with On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers (1799).

The Haven-London launched 

in celebration of the creative industries

The Diocese of London has set up Capital Vision 2020: a strategy for the Diocese in the coming decade. One part of which is to engage with the creative industries in the city. It has launched the Haven-London intended to "offer a physical space within London for contemplation, connection and inspiration, where those of faith and those working within the creative industries can engage together."

Christian adherence may be falling  in the UK, not least in the Church of England, but it retains both vitality and an irrepressible optimism. The Church of England may not be in good health but reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.

Prayers released ahead of Friday's minute silence for victims of Tunisia shootings

Prayers released ahead of Friday's minute silence for victims of Tunisia shootings

From the Church of England Website. The Church had previously posted prayers for peace following the attack.

Father,
you know our hearts and share our sorrows.
We are hurt by our parting from those whom we loved:
when we are angry at the loss we have sustained,
when we long for words of comfort,
yet find them hard to hear,
turn our grief to truer living,
our affliction to firmer hope
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

***

In the face of violence and fear,
of anxiety and terror
shine as a light, O Lord,
as sign and substance of
peace, hope, trust, assurance and love.
Amen.

Lord, have mercy
on those who mourn
who feel numb and crushed
and are filled with the pain of grief,
whose strength has given up
You know all our sighing and longings:
be near to us and teach us to fix our hope on you
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

***

Lord, do not abandon us in our desolation.
Keep us safe in the midst of trouble,
and complete your purpose for us
through your steadfast love and faithfulness,
in Jesus Christ our Saviour.
Amen.

***

Our eyes, Lord, are wasted with grief;
you know we are weary with groaning.
As we remember our death
in the dark emptiness of the night,
have mercy on us and heal us;
forgive us and take away our fear
through the dying and rising of Jesus your Son.
Amen

Reform and Renewal

Reform and Renewal
These are the latest buzz words of the Church of England. They summarise what  might be an heroic attempt to rebuild and re-orientate the Church: to create a stronger and more missionary church.

The words might signify the beginning of a new Augustinian proclamation of the gospel in a pagan land - the church responding at last to secularization.

Or they might mean merely 'reduce and retrench'.

In broad terms I am very much in favour of the shake up which I think is entailed by 'Reform and Renewal'. I think the Church of England has come to the tail end of the reforms which shook it up in the nineteenth century. That did a lot of good and re-orientated the Church towards the new urban and industrial Britain. But the church created then is wholly unequipped for today's world, let alone tomorrow's. It's a Spy cartoon compared to Wired.

On the other hand, it's very hard to see that this current, top down, reform programme will be sufficient to re-orientate the Church towards the new, digitised, fluid, transnational, anxious and capitalist world.

And it is also very hard to see that any of the streams will be sufficient to the underlying challenge: that fewer and fewer people in the UK are bothered about religion.

(When I googled 'church of england reform and renewal' looking for illustrative images I was given a page dominated by middle-aged white men's heads, most in funny clothes. This does reflect the church, and the leadership of many other English institutions, but it is scarcely inspiring. I went for seeds and seedlings instead.)

Reform and Renewal strands:

Developing Discipleship
Blog / Video / Full Report / Comment Forum

Simplification Report
Blog / Video / Full Report / Comment Forum / Simplification Consultation document

Resourcing Ministerial EducationBlog / Video / Full Report / Comment Forum

Resourcing the Future
Blog / Video / Full Report / Comment Forum

Church Commissioners' and the Task Groups
Blog / Video / Full Report / Comment Forum

Leadership DevelopmentDean of Liverpool blog / Archbishop of Canterbury blog / Note from Bishop of Ely / Full Report