A long-serving Church of England bishop predicted recently that the Church of England will cease to exist within a generation.
According to this report, the Right Reverend Paul Richardson said declining church attendance and the rise in multiculturalism meant that “Christian Britain is dead”.
The Church is rapidly declining, with attendances at its services in freefall, a proposal on the table at the next General Synod meeting to cut the number of bishops, and huge holes in its finances due to the economic downturn and a lack of congregants to donate to the collection plate.
Richardson said that the Church had lost more than one in ten of its regular orshippers between 1996 and 2006, with a fall from more than one million to 880,000.
At this rate it is hard to see the church surviving for more than 30 years though few of its leaders are prepared to face that possibility.
While seven in ten people described themselves as “Christian” in the last census, the fall in church marriages and baptisms confirmed that the census could not be taken as a true guide to the situation. Britain was no longer a Christian nation.
The number of babies being baptised has fallen from 609 in every 1,000 at the start of the twentieth century to only 128 in 2006/07 and church marriages have also dropped.
11 comments:
I'd still like a church marriage, though. Do I have to be Christian to do that?
It depends, Katie.
Some vicars restrict weddings in their church to members of the church. Others don't.
Katie, I'll bet a good donation to any church will be enough to get you married, annulled, or whatever you want! :-) Altho I notice that people in England are not as easily bribed as people in the US, so maybe I'm wrong!
Most people plan weddings well in advance these days, and so you could always join a church in advance for the purposes of the wedding.
I dunno. The vicar in our erstwhile home in Hampshire wouldn't marry anyone who hadn't been a regular communicant (sp?) -- I think these restrictions might be lessening recently though.
You should consider the Cathedral of St John the Divine katie. They are open to all sorts of new ideas there and it is an impressive building, and it is Episcopal. But, it is open to all denominations.
Fundamentalist Christians think it is creepy and evil because of the Ghouls March and the Animal Blessing and some other things, but if you got married there you would have one foot in the past and one in the future as you said your vows.
Here, I found a site about St John the Divine I think was probably inspired by the work of a Baptist named Texe Marrs. It's pretty cool, so watch the videos:
http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=241
Yeah, well, if the populations of church drop as expected, he might not have the freedom to pretend his church is not a business.
He's a jerk anyway, Katie wouldn't want to be married by someone like that, would she?
Ah yes, the 70% of Britains who claim they're Christians, yet never go to Church, don't baptize their children, don't get married and never read the Bible.
But they're still Christians! Bahaha, yeah right.
If a Jew is one who is born into a Jewish famisy, regardless of whether (s)he practices, isn't it reasonable to claim to be a Christian using the same sort of logic?
With an established church, it's even easier.
Yippee, any suggestions for how we can put it out of its misery quicker?
re. Weddings, a donation does the trick, 2nd oldest business in the world..
I think St. John the Divine is too cavernous and spooky for a wedding. But the only time I was in it was for the late-night Winter Solstice service/concert---very interesting mix of sacred and secular, and a pagan prayer to the full moon...lots of New Age (well, new back then in 1992) music. I just remember the place being very dark and huge.
But Katie, as a non-believer, why would you want a church wedding? If it's for purely aesthetic reasons, you've got lots of castles and chateaux to choose from over there, that would make suitably gorgeous backdrops for the photographs, and you would simply pay a fee, not make a "donation".
Have a garden wedding at The Vyne, near your former Hampshire home. If you marry a Christian, y'all can always pop into the chapel there and get a quick nuptial blessing. His eyes will be closed in prayer, and won't see you roll yours in disgust!:):)
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