Former C of E head says tide is turning against the church
-14/10/04
Christianity in Britain must get its act together or face the ìlast ritesî, according to a tough-minded assessment of the churchesí future issued by Lord Carey, a former archbishop of Canterbury, on Tuesday.
Dr Carey declared that some churches are declining so seriously that they would have been declared bankrupt long ago if they were businesses.
Talking of a ìmeltdownî, Dr Carey spoke of a Church ìthat is running out of cash and spending it on buildings, that has lost its vision and is becoming a club for the elderly.î
But the ex-archbishop, who has annoyed some in the C of E by declining to keep a low profile, still backed his successorís ëmission shaped churchí and ëfresh expressionsí initiatives.
However he blamed the clergyís lack of support for the failure of his own attempts to revive the Church in the 1990s, and warned Dr Rowan Williams to tackle complacency or face the same fate.
It was important, Lord Carey declared, that the Church did not ìthrow up its hands in despairî.
The former archbishop said that all Christian denominations had been facing plunging congregations. ìNo Anglican can be satisfied that only one in 50 people attend this national Church,î he told his audience at St Michaelís, Amersham-on-the-Hill.
Dr Carey cited the 2001 census in which 72 percent of the population in UK called themselves Christian and said a ìdeep allegianceî between nation and Church still remains.
However this view has been criticised by academics, researchers and those who believe that the establishment of the Church of England is part of its problem, encouraging a ësettlerí mentality.
According to a recent issue of Christian Researchís journal Religious Trends, the churches may be heading for extinction by 2040 ñ with just two per cent of the population attending Sunday services and the average age of congregations rising to 64.
The organization forecasts that in 35 years there will be twice as many Muslims in mosques on Fridays as Christians worshipping on Sundays.
The special report, ëThe Future of the Churchí, says total membership of all the denominations will fall from 9.4 per cent of the population to under five per cent by 2040, and 18,000 more churches will close.
Black churches, Baptists and evangelical/Pentecostal groups and more radical ëemergentí initiatives are among those who have been bucking the trend.
Dr Carey is not the first senior church leader to point out its plight. The Anglican Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, has done so on several occasions.
And in September 2001 the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy OíConnor, told a conference of priests in Leeds that traditional Christian faith could be vanquished unless they took their vocation seriously.
Meanwhile Ekklesia associate and theologian Theo Hobson suggested in July 2005 that institutional church needed to be replaced by something much more spontaneous and dynamic.
[Also available from Ekklesia: Against establishment: An Anglican Polemic and Anarchy, Church and Utopia: Rowan Williams on Church, both by Theo Hobson.]
Former C of E head says tide is turning against the church
-14/10/04
Christianity in Britain must get its act together or face the ‘last rites’, according to a tough-minded assessment of the churches’ future issued by Lord Carey, a former archbishop of Canterbury, on Tuesday.
Dr Carey declared that some churches are declining so seriously that they would have been declared bankrupt long ago if they were businesses.
Talking of a ‘meltdown’, Dr Carey spoke of a Church ‘that is running out of cash and spending it on buildings, that has lost its vision and is becoming a club for the elderly.’
But the ex-archbishop, who has annoyed some in the C of E by declining to keep a low profile, still backed his successor’s ëmission shaped church’ and ëfresh expressions’ initiatives.
However he blamed the clergy’s lack of support for the failure of his own attempts to revive the Church in the 1990s, and warned Dr Rowan Williams to tackle complacency or face the same fate.
It was important, Lord Carey declared, that the Church did not ‘throw up its hands in despair’.
The former archbishop said that all Christian denominations had been facing plunging congregations. ‘No Anglican can be satisfied that only one in 50 people attend this national Church,’ he told his audience at St Michael’s, Amersham-on-the-Hill.
Dr Carey cited the 2001 census in which 72 percent of the population in UK called themselves Christian and said a ‘deep allegiance’ between nation and Church still remains.
However this view has been criticised by academics, researchers and those who believe that the establishment of the Church of England is part of its problem, encouraging a ësettler’ mentality.
According to a recent issue of Christian Research’s journal Religious Trends, the churches may be heading for extinction by 2040 – with just two per cent of the population attending Sunday services and the average age of congregations rising to 64.
The organization forecasts that in 35 years there will be twice as many Muslims in mosques on Fridays as Christians worshipping on Sundays.
The special report, ëThe Future of the Church’, says total membership of all the denominations will fall from 9.4 per cent of the population to under five per cent by 2040, and 18,000 more churches will close.
Black churches, Baptists and evangelical/Pentecostal groups and more radical ëemergent’ initiatives are among those who have been bucking the trend.
Dr Carey is not the first senior church leader to point out its plight. The Anglican Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch, has done so on several occasions.
And in September 2001 the head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, told a conference of priests in Leeds that traditional Christian faith could be vanquished unless they took their vocation seriously.
Meanwhile Ekklesia associate and theologian Theo Hobson suggested in July 2005 that institutional church needed to be replaced by something much more spontaneous and dynamic.
[Also available from Ekklesia: Against establishment: An Anglican Polemic and Anarchy, Church and Utopia: Rowan Williams on Church, both by Theo Hobson.]