Path to extinction

Source: Church Growth Modelling 8 July 2015

"The Bishop of Monmouth-elect, the Ven. Cherry Vann, said that it would be a 'sad day if all the focus on growth was just about numbers', but that 'we can’t ignore the fact that church congregations, generally speaking, are either stable or declining'." - Twitter @ChurchTimes

Cherry Van is right on course to discover far more about decline when she takes her notion of stability to Wales.

The Church in Wales is heading for extinction in around 20 years time along with the Episcopal Church of Scotland and the US Episcopal Church. Fortunately for her and her liberal colleagues she will have retired before the collapse leaving others to sort out the mess the 'progressives' have created.

Decline continues as traditional roles are overturned. Over the last couple of decades, women have been leaving mainstream Christian churches at about twice the rate of men while more women than men are entering clergy training in the Church of England.

Promised benefits of the ordination of women have not just failed to materialise, they have been reversed.

In 1993 when Michael Alison (Second Church Estates Commissioner, representing the Church Commissioners) moved, That the Priests (Ordination of Women) Measure, passed by the General Synod of the Church of England, be presented to Her Majesty for her Royal Assent, he said:

"For those millions of people, the Church of England, with its formal state link, is a kind of valuable stalking horse by which they can bring pressure to bear on the powers that be to promote or to maintain Christian standards in education, complex moral and ethical issues, and so on."

Instead we have bishops who advocate same-sex marriage in Church and appear oblivious to the dangers of confusing children by spreading LGBT propaganda in primary schools in the guise of sex education.

In 2015 the Church Growth Modelling blog forecast that attendance figures for the Church in Wales, the Scottish Episcopal Church and the Episcopal Church of the USA (TEC), indicated extinction dates around 2040. The Church of England was "on the margins of extinction with some calibrations say yes, just; some say no, just."

The liberal leaning Canadian Episcopal Church must be added to the list.

Regular attendance figures from Canada show that the Anglican Church of Canada (ACC) is in serious trouble, "running out of members in little more than two decades if the church continues to decline at its current rate". Statistics for 2017 indicate that average Sunday attendance has dropped to 97,421. The rate of decline is increasing suggesting an extinction date also of 2040 based on 'five different methodologies'. Figures for baptism, confirmation, marriage and funerals show an even faster rate of decline.

There is a common factor. Churches that have adopted liberal programs are in decline while conservative Protestant churches which take a more literal view of the Bible continue to thrive.

On his retirement the Archbishop of Wales reflected that he had supported numerous secular causes, including gay marriage. He has also backed women clergy during his 'leadership'. Commenting on the consecration of the Church in Wales' first female bishop he said: "I think that was pretty important as a matter of justice, as a matter of equality and as a matter of doing what was right".

No theology; pure secularism.

On gay marriage, Dr Morgan had previously called for the church's view on same-sex marriage to change with popular opinion adding "That's quite something, I think, in a church that hasn't always been known for its liberalism."

The Anglican Church is now soaked in liberalism and heading for disaster. Liberals have what they want at the price of extinction.

In Wales, Membership and Finance figures for 2018 show "continued decline in most measures of participation in parish life." Regular Sunday attendance has sunk to 26,110 or 0.8% of the population. The political appointment of Ms Vann to the position of bishop of Monmouth has been welcomed by liberals who no longer see the traditional teaching of the Church as relevant.

In the Church of Ireland clergy have objected to the appointment of a conservative bishop because of his membership of the Global Anglican Future Conference (GAFCON). These clergy believe that GAFCON’s policies "are 'antithetical' to the principles a Church of Ireland bishop must commit to in the rite of consecration. These include 'fostering unity, care for the oppressed, and building up the people of God in all their spiritual and sexual diversity'" showing how far many Anglicans have strayed like lost sheep.

This from Church Times illustrates how absurd the liberal position has become in undermining traditional beliefs: The Dean of Waterford, the Very Revd Maria Jansson, told The Irish Times that "the Bishops’ attendance at GAFCON had undermined unity within the Church. 'How can Bishops Harold Miller and Ferran Glenfield reconcile the vows they made at their consecrations as bishops ‘to maintain and further the unity of the Church’ with their support of GAFCON, which stridently endeavours to undermine that very unity?', she asked."

More to the point, how can liberally progressive bishops reconcile their vows to maintaining the unity of the Church when they represent a small and shrinking percentage of the 87 million Anglicans worldwide?

The Church is in crisis. Only 2% of young adults identify as C of E. 

Interlopers have changed the Anglican Church to satisfy their own desires, driving forward an agenda to validate a lifestyle incompatible with the Gospel.

From Virtue Online: "Progressive Pansexualist 'Christians' have declared war on orthodox believers. Their goal is not mere acceptance, but to overthrow the moral order and destroy conservative churches who hold the line on faith and morals."

What we are left with is not Christianity but Churchianity and it is spreading.

Anglicans often described themselves as “Episcopally led and Synodically governed.” That is fine so long as bishops remain guardians of the faith but many are in the forefront of aggressive change, putting 'progressive' provinces at odds with mainstream Anglicanism.

Now Pope Francis is calling for a 'synodal' Church giving progressive Catholic bishops a similar platform to Anglican bishops for driving forward change with claims of being moved by the Holy Spirit.

Is there no end to this madness?

Two faced

Who would have thought it? The Prime Minister, David Cameron has been accused of a 'broken promise' as gay couples told they can marry in church". Tut tut; the Archbishops, guardians of our moral values are not at all pleased. But to be fair to them, they are experts in their field. The broken promises over the ordination of women, calls to fix voting procedures when they don't like the result, vilifying the opposition has all become part of New Anglicanism. Too bad they cannot rig Parliament so the bishops will have to live with the consequences of their actions.

My wife and I were reflecting earlier today on the changes we have experienced in a generation. Gone is the calm assurance that the church is just there, standing firm against the whiles of the devil, looking to the moral fibre of the nation and providing  comfort in time of need. Instead we have angst, betrayal and exclusion, often by people 'new to faith' who have no understanding of the word let alone of the theology of the minority they like to criticise as misogynistic bigots, a term now used by enthusiasts for same sex marriage. After every disaster covered by television church doors are opened, nightlight candles appear everywhere, hymns are sung and 'the minister' has some trite comments to make before everyone trots back home forgetting about church until the next rite of passage.

That rite of passage increasingly looks as if it will be same sex couples exercising their right to be 'married' in the Parish Church despite Mr Cameron's protestations. Once the European Court of Human Rights has been visited by activists that will be the end of the matter. One of those shouting loudest to complain from the sidelines is Mrs Thatcher's placement, Abp George Carey. Constantly screaming 'foul', it is he who bears much of the responsibility for the mess we are in. Whatever your views on the ordination of women, it is inescapable that church attendance is dropping at a quickening rate, the authority of the church has diminished and teaching, such as it is, has in many churches more to do with civil rights and relating to society today than with teaching the faith as it has been handed down over the centuries. Instead of guiding the church along the path to unity, the Archbishops and bishops have set the Anglican church apart from the Apostolic church to which we belong. 

Creeping changes in the church represented as small steps at the time have left us mired in controversy. Tolerance has been repaid with vindictiveness in the process of allowing deaconess to become deacon, deacon to be ordained priest and now, priest to bishop. This process has been mirrored in society. Tolerance of minorities in the interests of so-called equal rights has become a hammer to bludgeon anyone who dares to speak their mind. The bishops are reaping what they have sown in their objections to the abhorrent proposal to redefine marriage. They are correct in their objection but they have lost their moral authority. Even if the Government had a mandate, which it does not, it would be contrary to natural law which binds a man and a woman together in the act of procreation without which neither same sex nor complementary sex couples would exist. 

The problems we are experiencing in society first manifested themselves when we turned away from the teaching of the universal church. Consequently we have lost not only the moral authority but the sympathy of those who identify themselves as Anglican for census purposes but who, in the main, have lost any sense of its meaning. This could not be more stark than in The Episcopal Church of the United States (TEC) where the Presiding Bishop is disregarding Canon Law as she punishes bishops and priests for remaining true to the Gospel. The American Anglican Council (AAC) reported 'illegal acts' to the Church of England in February 2010 after the Holy Orders of 152 priests and deacons and 9 bishops had been renounced by TEC but to no avail. The ACC is now appealing to leaders of the Anglican Communion for help but the Church of England is impotent because she is heading in the same direction as TEC.

The House of Bishops meets next week. They MUST apply the brake and take stock of what is happening in the Anglican church and in the society they strive to emulate rather than set an example. They cannot face both ways being liberal on the one hand and conservative on the other. They must face the truth.