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| An abandoned church in Newington, Gloucestershire. Photograph: Adrian Sherratt/Alamy Source: Guardian |
Simon Jenkins writes in The Guardian: "The Church of England is panicking about declining congregations – here’s what it should do instead. Too many beautiful church buildings are going to ruin. Councils could run them better. Let them."
But could they? If uncut verges and weed infested streets are anything to go by, perhaps not.
Church mainteneance, particulalry churchyard/burial ground mainteneance will become a serious problem as congregations decline and churches close.
Quoting the Bishop of Chelmsford, Jenkins writes: "The Church of England is in a state of “panic and fear”, of “deep anxiety”, and should stop being obsessed with numbers and face the reality of decline. So says one of its bishops, Guli Francis-Dehqani, of Chelmsford. It’s not hard to see why. Two years ago, as weekly worshippers re-emerged after Covid, church statisticians were desperate to see if they would return at least to their 2019 numbers, when about 854,000 people turned out to church. In 2023, that figure was just 685,000.
"Put another way, 169,000 weekly worshippers have vanished over a four-year period. Fewer people now go to their parish church than attend a local mosque or a Catholic mass. It is all very well for bishops to urge the church to stop worrying over “targets” and “growth” – to leave the planning to God and stick to praying. But the decline in attendance is relentless. At the turn of the century, 1 million people went to church each year; in 1980, the number was 1.3 million. Since cathedral worship is rising, something is clearly going wrong with parish churches, even under the present evangelical archbishop, Justin Welby. It cannot simply be that ever fewer Britons are professing the Christian faith, as is the case across Europe."
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, is the latest to succumb to secular relationship values commenting in a podcast "that all sexual activity should be within a committed relationship and whether it's straight or gay".
That is not to judge the sentiments expressed by the archbishop, that will be left to Another. Rather it is to uphold the principle of traditional Christian marriage.
Secular notions of equality have become paramount. Churches are closing. Welby is treading the same path as the Archbishop of Wales and the Primus of Scotland.
The Bishop of Chelmsford is one of the front runners to replace Just Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury which would tick all of today's important boxes
Church and state leaders appear impotent as the British landscape changes before their eyes.
While churches close mosques spring up blasting out prayers five times a day from 5 AM.
With no churches to go to and an alien culture foisted upon them, Anglicans will be like foreigners in our own land.
