The New Unchurched

The answer to that question tweeted by the Church of England is, for increasing numbers, None.

As church attendance figures decline, the definition 'not belonging to or connected with a church' has come to embrace increasing numbers of former attendees who have been side-lined by revisionists or who feel unable in all conscience to remain in an organisation that they no longer recognise as the Church they joined. 

Some will have conscientious doubts over the ordination of women or unbiblical episcopal oversight while others have been frustrated by the direction in which their Church has been taken to further liberal causes, redefining scripture as revisionists deem necessary to support their case.  

The unchurched has been defined to mean "an adult (18 or older) who has not attended a Christian church service within the past six months" excluding special services such as Easter, Christmas, weddings or funerals. The Barna Group reported that there were 75 million "unchurched people" in the United States as of 2004.

In the US the Episcopal Church (TEC) is facing a major challenge. Virtue Online reports that TEC faces inevitable collapse with 'collaboration plans afoot in many dioceses'. The report continues: "Financial challenges and membership decline are a common concern across TEC. The language is about 'collaboration'. When things get worse, it is called 'juncturing'. When the diocese eventually dies, it is called merging."

The Church of England is in a flap leading Giles Fraser to write in UnHerd in response to Justin Welby's claim in July 2012 that "We don’t preach morality, we plant churches. We don’t preach therapeutic care, we plant churches": 

"The Church is abandoning its flock. The CofE's great leap forward will cull clergy and abandon parishioners.

"The latest Great Leap Forward for the CofE looks like this. Get rid of all those crumbling churches. Get rid of the clergy. Do away with all that expensive theological education. These are all 'limiting factors'. Instead, focus relentlessly on young people. Growth, Young People, Forwards. Purge the church of all those clapped-out clergy pottering about in their parishes. Forget the Eucharist, or at least, put those who administer it on some sort of zero hours contract. Sell their vicarages. This is what our new shepherds want in their prize sheep: to be young, dumb, and full of evangelistic… zeal."

The Church in Wales had its great leap forward in 2012 following a Review by the former Bishop of Oxford,  Lord Harries of Pentregarth, and others. Little time was lost in the establishment of Ministry Areas (Recommendation VI) but consideration of whether the Church in Wales is best served by six dioceses with three administrative centres or whether it would be more effective to reduce to three dioceses, together with four area bishops is, as far as one can tell, in the long grass.

In a Province the size of some dioceses one has to wonder why the Church in Wales needs so many bishops. Monmouth managed without for months as is St Davids where it emerged that the current holder spent much of her time tweeting to advance her socialist agenda before being signed off on extended sick leave.

Meanwhile the new unchurched are worshipping at home.

Evangelism?

In 2018 the Church in Wales announced that they would spend £10m to 'breathe new life' into its churches:
 

"In the wake of dwindling numbers, the Evangelism Fund will fund “ambitious projects” to get more people engaging with churches. Between 1996 and 2016 the number of signed-up Church in Wales members dropped from 91,247 to 45,759. Now, grants of between £250,000 and £3m will be available for new projects."

Llandaff diocese received £3 million from the fund for their Young Faith Matters Scheme which made possible the Citizen Church with a mission designed to create a new Christian Community for Cardiff students. - That doesn't say much for the Cardiff University chaplaincy which attracts just a handful of students compared with its early years when faith really did matter in the Church in Wales. 

To make the church plant possible, without prior consultation the congregation of St Teilo's in Cathays were to be moved to St Michael’s, also in Cathays, to make St Teilo's available for the experiment. 

Similarly parishes learnt at last week's Llandaff Diocesan Conference how they were to be grouped into Ministry Areas or Benefices, again without prior consultation.

Parishioners in Cathays now learn that they are to be combined along with the parish of Roath St Martin into a new Benefice of Roath where only one of its four daughter churches remains after many years of decline.

Citizen Church is part of the Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) network known mainly for its charismatic leader Nicky Gumbel and his Alpha course. At 65 some are questioning Alpha's survival following Gumbel's retirement.

Many former members of the Church in Wales who kept the faith, digging deep in pockets and purses for the Church, now find themselves on the outside seeing money squandered on fads and fancies.

In his address at the September meeting of the Governing Body, about the only part of the video proceedings that did work before the meeting was abandoned, the Archbishop urged all the church to embrace change. 

So far that has increased the number of senior posts while congregations dwindle. Liberal feminism has taken hold leaving traditional Anglicans unchurched.

That is the Church in Wales, where faith doesn't matter outside the bishops' guidelines.

Anglicans unchurched

Readers of this blog will notice an additional link in the right-hand column under the heading 'The Movement for a Renewed Orthodox Anglicanism'. 

If you stand with the majority of faithful Anglicans across the globe in prioritising Scripture and the unanimous teaching of the universal Church over secular fashion, you have the opportunity to add your signature to the letter published in the Daily Telegraph on 25 July 2017. It is signed, among others, by the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, former Bishop of Rochester, and the Rev Dr Gavin Ashenden, former Chaplain to the Queen.

In the an 'Anglican Unscripted' video discussion (Episode 311), Dr Ashenden urges the unchurched to add their signature to the letter. The reasons why he left the Church of England are explained in the above video. They will be familiar to many who find themselves unchurched with nowhere to go in their locality because most Anglican churches are following the same 'progressive', liberal path.

Gay Anglican clergy have already defied the church's official stance on same-sex marriage. Now the Dean of Southwark Cathedral sends out to those enquiring about the possibility of marking their Civil Partnership in the Cathedral a leaflet which gives the following outline for the marking of a Civil Partnership in the context of a celebration of the Eucharist.

Worrying as this is for orthodox Anglicans in England, the problem is more acute in Wales where no provision has been made for traditionalists and the bishops have signaled their eagerness to accept same sex marriage.

This is what the the Archdeacon of Llandaff, Peggy Jackson had to say about orthodox Anglicans before Archbishop Barry Morgan elevated her to her current position:
 "New individuals with conscientious difficulties over women’s ministry will simply have to make personal decisions and individual choices, to find accommodation as best they can – just as many already have to do over a host of other current issues, some very uncomfortable, where people find themselves representative of a view which is not that sanctioned by the ‘church’ as a whole, and upheld through Synod and Parliament."

That coming from an adult convert who ignores the faith of the vast majority of Anglicans worldwide and regards the tiny Province she inhabits as 'the church'. An institution which she and the like-minded manipulate to satisfy their own desires.

'Personal decisions and individual choices' have invariably led to faithful Anglicans becoming unchurched but that does not bother the progressives even when "the boat has taken on so much water as to be on the verge of capsizing" as Pope Benedict XI so aptly put it.  

Around 1400 people have added their names to the letter. If you share their concern please add your signature to the letter and encourage others to add theirs.