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What an excellent question and I know you're far too busy listening to our beloved Octogenarian Ruler to think much about Old Mother Damnable the dear old Church of England. But here at the Compound we're boycotting the Old Crook and turning night optics to Ecclesia Anglicana, after all, it's Lent. So what's going on. Rev. Dr. Ian Paul sums it up neatly, via Virtueonline:
Since the first report on marriage and sexuality in 1979, in contrast with debates about divorce and about the ministry of women, no consensus for change has emerged. The Shared Conversations and the LLF process have taken up most of the last ten years. The result? We are more anxious, more divided, more uncertain. The fateful phrase 'a radical new Christian inclusion' has unleashed a civil war in the Church.
In that time, adult attendance has fallen 30%, and the decline is accelerating. Child attendance has fallen 40% in the same period. And in the last three years, vocations to ordained ministry have collapsed by 40%. There is a very real prospect that ministry is going to collapse in large parts of the Church of England within the next five years. Where is this on our agenda?
But here is the other stark reality: Other churches are growing. But we are reluctant to learn from them. We now represent something less than 18% of all Christians in a church on Sunday. We have another eight hours scheduled to talk about LLF (Living in Love and Freedom, ie. gay marriage ritual blessings). What it will it produce? More division, more frustration, no more progress. Fiddling whilst Canterbury burns doesn't even capture it.
If we continue this fruitless process, that will be the legacy we leave: the Church of England, a heap of ruins. It is up to us.
Quite, and you'll be pleased to know the Church of England feels tremendously guilty about something called "chattel slavery" and intends to send the wymxn priestess gay sex vote buying (you can't write that, Ed.) vast sum of £100 million to Africa even as English churches are closing and clergy can't afford to keep the lights on.
Well you know what they say, go woke go broke, and I guess this exciting dispatch from the War on the Rainbow files vaguely under "Church" and "God."
Just keeping it real,
LSP
The question isn't "So what's going on in the Church of England?" but "Is the Church of England actively saving any souls?"
ReplyDeleteBecause if there's no soul saving, actual helping people accept the Word of God and save themselves from Hell, then nothing, no liturgical danse (macabre) or wymyn priestessess or any other issue matters.
The Church (of any Christian flavor or variety) should have as its main goal to save people from Hell. Nothing else matters unless The Church is saving souls.
My wife describes leftist organizations, including the city we're living in, as a wedding cake. Doesn't matter how many flowers, how fancy the decorations, how many tiers or other 'wow' visible features the cake has if all that covers a flavorless or mold-ridden cake.
The Church of England and other Churches all need to look into their hearts and ask themselves that, are they saving souls? If not then that's what they need to be asking and holding conferences and dealing with first before doing anything else.
@Beans…x2…spot on.
ReplyDelete"Ye shall know them by their fruits."
ReplyDeleteThis will be cross-posted as the Sermonette on Sunday for VM -
ReplyDeleteThank you for the Lenten Penance Padre, a real two-fer. First the woman at the top with the nice teeth playing dress up, and then the Markles getting hitched.
ReplyDeleteIf God be God (and Who else could He be, really?) and if The Church be the body of actual believers comprising the Bride of Christ, not some specific denomination, then all them other people got a stern talkin' to comin'.
ReplyDeleteAnd then some.
And you may delete the "if's" in the above and substitute in "because" at your convenience.