Canadian Anglicans Becoming Extinct (due to its liberal agenda)

AgapePress ^ | 02/07/06 | AFA Journal

[Heartofsong83]

Canadian Anglicans Becoming Extinct

By AFA Journal February 7, 2006

(AgapePress) - A new, independent report on the state of the Anglican Church of Canada shows a staggering decline in membership over the last 40 years.

Between 1961 and 2001 the Anglican Church of Canada, the Canadian branch of the worldwide Anglican community, lost 53 percent of its members, from 1.36 million to 642,000. However, the report also ominously stated that the decline is accelerating. While membership dropped 13 percent between 1981 and 1991, it fell 20 percent between 1991 and 2001.

According to The Church of England Newspaper, the report was prepared by Keith McKerracher, a retired marketing expert. It was presented to the House of Bishops.

McKerracher said in subsequent interviews: "My point to the bishops was, 'Hey listen, guys, we're declining much faster than any other church. We're losing 12,836 Anglicans a year. That's 2 percent a year. If you draw a line on the graph, there'll only be one person left in the [Canadian] Anglican church by 2061.'"

The Anglican Church of Canada, like its sister branch in the U.S., the Episcopal Church USA, has been steadily trending liberal over the last four decades. That is probably the reason for the Canadian church's decline, according to Ted Byfield.

Byfield is a long-time observer of Canadian culture. He published a weekly news magazine in Canada for 30 years and now serves as general editor of The Christians, a 12-volume history of Christianity.

In a column for WorldNetDaily, Byfield spoke of the Anglican Church of Canada's "consistent departure from traditional Christian teaching, which has been going on throughout the whole 40-year period of decline.

"It began with the acceptance of serial marriage, progressed to the ordination of women, then to the funding of terrorist groups in Africa, and finally to the acceptance of homosexual practice. The church's latest foray is its tacit approval of homosexual marriage, which has seen it virtually disowned by the Anglican churches of Africa and Asia."

McKerracher did not think the Anglican leadership in Canada would respond to the new report with any significant changes.

"The church is in real crisis. They can't carry on like it's business as usual. They talk things to death," he said. "And my impression is that the bishops are not going to go around telling priests to shape up."

Almost as if to confirm McKerracher's impression, Canadian Archbishop Andrew Hutchison told The Church of England Newspaper that although the report was a "wake-up call," he hoped a new emphasis on social justice and ecumenical cooperation would stem the decline.

[Heartofsong83]

That is accelerating even more since 2001 - despite the fact that overall church attendance in Canada has spiked upward since then.

There is a good reason why I recently left that church.

[Alexander Rubin]

RE: How the Anglican Church of Canada is rapidly losing members.

"Almost as if to confirm McKerracher's impression, Canadian Archbishop Andrew Hutchison told The Church of England Newspaper that although the report was a "wake-up call," he hoped a new emphasis on social justice and ecumenical cooperation would stem the decline."

I thought you all might be interested in this.

[frogjerk]

There is a good reason why I recently left that church.

ROBINSON: "Does this collar make me look fat?...BTW, did you say something?"

[p. henry]

They are called worship services, Bishop, not social justice and ecumenical cooperation services. People go to church to worship God, not to participate in the latest liberation theology activities. What a maroon.

[MeanWestTexan]

Is there an alternative conservative anglican-communion church springing up in Canada akin to how the American Anglican churches are springing up to replace the former Episcopal churches?

[Investment Biker]

The same thing is going to happen to American Catholic Churches. However it will not be due to conservative-liberal underpinnings. It will be due to the fact that the church has done little to engage children and young adults. I look at my church on Sunday and it is filled with gray hair. Over the next twenty - third years they will die and there will be very few left in the pews. It is a shame and it may be two late to engage the age group.

[tbird5]

Where are they going? Back into the Catholic fold, from where they departed, maybe?

[tbird5]

My catholic church is packed with young people and babies. The catholic schools here in Kentucky are packed.

[Heartofsong83]

Increasingly that is the same in Canada, in many communities at least. Not sure about the largest cities.

[Heartofsong83]

That's where I went...

[bcsco]

"There is a good reason why I recently left that church."

This is also the reason the wife and I left the ELCA last year for the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. Both organizations are headed by liberal/socialists who's agenda is socially oriented, instead of a committment to the religious health of their members.

[Investment Biker]

I am going to assume you are in northern Kentucky and have a tradition of schools that are associated with the church. This is a good draw for the church though many in Cincinnati would like to see the church get out of the school business. The local parish with a school does well in demographics. The adjoining parishes without a school are all filled with gray and few children in attendance.

[Campion]

The same thing is going to happen to American Catholic Churches. However it will not be due to conservative-liberal underpinnings. It will be due to the fact that the church has done little to engage children and young adults. I look at my church on Sunday and it is filled with gray hair.

Funny, my Catholic church is full of families with lots of little kids.

[Alexander Rubin]

Thought you and your Anglican ping list might be interested in this, buddy. ;)

Check out the last line.

[leilani]

Meanwhile, Anglican & Episcopalian converts to the RC camp are proceeding apace. The new Anglican rite parishes in the US (Our Lady of Atonement in San Antonio was the founding parish, courtesy of JP II) are busting at the seams, not just with converts from all the C of E offshoots & other ex-protestants of various provenance, but with cradle Catholics fed up with the namby-pamby,don't-want-to-offend-anyone moral relativist priests in their own parishes, who also treasure the ang. rite's beautifully reverential services, not to mention their proudly pro-Vatican, vocally pro-life, and refreshingly old-school theological outlook.They are so retro, they are positively cutting-edge to all of us post Vatican II babies. And devout pre-V2 folks really feel at home there as well. Our Lady of A in S.A. haven't even finished putting on the final touches to the most recent addition to their church but judging from the service I attended a couple of weeks ago, it looks like they're going to have to call back the contractors to tack on another extension. It's amazing!

[N. Theknow]

Will the last person in the Anglican/
Episcopalian Church turn off the lights. Or maybe blow out only the candles.

[fanfan]

Canada Ping!

Please FReepmail me to get on or off this Canada ping list.

[jecIIny]

"Is there an alternative conservative anglican-communion church springing up in Canada akin to how the American Anglican churches are springing up to replace the former Episcopal churches?"

Yes see the link.

http://www.acahome.org/tac/

[kellynch]

The Anglican/Roman shift goes both ways. I am an Anglican, but I really can't see myself joining the Roman church. I am not willing to accept that the Pope is infallible, and I am not interested in the "Cult" of Mary.

[leilani]

Absolutely, do whatever your heart requires you to do. Roman Catholicism is definitely not for everyone, & most especially not for those who're too intellectually lazy to investigate the accuracy of trite misconceptions about papal "infallibility" and shopworn myths regarding "cults" of Mary and the like. ;)

[ECM]

Heh, Amen to that :)

[Rytwyng]

The new Anglican rite parishes in the US ..are busting at the seams, not just with converts from all the C of E offshoots & other ex-protestants of various provenance, but with cradle Catholics fed up with the namby-pamby,don't-want-to-offend-anyone moral relativist priests in their own parishes, who also treasure the ang. rite's beautifully reverential services, not to mention their proudly pro-Vatican, vocally pro-life, and refreshingly old-school theological outlook

Hmm.... Are there any in Southern California?

[RobbyS]

Depends on where you are. My church is full of people of all ages and growing.

[Campion]

Nope. Several places in Texas; Scranton, PA; and Boston. But stay tuned; there may be more. See the Anglican use society and OL of the Atonement websites.

[GMMAC]

Likewise.
I've often argued - facetiously, but with some element of truth - that many of our Eastern Rite Churches are plainly "smarter" than Anglicans as they essentially cut the same deal to stay which the latter left to achieve.
Additionally, in some respects, the practices of Eastern Rite Catholic Churches are closer to traditional Anglicanism than to those of "mainline" North American "English" Catholicism.

As for the Anglican/Episcopalian poster who rejects the so-called "cult of Mary", perhaps - as but one example of the other extreme - consult the various revisions of your Hymnal over the past 3 or 4 decades & then tell me the obvious purging of time-honored Marian Hymns doesn't amount to a calculated campaign of disrespect towards Our Lady.

[sionnsar]

Thanks to Alexander Rubin for the ping. (This was first reported 12/02/2005, but this is an "excellent" --or not-- update.)

Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams.

FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this moderately high-volume ping list (typically 3-9 pings/day).
This list is pinged by sionnsar, Huber and newheart.

Resource for Traditional Anglicans: http://trad-anglican.faithweb.com

Humor: The Anglican Blue (by Huber)

Speak the truth in love. Eph 4:15

[AnAmericanMother]

Don't know where you are, but our Catholic parish is packed to the rafters with babies, young children, teenagers, and young parents enthusiastically presenting the parish with more. We middle-aged former ECUSAers brought a few teenagers with us, too. There were nearly 100 kids in the last confirmation class. They had to stand them on the chancel steps turned sideways to get them all in the official photo with the Archbishop.

Our kids' choir is jumping and the youth group has outgrown two different meeting rooms.

Maybe you need to look into outreach for your parish?

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, I'm an ex-ECUSA "high Anglican" . . . all I can say is, you need to investigate a little bit, maybe attend a couple of RCIA classes or invest in a copy of the Catechism, instead of just repeating tired old cliches that the "low" end of the Anglican church thinks it knows about Catholics.

After all . . . they haven't been too accurate or reliable about much else, have they?

If you're really interested, I can refer you to an excellent book that was written for Anglicans considering a trans-Tiber migration.

[AnAmericanMother]

Oh, ick.

Now I'm gonna have to go wash my eyes out with Lysol.

[PAR35]

The same thing is going to happen to American Catholic Churches.

Sounds like you don't have any Spanish language masses. There are plenty of young folks in the big Catholic churches around here. And there is the brand new Catholic high school in town - although those are primarily Anglos.

[Clemenza]

The same thing is going to happen to American Catholic Churches. However it will not be due to conservative-liberal underpinnings. It will be due to the fact that the church has done little to engage children and young adults. I look at my church on Sunday and it is filled with gray hair.

That and the fact that the Church has done little to make itself appealing to MEN of any age.

[Coleus]

It's a lot worse in Europe.

What should the church do to appeal to young people?

I see that liberalism didn't really help much. things changed a lot in the 70's and 80's and it didn't seem to help much.

[Cookie123]

So many Episcopalians believe - in a quite uncritical manner - the old anti-Catholic, Know-Nothing rants about the Vatican, the Magisterium, and the Pope. The fact that the Catholic Church dares to have infallible teachings is seen by so many otherwise reasonable Episcopalians as reason enough to reject it outright with no further investigation into the matter. All I can say in response to that is that ECUSA now has a "magisterium" of it's own. It’s called the General Convention, and you better do as this “magisterium” tells you to or the penalties will be quite high. Just ask any orthodox priest who has been inhibited by one of these revisionist bishops.

And this “magisterium” is issuing infallible teachings on such matters as Holy Matrimony in ways that no Pope or curial official would ever even begin to consider. Why? Because the Pope does not have the authority to alter Holy Matrimony. Holy Matrimony was “...established by God in creation…Our Lord Jesus Christ adorned this manner of life by his presence and first miracle at a wedding in Cana of Galilee. It signifies to us the mystery of the union between Christ and his Church, and Holy Scripture commends it to be honored among all people." (1979 BCP - THE CELEBRATION AND BLESSING OF A MARRIAGE)

And what are the purposes of Holy Matrimony? Again, the Book of Common Prayer states it well..."The union of husband and wife in heart, body, and mind is intended by God for their mutual joy; for the help and comfort given one another in prosperity and adversity; and, when it is God's will, for the procreation of children, and their nurture in the knowledge and love of the Lord."

If all this sounds familiar it is b/c this has been, and still is, the teaching with regard to marriage for 99% of the world Christians - Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, and any and all variants thereof. Only the enlightened “magisterium” of ECUSA feels they have some sort of divine right to change it. This assumes an “authority” that no Pope has ever assumed for himself. Ever.

[rasblue]

That is accelerating even more since 2001 - despite the fact that overall church attendance in Canada has spiked upward since then.

There is a good reason why I recently left that church.


Why did you specifically choose to leave the Anglican Church? Leaving a church is a huge life decision, just wondering how you came about it?

[rasblue]

>The same thing is going to happen to American Catholic >Churches. However it will not be due to conservative-liberal >underpinnings. It will be due to the fact that the church has >done little to engage children and young adults. I look at my >church on Sunday and it is filled with gray hair.

I agree. I'm still a Catholic (for now) and I am in this group. In my case it is as if the church acknowledges that they have a problem connecting with youth but they refuse to modernize (not theologically, just presentation). They are stuck in the 1950's collectivist (dare I say socialist) model of Catholicism where the priest talks down to the people and assumes they can preach and lead without question from an uneducated parish. Maybe in the past when most people didn't even finish high school they could get away without having to deal with rigourous introspection from the people but that isn't the case nowadays.

Society now is more individualistic, is is much less collectivist and socialist. The Catholic Church has the exact same problems that the Democrats have.

[i.l.e.]

"Cult" of Mary,

As a former ECUSA person who crossed the tiber in 1997,I can testify that I don't belong to now nor have I ever been a member of a cult of Mary.

The most interesting thing about the catholic church with respect to the baptists is that Mary does appear, from time to time to catholics - not to protestants.

[Antioch]

Here's a few photos I took of Anglican Church events in Toronto to illustrate the response to Christ's call "Follow me..."

Exhibit A

Ever wonder where your hard-earned pennies go after the collection plate is whisked away? Despite severe cash flow problems in the Anglican Church, there's no shortage of money for truck rentals for the Anglican float in the Annual Gay Pride day.

Exhibit B

To pay for heating and upkeep, some historic Anglican parishes are now forced to clear the pews out on weekends, and rent their churches out to Kundalini spirit channelling sessions.

[Unam Sanctam]

he hoped a new emphasis on social justice and ecumenical cooperation would stem the decline

They just cannot get it, can they?

[RobbyS]

There is a tendency to treat infallible statements as legislation when they are proclamations. Furthermore, in a modern legislature, laws are made-up devises. In the old days, they were generally codification of custom or restatement of old law. Before there were legislatures, it was the function of the king to proclain what had been recognized as law "since time immemorable." That is what the pope does.

[DeaconNoGood]

"Channeling spirit" meetings in a church building - Satan must love it.

[Cronos]

Exactly what I was about to say.

[Cronos]

this is good -- the Anglican rite laity and clergy will help the Catholic Church rejuvenate (and yet move back to orthodoxy)

[Cronos]

The Anglican/Roman shift goes both ways. I am an Anglican, but I really can't see myself joining the Roman church. I am not willing to accept that the Pope is infallible, and I am not interested in the "Cult" of Mary.

Note that Papal infallibility is doctrinally noted as being very, very limited -- restricted ONLY to matters of the faith, dogmatic issues and ONLY when spoken ex-cathedra (i.e. on the seat of authority, San Pietro's seat). This means that the Pope is essentially letting himself be used by God as an arbitrator when dogmatic issues come up.

There is no "cult" of Mary -- I remember my parish priest saying "There's no special givt from attending novenas etc. -- but if people find it brings them closer to God, then GOOD!!" Similarly, I find myself under no obligation to go to the excesses -- I accord Mother Mary the respect due to her as Theotokos (the Mother of God) and the Church let's me -- the Catholic Church at the lowest, most simplistic level asks me to believe in the Nicene creed: do you follow this?

[Cronos]

We middle-aged former ECUSAers brought a few teenagers with us

Again, I repeat: WELCOME HOME!!! and Thank you! You have undoubtedly enriched the Catholic Church with your presence and enthusiasm. Thank you

[Clemenza]

Yeah, folk masses really worked, didn't they?

[AnAmericanMother]

We LOVE our church! (Choir practice rocked last night - our choirmaster is great, he believes in Bringing Back the Classics: lots of chant, lots of Renaissance polyphony. Last night we rehearsed Viadana's "Exultate Justi" (at a LITTLE slower tempo!) and Zingarelli's "Go Not Far from Me". Now THAT is music!)

Talk about coming home -- we just wish we'd made the move sooner. I've said several times that we were miserable in ECUSA, mourning beside a dead body, when all the while the Church was alive and joyous and waiting for us just around the corner . . .

[frogjerk]

>The same thing is going to happen to American Catholic >Churches. However it will not be due to conservative-liberal >underpinnings. It will be due to the fact that the church has >done little to engage children and young adults. I look at my >church on Sunday and it is filled with gray hair. I agree. I'm still a Catholic (for now) and I am in this group. In my case it is as if the church acknowledges that they have a problem connecting with youth but they refuse to modernize (not theologically, just presentation).

I totally disagree. It is the parents that are the first teachers of the faith to their children as the Rite of Baptism so rightly declares. Most parents don't care about educating their children in the faith and pawn it off to someone else.

[frogjerk]

Don't know where you are, but our Catholic parish is packed to the rafters with babies, young children, teenagers, and young parents enthusiastically presenting the parish with more.

Glory to God!

[Campion]

Re your #33: excellent post, and excellent point.