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Anglican Church ‘may cease to exist in 20 years’
Yorkshire Post ^ | 13 July 2011 | Yorkshire Post

Posted on 07/14/2011 6:09:32 AM PDT by Cronos

The Church of England will no longer be “functionally extant” in 20 years time according to some projections, a member of the General Synod has warned.

The Rev Dr Patrick Richmond, from Norwich, told members of the Church’s national assembly that they were facing a “perfect storm” of ageing congregations and falling clergy numbers.

The average age of congregations was 61, with many above that, he said.

“These congregations will be led by fewer and fewer stipendiary clergy ... 2020 apparently is when our congregations start falling through the floor because of just natural wastage, that is people dying.

“Another 10 years on, some extrapolations put the Church of England as no longer functionally extant at all.”

The first Church Estates Commissioner Andreas Whittam Smith said the demographic “time bomb of 2020” for Anglicans was a “crisis”,

“One problem may be that decline is so slow and imperceptible that we don’t really see it coming clearly enough,” he said.

“We know about it in theory but we don’t really know about it in practice.”

He added: “I wish that all of us would have a sense of real crisis about this.”

(Excerpt) Read more at yorkshirepost.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Current Events; General Discusssion; Mainline Protestant
KEYWORDS: anglican; churchofengland; coe; england
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he is unfortunately correct.
1 posted on 07/14/2011 6:09:37 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Cronos

“The average age of congregations was 61, with many above that, he said.”

Um, I’m guessing that about half are above that and half are below 61.


2 posted on 07/14/2011 6:15:27 AM PDT by JBR34
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To: Cronos

i’m her 8th old man named Henery, Henery the VIIIth I am


3 posted on 07/14/2011 6:15:55 AM PDT by babble-on
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To: Cronos

Leftist ideologies mixed with theology leads to heresies. The Anglican church has been wracked by heresies for 40 years or more. The death of this church will be a deserved one as they have largely left Christ behind and picked up the torch of social justice. (The same can be said of several other mainline churches.)


4 posted on 07/14/2011 6:18:42 AM PDT by 17th Miss Regt
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To: Cronos

Maybe being the first Christian denomination to cave on contraception back in 1930 wasn’t such a good idea after all ...


5 posted on 07/14/2011 6:20:39 AM PDT by Campion ("Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies when they become fashions." -- GKC)
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To: Campion

If being socially relevant is your goal, you will become socially-irrelevant.


6 posted on 07/14/2011 6:24:03 AM PDT by rstrahan
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To: Campion
it's incredible how one little step on the slippery slope can lead to destruction. They approved of contraception in the 1930s, then ok to divorce, divorced pastors, pastoresses, "tolerance of gays", bishopesses, gay "celibate" pastors and pastoresses and finally gay marriage and gay married pastors and pastoresses.

And within a hundred years that denomination disappears

7 posted on 07/14/2011 6:27:00 AM PDT by Cronos ( W Szczebrzeszynie chrzaszcz brzmi w trzcinie I Szczebrzeszyn z tego slynie.)
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To: Cronos

“These congregations will be led by fewer and fewer stipendiary clergy...”

What does ‘stipendiary clergy’ mean? Government-paid clergy?


8 posted on 07/14/2011 6:27:07 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: rstrahan

If you look at the Lutheran ELCA churches people are leaving them like no tomorrow because they are so Leftist.


9 posted on 07/14/2011 6:28:35 AM PDT by Jack Hydrazine (It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine!)
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To: Cronos

Well, when the UK and the rest of Europe separated themselves from spiritual belief and decided to embrace secularism, it left the vacuum that nature so abhors.

Not hard to guess who’s stepping up to fill that spiritual vacuum.


10 posted on 07/14/2011 6:30:19 AM PDT by ScottinVA (As a party that gives Obama what he wants, what again is the GOP`s 2012 selling point?)
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To: Cronos

11 posted on 07/14/2011 6:41:25 AM PDT by PetroniusMaximus
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To: Jack Hydrazine

Bingo. We couldn’t leave our old ELCA church fast enough. The Music Director (who was gay) thought it was hysterical that the church next to the meeting hall where the ELCA bigwigs decided to allow Gay and Lesbian clergy got hit by lightning within hours of the decision.
That Church has become one big leftist social club.


12 posted on 07/14/2011 6:46:20 AM PDT by GeorgeTex (Obama-Four M President (Mendacious Manchurian Muslim Marxist))
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To: ScottinVA
"western" europe :) Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia are quite religious (Hungary recently amended its Constitution to start with
“We are proud that our King Saint Stephen has created our country, Hungary, with strong foundations at a thousand years had taken our country as member of Christian Europe” and "God bless Hungary"

“it protects the institution of marriage as between a man and a woman, a matrimonial relation, voluntarily established”.

and Russia is returning in droves back to Christianity.

13 posted on 07/14/2011 6:47:38 AM PDT by Cronos ( W Szczebrzeszynie chrzaszcz brzmi w trzcinie I Szczebrzeszyn z tego slynie.)
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To: GeorgeTex

did you join the LCMS, if I might add? I think it’s a very conservative Lutheran Church, no gay pastors, no pastoresses, no nonsense.


14 posted on 07/14/2011 6:50:07 AM PDT by Cronos ( W Szczebrzeszynie chrzaszcz brzmi w trzcinie I Szczebrzeszyn z tego slynie.)
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To: Cronos

“Another 10 years on, some extrapolations put the Church of England as no longer functionally extant at all.”

Maybe because they use words like “extant” instead of presenting relevant teaching in normal English to a younger population. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a place for churchy language, but not when you’re trying to make a point to the world at large.


15 posted on 07/14/2011 6:51:08 AM PDT by jagusafr ("We hold these truths to be self-evident...")
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To: rstrahan

Exactly. By giving away to every PC social issue they have resigned themselves to moral ambiguity.

“Do you own thing, Man. It’s cool. Who am I to judge your behavior as good or evil. In fact, it’s not necessary to go to church or even bring you children up with a religious education”


16 posted on 07/14/2011 6:51:26 AM PDT by WaterBoard
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To: 17th Miss Regt
"...wracked by heresies for 400 years or more" There, I fixed it for you
17 posted on 07/14/2011 6:55:55 AM PDT by donmeaker (I)
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To: jagusafr

that’s something I think about too — I think we need to retain the beauty and prayerfulness of the original liturgy, but sermons or discussing like this “extant” are not “churchy” language, rather a lame attempt at obfuscation by utilizing obscure words


18 posted on 07/14/2011 6:58:17 AM PDT by Cronos ( W Szczebrzeszynie chrzaszcz brzmi w trzcinie I Szczebrzeszyn z tego slynie.)
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To: Campion
Maybe being the first Christian denomination to cave on contraception back in 1930 wasn’t such a good idea after all ... ROTFLMAO! So caving on contraception is the culprit? LOL!
19 posted on 07/14/2011 7:02:23 AM PDT by Tennessean4Bush (An optimist believes we live in the best of all possible worlds. A pessimist fears this is true.)
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To: Campion
Maybe being the first Christian denomination to cave on contraception back in 1930 wasn’t such a good idea after all ...
ROTFLMAO! So caving on contraception is the culprit? LOL!
20 posted on 07/14/2011 7:02:45 AM PDT by Tennessean4Bush (An optimist believes we live in the best of all possible worlds. A pessimist fears this is true.)
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