From here.
The Anglican Church in Canada – once as powerful in the nation’s secular life as it was in its soul – may be only a generation away from extinction, says a just-published assessment of the church’s future.
The report, prepared for the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia, calls Canada a post-Christian society in which Anglicanism is declining faster than any other denomination. It says the church has been “moved to the far margins of public life.”
According to the report, the diocese – “like most across Canada” – is in crisis. The report repeats, without qualification or question, the results of a controversial study presented to Anglican bishops five years ago that said that at the present rate of decline – a loss of 13,000 members per year – only one Anglican would be left in Canada by 2061.
It points out that just half a century ago, 40 per cent of Vancouver Island’s population was Anglican; now the figure is 1.2 per cent. Nationally, between 1961 and 2001, the church lost 53 per cent of its membership, declining to 642,000 from 1.36 million. Between 1991 and 2001 alone, it declined by 20 per cent.
Regular attendance is declining at all Canadian Christian churches, except for the Roman Catholic Church, whose small increase is attributed to immigration.
But Anglicanism’s problem is aggravated because it is primarily a tribal church, the offspring of the Church of England. It has traditionally been home to Canadians of Anglo-Saxon descent who increasingly have no ethnic identification with the church, said religious studies professor David Seljak of St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ont.
A similar problem burdens the Presbyterian Church – offspring of the Church of Scotland – which is losing adherents almost as quickly as the Anglicans.
Prof. Seljak explained that members of families who have lived in Canada for three generations or more increasingly self-identify as “Canadian” rather than with their pre-Canadian ethnic origin. And Canadians increasingly say they’re generically “Christian” rather than Anglican, Presbyterian or Pentecostal.
Moreover, while the two ethnic groups, English and Scots, are declining as a proportion of Canadian society, the two tribal churches have limited appeal to Canadians of other origins, apart from those who encountered missionaries – for example, Canadians of Caribbean, Korean or African descent.
The B.C. diocesan report tells Anglicans on Vancouver Island and the adjacent Gulf Islands – which the diocese covers – that 19 of their 54 churches should be closed, with another 11 put on death watch, and that two more should not have their priests replaced when they move on or retire.
The remaining congregations have been told to abandon their sedate, clubby Anglican culture and get their behinds off pews to evangelize in shopping malls, homes and workplaces.
“The status quo is not an option,” the report says. With a preponderance of Anglicans being 60 or older, the church is “one generation away from extinction,” it says.
“The unchurched are not coming to us. Lapsed Anglicans are not coming back in sufficient numbers.”
The report has caused anger, bafflement and resignation in congregations whose churches are targeted for closing. Many of the parishes recommended for “disestablishment” and being put up for sale are among the most historic in the province.
Archdeacon Christopher Page, rector of St. Philip’s in Victoria’s suburb of Oak Bay, said his congregation is divided between accepting and resisting change – “as am I some mornings.”
The congregants of 106-year-old St. Andrew’s in the village of Cowichan Station, a half-hour north of Victoria, have worked hard to open the picturesque building to the community. They run a Monday-to-Friday coffee shop, and promote contemporary spiritualism outside traditional Anglican boundaries. They’ve increased their membership to 80 from 30 over two years, but still the diocesan report has recommended the building be sold.
“We’re trying to figure it out,” said the rector, Rev. Dawn Braithwaite. But she said her parishioners are not going to be “reactive” until the diocesan governing body votes on the report in March.
When the church has nothing to offer and continues to promote apostasy and deny the Gospel but expect members to place their faith in the church and not in our Lord and Saviour, the results are clear. What is needed is for a return to the truth and the weeding out of apostate clergy (including so-called bishops). They can hardly be shepherds of the flock if they continue to be wolves in sheep’s clothing.
What is sad and unfortunate is that those who are so determined to push ahead with their new agenda are determined to do so, fully knowing that it will tear their church apart. We can see how determined they are on the thread below with well over 100 comments, vehemently defending the changes they are determined to make. One has the sense that they think their church will be stronger without the orthodox among them; those whom they see as stuck in the past and clinging to “out-moded” interpretations of a no longer particularly relevant book – the Bible.
The evil here, as I see it, as much as in their agenda itself, is that they seem quite prepared to see their denomination die, because they are pushing ahead with that agenda full in the knowledge that it will split the church, and it is a price they seem prepared to pay for the advancement of their cause.
Little do they know that they are only hastening their own demise, while those they would be rid of, those who remain faithful to the simple gospel of Jesus Christ will, I believe, strengthen and prosper, once the distractions of all the current litigation has been put behind.
“Regular attendance is declining at all Canadian Christian churches, except for the Roman Catholic Church, whose small increase is attributed to immigration. ”
“All Canadian Christian churches”???? I think not.
“The remaining congregations have been told to abandon their sedate, clubby Anglican culture and get their behinds off pews to evangelize in shopping malls, homes and workplaces. ”
When the purpose of Evangelization is to get more bodies into the pews. it will not or cannot work. Moving from outside “the Faith” into it is a Spiritual experience, therefore invitation to do so must come from Spiritually enabled and gifted agents of the Holy Spirit.
With the backing of a community that is living in non-compromising Love and not FEAR.
This whole assesment speaks to the result of a continuing history of comprimising the “Faith once given” for the sake of survival. If one looks at the very large picture of our history. It becomes apparent that we have been “set up” for this fall. Let us pray that such evil does not befall the blessing that is truly the last vestage of Anglicanism in North America.
“They run a Monday-to-Friday coffee shop, and promote contemporary spiritualism outside traditional Anglican boundaries.”
And this is the new direction in which the Spirit is leading the ACoC to grow the Church? I’ll just have to take my copy of Oprah’s latest book, hurry over to St. Andrews and get myself a double latte; and saved at the same time.
““We’re trying to figure it out,” said the rector, Rev. Dawn Braithwaite.”
What? You mean it isn’t working? I can’t imagine why. Duh!!!
It’s not the Holy Spirit’s leading…
I heard a rumour on the weekend. The Diocese of Huron is making plans to effectively close the Parishes of the Bruce Peninsula. The main Parish of Holy Trinity in Wiarton is going to “share” a Priest with the local Lutherins (the Lutherins will maintain a veto in the selection process). Sounds like there will be a number of abandoned Anglicans in Bruce County. Yet this same “church” is so quick to accuse good Priest like Packer of “abandonment”!
Our own new Congregation in Hepworth is now firmly established. We call ourselves the “Free Anglicans” and have worship services at 9:30 am every Sunday in the Hepworth Community Hall (formerly an Anglican Church of Canada building). Any Anglicans in Bruce County (especially those feeling abandoned by the ACoC) are welcome to visit us and see what we are all about.
Amp; are you associated with ANiC?