The Church of England is under severe pressure on several fronts: attendance, recruitment of ordinands and volunteers, inclusion, financial worries in many parishes, safeguarding, merger of parishes, church closures, doctrinal, theological, ecclesiological differences. Some of the issues are not stand-alone, rather they are toxic cocktails eroding the 'unity' of the Church. The Church gives this writer the impression it is divided into camps eyeing each other with suspicion, even hostility.
Since Henry V111 replaced the Pope as head of the church to be known as the Church of England there has been disputation and dissent on a wide range of issues. What is different today is the development of social media and the glare of publicity it brings. Pressure groups are easier to establish, opinion formers have far greater and accelerated reach, groupthink replaces objectivity and analysis.
Why the CofE is losing members, why many parishes are struggling, why parishes are being merged has to be considered in the context of a range of factors that are just as relevant to other denominations in decline: it is the trend of the population to move away from, to reject, the doctrines and practices of traditional churches, to move away from regular church attendance, away from financial giving and volunteering. It is the ebb tide of the sea of faith. Will there be flood tide?
When confronted with poor election results a political ploy is to claim the electorate rejected their party, not because of the party's policies but because of poor presentation. Improve presentation and all will be well: the electorate will come flooding back.
A similar approach is be found in the Church of England. Expand the scope of presentation with church planting, set up initiatives to contact children and young persons, hold meetings and events in locations apart from traditional venues, enthuse existing and new ordinands and lay leaders, try new forms of service. In other words, fresh expressions and a mixed ecology. Set targets for numerical growth.
Rochester Diocese has received just shy of £11m from the Church of England's Diocesan Investment Programme. The funding will be used in support of the Diocese Called Together vision and strategy. The expected outcomes by 2034 include: a 15% increase in church attendance, a 50% increase in lay missional leaders, at least 25% more people making a commitment to faith, a 50% increase in children and young people engaged with church and 25% more churches with substantive CYPF ministry.
The strategy has three guiding objectives: to grow missional churches, with missional leaders and missional disciples.
Will the population buy-in to this strategy? Will it damage the parish system? Will it undermine the work of current clergy and lay people?
Sadly I do not note in the strategy any mention of deep debate, discussion or analyis of the various theological opinions held within the Church of England. Rochester Diocese is strongly conservative evangelical and inevitably this will colour perceptions of the implementation of the strategy and how it is received.
It is the opinion of this writer that the Church of England should review the messages it is sending to a doubting population if it is to achieve the growth hankered after. Bishop John Shelby Spong put it thus:
'Unless biblical literalism is challenged overtly in the Christian church itelf, it will, in my opinion kill the Christian faith, It is not just a benign nuisance that afflicts Christianity at its edges: it is a mentality that renders the Christian faith unbelievable to an increasing number of the citizens of our world.'
Postscript.
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My attention has been drawn to the article at the end of the link.
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