It comes as no surprise to find that the good old CofE along with most other churches is in terminal decline. As we freefall towrds a fate like that of the dodo or some obscure Latin American tree frog we might want to consider how we got ourselves in this situation.
The biggest decline of church attendance is amongst those under the age of 20. Yet more and more parents want their children to attemd CE schools. Now it does not take an expert to figure this out, a cynic may suggest that many people attend church just so their offspring can get in the desired CE school. If such people are remove from the stats we face an even greater crisis. It is not possible to quantify the numbers of those attending just so their children can get in a school but anecdotal evidence seems to suggest that it is a considerable number. Yet, few people seemt to suggest that this is an alarming feature of the recent stats.
The solution to the decline in numbers attending Church lies in many areas not least of all our CE schools. It might be time for those at the top to start to consider the vital role our schools play in the future of the CE. After all it might even be said that we, the humble teachers of the Church of England schools hold the future of the mighty Anglican clergy in our chalky hands.
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Quietcorner
- 2006-10-01 @ 16:03:56
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layreader1810
- 2006-10-02 @ 23:09:03
I've recently been sent a flyer entitled 'Why are many churches empty? It concerns a Church Survey for the UK and Ireland it is a report by The Ecumenical Research Committee. The heading is 'Help your church grow'.The Book or CD-Rom are £3.50 but heres the best part if you go to www.churchsurvey.co.uk you can download it FREE.
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I recently saw exerts from the Fresh Expressions of Church video - I gather the whole thing is a bit long, but loved the bits I saw - Messy Church - and one young father saying he comes because its not boring and is fun!
I guess you will have seen it too. It really cheered me as presenting a refreshing range of ideas of what some people are up to. I heard the Archbishop commending these and in passing mentioning the idea too of how interesting it would be to see an online community set up, of people committed to being an online community for a period of time, which also left me thinking.
When you read some blogs on here, people are really engaging with each other, and I'm sure the church could learn something from it as a means of engaging with and supporting wider groups.
I engage with a group of faith based volunteers, and I'm wondering if encouraging them to get blogging (maybe even using this blogsite as it seems to work really well) as a means of keeping in touch and supporting each other, informally and flexibly.
Have a happy Sunday.
Kind regards
QC!