Will 2067 be the end of British Christianity?

Many bloggers last week posted a link to a provocative article in the Spectator by Damien Thompson (a Ph.D. sociologist who until last summer was an online editor for the Telegraph):

2067: the end of British Christianity
Projections aren't predictions. But there's no denying that churches are in deep trouble
Damien Thompson 13 June 2015

It’s often said that Britain’s church congregations are shrinking, but that doesn’t come close to expressing the scale of the disaster now facing Christianity in this country. Every ten years the census spells out the situation in detail: between 2001 and 2011 the number of Christians born in Britain fell by 5.3 million — about 10,000 a week. If that rate of decline continues, the mission of St Augustine to the English, together with that of the Irish saints to the Scots, will come to an end in 2067.

That is the year in which the Christians who have inherited the faith of their British ancestors will become statistically invisible. Parish churches everywhere will have been adapted for secular use, demolished or abandoned.

Our cathedral buildings will survive, but they won’t be true cathedrals because they will have no bishops. The Church of England is declining faster than other denominations; if it carries on shrinking at the rate suggested by the latest British Social Attitudes survey, Anglicanism will disappear from Britain in 2033. One day the last native-born Christian will die and that will be that.

I think a linear decline is not realistic — as with radioactivity (or rust), it will more likely be an exponential decay. Still, for Anglicans in North America, the news is daunting:

Anglicans in particular are abandoning their faith at a rate that (in more ways that one) defies belief. According to the British Social Attitudes surveys, their numbers fell from 40 per cent of the population in 1983 to 29 per cent in 2004 and 17 per cent last year.
…
Lord Carey of Clifton, a more formidable figure in retirement than he was in office, last month warned the C of E that it was ‘one generation away from extinction’. The new Social Attitudes figures support his conclusions.

Thompson offers a series of explanations, but they basically boil down to the psychological-social processes of secularization by the children of the Christian faithful:

You go away to university and suddenly almost nobody believes what you do, or did. Your siblings move to different towns, so you won’t see them in church any more. Your laptop plugs you into any social network that takes your fancy. Even if you’re born again as an evangelical Christian, life pushes you from one congregation to another. Many Evangelicals get bored and turn into nones.

The mainstream churches can’t cope with this explosion of choice. Also, as you may have noticed, they’re led by middle–managers who are frightened of their own shadows. They run up the white flag long before the enemy comes down from the hills.

This gives me new respect for the ACNA catechesis process. However — unlike the stated goal of evangelization — it seems crucial to use the catechism process not just on new converts, but on cradle Anglicans being confirmed as teenagers. If we don’t build and pass along a bullet-proof faith, there won’t be anyone left.

Pentecost-al hymnody

After Sunday's service, I wanted to blog about Pentecost hymnody and then realized I wrote a detailed discussion three years ago. So instead, I tried to make a list of important Pentecost (née Whitsunday) hymns.

I looked through three hymnals - The English Hymnal (1906), Hymnal 1940, and Hymnal 1982. Below is the list of all hymns where the text (if even not the tune) is found in at least two of the three hymnals. (In some cases, TEH used different tune names for the same tune so I compared the actual tune music to make sure).

Only three hymns made all three lists: “Come down, O Love divine,” “Glorious things of thee are spoken,” and of course our household favorite, “Hail Thee Festival Day.”

While I have my personal favorites for hymns, clearly these three stand out for their endorsement by three hymnal committees 75 years apart.

Title	Tune	Hymns
Breathe on me, Breath of God	Swabia	H40: 375.1
Breathe on me, Breath of God	Nova Vita	H40: 375.2, H82: 508
Come down, O Love divine	Down Ampney	TEH: 152, H40: 376, H82: 516
Come, gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove	Good Shepherd, Rosemont	H40: 378.1
Come, gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove	Mendon	H40: 378.2, H82: 512
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire	Veni Creator	TEH: 153
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire	Veni Creator	H40: 217.1, H82: 504
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire	Come Holy Ghost	H40: 217.2, H82: 503
Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove	St. Agnes	H40: 369, H82: 510
Come, thou Holy Spirit, come	The Golden Sequence	H40: 109.1
Come, thou Holy Spirit, come	Veni Sancte Spiritus	H40: 109.2, H82: 226
Creator Spirit, by whose aid	Atwood	TEH: 156, H40: 371
Creator Spirit, by whose aid	Surrey	H82: 500
Glorious things of thee are spoken	Austria	TEH: 393, H40: 385, H82: 522
Glorious things of thee are spoken	Abbot's Leigh	H82: 523
Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost	Capetown	TEH: 396, H40: 379
Gracious Spirit, Holy Ghost	Troen	H82: 612
Hail thee, festival day	Salve Festa Dies	TEH: 630, H40: 107, H82: 225
O blest Redeemer, ere he breathed	St. Cuthbert	TEH: 157, H40: 368
O come, Creator Spirit, come	Veni Creator	TEH: 154.1, H40: 108.1
O come, Creator Spirit, come	Grace Church	H40: 108.2
O King enhroned on high	Temple	TEH: 454, H40: 374
O Spirit of the living God	Melcombe	H40: 256, H82: 531
Spirit divine, attend our prayers	Graefenberg	H40: 370, H82: 509
Spirit of mercy, truth and love	Melcombe	TEH: 631, H40: 111
Spirit of mercy, truth and love	Cornish	H82: 229

The challenges and opportunities of post-Christian America

Despite the reputation of many Anglicans — especially Anglo-Catholics — of being inwardly focused (“sacristy rats”), the reality is that we need to be reaching out to reach new members, bring more people to (or back to) Christ, and fulfill the great commission of Matthew 28:18-20.

According to the headlines, the 2014 Pew “Religious Landscape Study” says Christianity is declining in America. But after listening to a May 13 interview with veteran religious journalist Terry Mattingly on Issues Etc. (especially the last half), I think the story is that the nominal Christians are no longer nominal and instead becoming vaguely spiritual or not religious at all. (Rod Dreher and Ed StetzerEd Stetzer have the same opinion).

On the one hand, this is a shame, because in my experience the raised-but-no-longer-Christian are the easiest to bring to church: they know of the faith, they often know it’s important, and they’ve just been (without knowing it) waiting for an point in their life when they realized that knowing and worshipping God is the most important thing we can do in this life. To some degree that’s my own journey. Still, Stetzer has advice on how to reach both audiences with the Christian message.

Mattingly's interview talks about his own (latest) denomination, the Eastern Orthodox, and how successful Orthodox parishes are those that can reach visitors who are “looking for a beautiful, stable, creedal version of the faith.” This seems like a goal ready-made for Anglo-Catholic Anglicans.

Finally, the headline version of survey results lists Episcopalian/Anglican as 1.2% of the country: 0.9% for TEC and 0.3% for the non-TEC Anglicans. By comparison, ELCA is 1.4%, and more evangelical Lutherans (such as LCMS and WELS) total 1.5%.

The age and education distribution seem similar (with TEC having more graduate degrees and the Anglicans having more college graduates overall). The one notable difference is that 5% of the TEC are shacking up (“living with a partner”) vs. 1% of the Anglicans. The proportion of never-married (unmarried + living together) is about the same — 20% for Anglicans and 21% for TEC — so our need to minister to those seeking to marry (and hopefully raise kids) in the church is more urgent than ever.

The sign of the eternal cross

From a March 11 blog posting by Nashotah seminarian Cameron MacMillan:

Nine services per week in an Anglo-Catholic chapel yields more signings of the cross than Carter had liver pills.
…
We know that by the second century, Christians were marking themselves and other objects with the sign of the cross. The gesture was a consecratory sign of blessing, and was often made my persons on their foreheads. Perhaps among the early Fathers, Tertullian is best known for his words on the signum crucis:

“With every departure, in the beginning and end of all activities, from getting dressed to putting on shoes, in the bath, at table, in lighting the lamps, when we go to bed, when we sit down, in each of our actions, we mark our foreheads with the sign of the cross.”

Tertullian, writing in the early 200s, speaks of the gesture as if it is something that’s been going on for quite some time. So, whatever we think of the sign, we know its use originated very early on in the life of the Christian Church.

Furthermore, St. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage in the early third century, saw the sign of the cross to be supported by the biblical action of God’s people being marked in special ways as the faithful, those with whom God had covenanted and would be obedient and trusting of the Lord’s protection

In my travels, I have noticed that different Anglo-Catholic parishes make the sign at different times, although we appear broadly similar to each other, and similar to (but less frequent) than Roman Catholic practice. Occasionally I’ll find another Protestant church (usually Lutheran) where the sign is made at least once during the service, usually when invoking the Trinity at the closing benediction.

Meanwhile, my Orthodox friends are quick to point out that we Westerners do our crossing backwards. They also specify that only three (or two) fingers should be used when making the sign.

Still, I am reassured by the (broad) unity of practice among liturgical Christians today — and, more importantly, the continuity of practice back to the earliest days of the Church, linking us to the early Christians.

When thinking about making liturgical choices, I sometimes use a thought experiment. Suppose a Christian from the 200s or 500s or 1000s or 1500s was transported to the 2000s? Would he or she recognize what we are doing today? As MacMillan and others note, clearly our Christian ancestors would recognize the sign of the cross — an enduring acknowledgement of the eternal redemption purchased by our savior on the cross.

Lenten devotion: an end and a beginning

Alleluia. Christ is risen.
People The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia.

Christians in the Western world celebrate the resurrection today (our Orthodox friends wait another week). It means several weeks of great Anglican (and other Christian) hymns celebrating the resurrection, starting with this morning’s service.

More selfishly for those who adopt a Lenten discipline, this marks the end of our self-denial and/or extra effort.

This year I went for a multi-part approach, which in retrospect was excessively complex — more Pharisaic (or medieval) than Anglican. On the denial side, I gave up chocolate — and ignored the Sunday loophole — which seemed more tough than usual this year. I went for meatless Fridays, as defined by the Roman Catholic Church.

On the extra effort, after the Lent 1 old testament lesson, I started out reading the old testament in Chronicles and Kings . But that fizzled out as I switched to a daily devotional by NT Wright entitled Lent for Everyone: Mark Year B. Beyond the tie to the liturgical calendar — illuminating the Sunday readings — the latter had the benefit that if I missed a day (as I did about once a week), there was pressure to do extra effort to get back on track.

I also attended the San Diego Anglicans Catechetical Academy (held Saturday mornings in Lent). At the 5th session, Fr. Lawrence Bausch of Holy Trinity — the most Anglo-Catholic priest in the SD deanery (if not the Diocese of Western Anglicans) — talked about having a rule of life. This would include more than just daily prayer, but also scripture reading and Christian meditation, including at bedtime (The day of our session, Dennis the Menace had a very relevant cartoon on bedtime prayer).

After Fr. Bausch’s session, I stand convicted of being a part-time Christian. The faith is not just for Sundays or even Lent, but 365 days a year. In my case, having a daily routine for 6 weeks isn’t going to work — I need a daily routine for 52 weeks so that it becomes routine. So this is my intention from Lent 2015 — and hopefully it won’t be used to pave that road to Hades.

Finally, I used the season as an excuse to visit other parishes beyond my own: 7 parishes in the 47 days from Ash Wednesday to Easter. More on that later.