Sunday, February 1, 2009

Devolved Archbishop losing the flock

Bad news for the church in Wales:
CHURCH attendance in Wales could decline to less than a quarter of its current level according to an analysis of the country's religious trends.

New figures compiled after an analysis of membership of religious bodies have revealed the numbers attending church on a monthly basis could fall from 200,000 to fewer than 40,000 over the next four decades - that is less than the average attendance at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge football ground.

If the predictions are proved true, by 2050 Wales will be home to the smallest church-going population in Britain, as attendance in England was predicted to fall from three million to 700,000, and in Scotland it is expected to decline from 550,000 to 140,000 in the same period.

Despite all that the Archbishop isn't a worried man...
The Archbishop of Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, said that although there had been a decline in the numbers attending services, at some churches in Wales, more than 44,000 people attended each week, with the figure rising to more than 72,000 at Christmas.

Dr Morgan said: "All over Wales you can see parishes and churches transforming themselves and the community around them.

"They are fully engaged with their mission to the community in many different ways, with new and exciting initiatives, risks being taken, new avenues explored and new ways reinvigorated."

"Now sod off, I've got much more interesting stuff to deal with here..."
...he might have added:
A POLITICAL action group chaired by the Archbishop of Wales has decided to become the next best thing to a Yes campaign for full lawmaking powers at the National Assembly.

Members of Tomorrow’s Wales – also known as Cymru Yfory – believe the time has come for supporters of devolution to be more pro-active in arguing the case for more powers.

Wouldn't the Archbishop's time be better spent in becoming "more pro-active in arguing the case for"...Christianity?

5 comments:

Wyrdtimes said...

Still no sign of anyone from the Church of England actually standing up for England or the English of course.

O'Neill said...

I don't think the Church should be standing up for anyone other than the bloke upstairs they're supposed to be reprsenting down here.

Wyrdtimes said...

Don't know about your church but the CofE needs winding down completely and it's lands returned to the people.

The others need taxing.

Unknown said...

I quite agree O'Neill. Render under Caesar that which is Caesar's, etc. The Church should concern itself solely with spriritual matters.

But as for the C of E, we have a mad Welshman who has said that our English flag should be replaced because the Cross of St George is an explicitly Christian symbol that could be deemed offensive in a multicultural society.

With an attitude to his own religion like that, (coupled with the obligatory Anglophobia about anything "English"), is it any surprise that Church attendance is dropping?

O'Neill said...

The parallel I'd draw is a my ringing up a plumber to sort out a leak.

Along he pops and although it soon becomes apparent that he's forgotten the fundamentals of his trade, he's able, as an alternative, to give a lecture on the polar bears disappearing because of global warming. His views are all very entertaining probably, but not a great help with the immediate problem in hand.
I'd be unlikely to call him up again.