* first, Episcopalians, despite (or, more accurately in my view, because of) their progressive reputation are dwindling. First Things quotes from another blog these figures:
* Secondly, this post, looking at world-wide changes in Christianity, contains lots of surprising figures, such as this:In a historic shift, more people are now attending Assemblies of God churches on weekday nights than worship in Episcopal Churches on Sunday mornings.
Average mid-week evening attendance at Assemblies of God churches is now 756,263, according to the denomination’s official statistics.
Average Sunday attendance, among Episcopalians, is 727,822.
In the past 45 years, Episcopal Church membership has dropped from 3.4 million in 1964 to 2.1 million in 2007. At the same time, the inclusive membership in the Assemblies of God has skyrocketed, from 572,123 in 1964 to 2.9 million in 2008.
This past Sunday it is possible that more Christian believers attended church in China than in all of so-called “Christian Europe.”...On the same issue, John Micklethwait, editor of The Economist, had been doing the media rounds in the last month or two promoting his recently co-authored book "God Is Back", which argues that religion is indeed catching on in lots of new countries. (I think he views the house church movement in China as particularly big.) There's an interesting, even if not sympathetic, review of the book in the New Statesman.
This past Sunday more Anglicans attended church in each of Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda than did Anglicans in Britain and Canada and Episcopalians in the United States combined...
For several years the world’s largest chapter of the Jesuit order has been found in India, not in the United States, as it had been for much of the late twentieth century.
Steven - if people are leaving the Episcopalians due to their liberal tendencies, what does the move to fundamentalist churches mean and do you think it is a good thing for Christianity?
ReplyDeleteHere's a guess: liberalisation is usually accompanied by a movement to non-realist views too (although I think some liberals like Spong deny that for himself.) Certainly, you can see it happening at St Mary's-in-exile, where they frequently note how happy they are to have escaped from some old fuddy-duddy "dogma", and at the same time their figurehead has started wondering out loud whether Jesus Christ even existed.
ReplyDeleteFundamentalist churches might be becoming more successful as a reaction to the non-realist drift in other churches.
While I don't think the extremes of Christian fundamentalism are intellectually viable, I don't know that they bother me too much as long as they don't place too much faith in their own understanding of the will of God, or the minds of other people. Thus, letting a child die when simple medical treatment would cure him or her, or mistreating a mentally disturbed person because they are "possessed", are both bad things.
I would hope the middle ground of Christianity can survive the current movement towards both ends of the spectrum, but the thing is, as I don't have any hope that non-realism really has a future, I tend to have more sympathy with movement towards the fundamentalist wing (as long as they don't go around causing too much mayhem), as at least that way there will still be a future faith to move back towards the centre.
Oh, as noted in an earlier post, I don't want fundamentalists becoming too anti-scientific too, and preventing my holiday trip to the Moon in 2050.
ReplyDeleteThanks Steven - good luck on the Moon trip - Antarctica might do in the meantime.
ReplyDeleteThe problem I fear, is that they absolutely know the will of God. I have had patients who refused not only immunisation, but also the heel prick test for diseases like thyroid disease because God would not allow their children to get sick. (I handled the situation badly I fear but I don't think I could have continued as their doctor anyway.)
In the Anglican communion the Sydney Anglicans (dehydrated baptists) have aligned themselves with pretty extreme fundamentalists. I see them as far more dangerous to the future of any Church than the liberals.
I note your comments on Rowan Williams and gay Bishops. It does seem that he has had a change of emphasis doesn't it.
Thanks again for your considered remarks and blogging as always.