We know what it means to be in a fragile and vulnerable vessel, caught in the storm. That is our Church out there, miles from shore, harassed by the wind and beaten by the waves. There is so much that is against us: a growing secularism that is indifferent, skeptical or hostile to all religious claims; the injustices and exclusions and daily disrespect directed at our brothers and sisters of color, at the disabled and at our gay brothers and lesbian sisters and other sexual minorities; those whose lives have been devastated by the ongoing economic turbulence, having lost jobs and homes; those caught up in violent conflicts and those cast down by earthquakes and other disasters; the poor and homeless and hungry and the least of those whom our Lord called members of his family (Matthew 25:31-46).
The institutional life and financial future of our congregations are also facing high seas and strong winds. Smaller and poorer churches are awash with life-threatening challenges of declining attendance, deteriorating buildings and diminished resources. The combination of clergy compensation and the expense of maintaining physical plants leaves little funding for education and outreach. In too many cases, even in more comfortable communities, vestries have found it necessary to reduce clergy compensation to part-time. Retrenchment is all around us and it is dispiriting, to say the least.
And here is another wave: we are two dioceses in decline, in the midst of a denomination in decline. A recent report noted that, of 110 dioceses in The Episcopal Church, only four are growing; none of them in our Province. Our losses in membership and in attendance are less precipitous than those in other parts of the Church, but that’s not a great rallying cry to mission, is it? Our work is to feed the sheep, not count them; but let us not live in denial that such losses are haunting. As Charles Fulton has written, “Resurrection follows death ”“ it does not follow denial.”
[blockquote]The institutional life and financial future of our congregations are also facing high seas and strong winds. Smaller and poorer churches are awash with life-threatening challenges of declining attendance, deteriorating buildings and diminished resources. The combination of clergy compensation and the expense of maintaining physical plants leaves little funding for education and outreach. In too many cases, even in more comfortable communities, vestries have found it necessary to reduce clergy compensation to part-time. Retrenchment is all around us and it is dispiriting, to say the least.[/blockquote]
My Episcoapl parish (not in NJ) has dropped from an ASA of over 500 to barely 150 most Sundays. Meanwhile, our local Roman Catholic parish has 5 standing room only Masses each weekend, the Greek Orthodox community just built a huge new church. and even the Amermenian Orthodox are thriving.
Could this have anything to do with the TEC having no doctrine, not taking a stand on anything, and including everything? If a church has nothing to say, why bother listening?
The message is that of secularism, plain and simple when one removes the religious language trappings. There is no discernment, much less judgment about the message, just the mantra that one is drowning with Jesus. Jesus did not drown. He lifted Peter out of the mare of self-reliance. There is a profound, and profoundly missed, difference.
kudos to the NJ Bishop for honesty. can’t imagine anyone in EWR wants to hear it though.
Bp Councill noted that the second bishop of NJ, George Washington Doane, was passionately interested in mission, and therefore the two NJ dioceses should be as well. It is a shame that the two NJ bishops do not share the gospel that Bp Doane knew and loved so greatly. Bp Doane is the author of the great mission hymn, “Fling Out the Banner,” which was in the 1940 (and earlier) hymnal, but which was omitted from the 1979 hymnal. He was one of the great evangelical bishops of the 1800’s, and would be weeping now if he saw the depths to which his beloved diocese and church have fallen.
having faith IN Jesus doesn’t imply signing off on a list of statements ABOUT Jesus
Sigh. Typical sound-bite which sounds good until you submit it to analysis and begin to realise that you cannot follow a cipher, a vacuum, a make-of-it-what-you-will Saviour. Moreover, it simply sets aside two millenia of Christian debate and gradual consensus about Jesus the Christ. Unwise, at least; and possibly arrogant also, to believe that we can have church with ‘you follow your Jesus and I will follow my Jesus’.
5, to true. Once again we are faced with Jesus’ question, “Who do you say that I am?”
The conclusion of preaching Calvary was good to hear. However,
and I’ve said this before, the most confusing thing the Church will be dealing with now is a preaching by authoritative leaders that returns to the focus of Calvary from agenda-ridden messages on “luv”, but still cannot and does not connect the dots back to the authority and validity of scripture as a whole, which would be – if I read Hakkatan right – the preaching of +Doane. Thus, the message of Jesus would continue to free-float, and the Church will continue to discover that evangelism by proclaiming a disconnected Good News is totally ineffective, because it is in reality no good news at all.
dwstroudmd,
I’m not sure what it means to say that when the “religious language trappings” are removed the message is that of “secularism.” If you remove religious language from any text, what is left will be secular. I think this really means that you don’t believe Bishop Councell when he says he believes in Jesus, so you’d like to pretend that all that talk about believing in Jesus wasn’t there. But it is there, and just because the Bishop disagrees with you on certain points doesn’t mean he is insincere when he says he believes in Jesus.
Dorpsgek,
Do I detect a form of “prosperity theology” behind your comments? Do you think that numerical success is evidence of truth?
Contarini,
“We know what it means to be in a fragile and vulnerable vessel, caught in the storm. That is our Church out there, miles from shore, harassed by the wind and beaten by the waves. There is so much that is against us: a growing secularism that is indifferent, skeptical or hostile to all religious claims; the injustices and exclusions and daily disrespect directed at our brothers and sisters of color, at the disabled and at our gay brothers and lesbian sisters and other sexual minorities; those whose lives have been devastated by the ongoing economic turbulence, having lost jobs and homes; those caught up in violent conflicts and those cast down by earthquakes and other disasters; the poor and homeless and hungry and the least of those whom our Lord called members of his family (Matthew 25:31-46).
The institutional life and financial future of our congregations are also facing high seas and strong winds. Smaller and poorer churches are awash with life-threatening challenges of declining attendance, deteriorating buildings and diminished resources. The combination of clergy compensation and the expense of maintaining physical plants leaves little funding for education and outreach. In too many cases, even in more comfortable communities, vestries have found it necessary to reduce clergy compensation to part-time. Retrenchment is all around us and it is dispiriting, to say the least.
And here is another wave: we are two dioceses in decline, in the midst of a denomination in decline. A recent report noted that, of 110 dioceses in The Episcopal Church, only four are growing; none of them in our Province. Our losses in membership and in attendance are less precipitous than those in other parts of the Church, but that’s not a great rallying cry to mission, is it? Our work is to feed the sheep, not count them; but let us not live in denial that such losses are haunting. As Charles Fulton has written, “Resurrection follows death – it does not follow denial.—
Denial of the Gospel is easily followed by denial of decline. The EcUSA/TEc is in its own vessel, not the Lord’s. The EcUSA/TEc has refused the voice of its brethren Anglicans, Romans, and Orthodox. Denial is its modus operandi. Jesus did not drown. He lifted Peter out of the mare of self-reliance. There is a profound, and profoundly missed, difference.