The latest ”“ and, arguably, the most important ”“ meeting of the Church of England’s General Synod will start this Friday in York.
I may be speaking too soon on this one, considering the Synod’s history of prevarication and issue-dodging, but it’s looking likely that fireworks are on the agenda ”“ this is one of the more eagerly (or bitterly, depending on your point of view) awaited sessions of recent times.
There is plenty of meat on the agenda, but the biggest issue at stake surely has to be the consecration of women bishops, one of the most divisive subjects ever to face the Anglican Communion, and one that could ultimately end in schism.
There was one line in the story that struck my eye:”the Roman Catholic Church ….doing its best to entice dissenters and ferment disgruntlement.”
However, many Roman Catholics feel that their Church is dragging its feet so uninvitingly that it gives the impression it wishes that
ALREADY disgruntled Anglicans should go elsewhere.
[blockquote] Also on the agenda is the funding of clergy pensions, another crisis in the brewing. There is now a huge shortfall – in the hundreds of millions – in CofE finances, and the pension fund has been hit especially. Something has to be done about it, and there aren’t any particularly palatable solutions on the table. [/blockquote]
Behold the wages of liberalism, Mr Mendelsohn. This is exactly what happened to TEC and it will just get worse. There is a simple reason: churches led by liberal clergy almost never grow; they shrink. This is inevitable because liberal theology sounds good on the surface but provides no spiritual nourishment, so parishioners stop going to church. As a result, income drops, and the church finds that it can no longer pay overheads on property etc.
There is only one way out of this for CofE – reject liberal theology and promote orthodox clergy to the senior positions, in particular to the teaching positions in seminaries. The church will grow in vigour, congregations will expand and, within maybe a decade your money problems will be solved.
However, if the CofE continues down its current trajectory you will find that the rate of parishioners dropping out will quicken, and rival alternative Anglican churches will appear, which also accelerates the bleeding of parishioners. You will soon be unable to pay overheads, even by selling real estate – and indeed, many of the most expensive buildings to maintain in CofE, such as cathedrals, cannot be sold.
The final result – your clergy pension fund will be unable to pay pensions as they become due. This is not just scare-mongering, it is just around the corner – a few short years away. Your liberal clergy might want to think about that, whilst they are busy promoting a liberal agenda in CofE – they are likely to pay for this activism with their pensions.
MichaelA (#2),
It was the dire financial woes of the CoE that caught my eye too.
Which reminded me of the old joke that the CoE would rather give up 38 of its 39 Articles than give up ONE 39th of its income. But lo and behold, they may ironically have found a way to give up both essential doctrines and lose lots of income simultaneously.
Obviously, the mother church is in desperate need of earnest prayer, and divine intervention.
David Handy+
A prayer for the Anglican Communion may be found [url=http://anglicanprayer.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/the-anglican-communion-in-dire-straits/]here[/url].