The U.S. Religious Landscape Survey by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life has put hard numbers on the anecdotal evidence: One out of every 10 Americans is an ex-Catholic. If they were a separate denomination, they would be the third-largest denomination in the United States, after Catholics and Baptists. One of three people who were raised Catholic no longer identifies as Catholic….
If you believed liberals, most Catholics who leave the church would be joining mainline churches, like the Episcopal church. In fact, almost two-thirds of former Catholics who join a Protestant church join an evangelical church. Catholics who become evangelicals and Catholics who join mainline churches are two very distinct groups. We need to take a closer look at why each leaves the church….
I suspect the same dynamic is happening to TEC.
It is difficult to recognize Christ in the constantly shifting sands of declarations, liturgical creativity, political correctness, “inclusion” language, and the church’s embarrassment over it’s own history. The constancy and security offered through evangelicals and orthodox alike provide spiritual grounding in an increasingly frightening and chaotic world.
As one who left Rome for Canterbury, I found this article and the comments to be very interesting. Notice how important meaningful worship and Bible study were to those who left and chose a new spiritual home. Indeed, the liturgy was the first draw for me to the Episcopal church.
Notice, too, how many folks said they wanted a spiritual home where they could worship, learn, and serve. Period. The politics and machinations of the structure/hierarchy aren’t meaningful or desired. That really does speak for me, as well. Last night, I wrote about this very thing on another post here and it’s fascinating to see that I’m far from alone in it.
So you joined TEC because you wanted to avoid politics…?
driver,
No, I joined TEC because I found immeasurable value in the liturgy, BCP, and adult ed. I do enjoy the fact that I can ignore the PB and whatever goes on at 815 quite easily, though, which I tend to do. I don’t find the machinations of the political side of ANY church to be helpful to one’s spiritual life. The difference here is that excommunication doesn’t come into play. 🙂
I know that my POV in this regard probably irks those on both sides of the political equation. But in a lifetime of watching all of the activism, it has become increasingly meaningless. I leave any changes that the Holy Spirit has in mind for the Church up to God because only the authentic will be successful. The actions, movements, and machinations of activists (mostly clergy, it seems) will, in God’s good time, be revealed for what they are.
But I think — and this study apparently bears it out — that all people want is a good parish home, one that offers reverent liturgy and solid teaching plus fellowship. A place to worship and learn and be sustained through God’s Word and the sacraments.
The parishes that offer these things thrive — those that don’t falter and/or die. It seems as though fewer Christians are riding for the brand anymore.
There may be a number of reasons for leaving one church for another. But there is only one reason which takes precedence over all others, and that is agreement with its doctrines and teachings.
In ICXC
John (former RC but NOT a Protestant)
True that, John. Like Orthodox believers, I couldn’t agree with some of the RC Marian doctrines or papal infallibility. But many RCs don’t agree with those things and yet they remain. For other personal reasons, I couldn’t do that. And for very practical reasons, I couldn’t even consider Orthodoxy. There wasn’t an Orthodox church anywhere near me.
So, doctrinally speaking, Anglicanism fit the best. But, as I said, the liturgy and BCP sealed the deal. I love them — they are so instrumental in my worship and prayer life.
I am glad that the article acknowledged that you can’t put every person leaving the RCC into the same basket!
Teatime2: More than 30 years ago, I also left the RC Church for the Episcopal Church –almost entirely on the strength of “the beauty of holiness” represented in traditional Anglo-Catholic worship. So much of what Fr Reese talked about resonated with me as a convert. It’s hard to remember now just how insipid was the worship of ’70s American Catholicism. For me, the 1979 BCP (at that time just introduced weeks before my arrival, and as new to the cradle Episcopalians as it was to me) was like a revelation sent straight down from above. The gorgeous music, the stateliness of the ceremony, the earnest deliberateness of Anglicanism was a gift. The Holy Spirit preventing, I had found a home: so many of my Catholic friends and family clearly resented their Church, yet simply couldn’t move on to another church were they might be happier.
Ad Orientem: When I was in the process of deciding whether to leave the RC Church, a friend (now a highly esteemed seminary chaplain and spiritual director) said something that’s stayed with me until now. He said, “the only reason to leave one church and to join another is that you sincerely believe that you will love and serve God and your neighbor better in the one than in the other.” Once I had decided that, my decision was so much easier … but it wasn’t essentially a decision about church doctrines and teachings.
re 6: No, it isn’t. Affirming the correctness of a church’s views is not really a good reason for joining it. To some degree doing so is an act of self-righteousness, because it is, after all, one’s personal judgement that functions in that choice.
RE: “I do enjoy the fact that I can ignore the PB and whatever goes on at 815 quite easily, though, which I tend to do.”
Yes — that is one reason why TEC is in the mess that it is in. Parishioners ignore “political” things and hire dreadful rectors and elect dreadful vestry members and diocesan convention delegates. Then they ignore the political in their diocese and their elected delegates make dreadful decisions in convention and — eventually — elect dreadful bishops. And then the convention’s deputies to GC make dreadful decisions at General Convention and elect dreadful Presiding Bishops — which parishioners back home attempt to dutifully ignore.
Nice.
RE: “I leave any changes that the Holy Spirit has in mind for the Church up to God because only the authentic will be successful. The actions, movements, and machinations of activists (mostly clergy, it seems) will, in God’s good time, be revealed for what they are.”
Yes — and the Holy Spirit seems to be making *very* clear his intentions for The Episcopal Church — none of which will affect parishioners who are bent on ignoring the “political” until it affects their own parish.
Unfortunately, as we now see almost every week or more on the pages of T19, the “political” decisions that parishioners are ignoring *will* affect, eventually, their own parish by their own parish’s decline and death.
RE: “But I think—and this study apparently bears it out—that all people want is a good parish home, one that offers reverent liturgy and solid teaching plus fellowship. A place to worship and learn and be sustained through God’s Word and the sacraments.”
Yes — most people are congregationalists.
RE: “The parishes that offer these things thrive—those that don’t falter and/or die.”
I disagree. There are many parishes that have offered those things and died stone dead. Because — unfortunately for some — the “political” decisions made at the top-most level of an organization do affect local “franchises”, even when parishioners do their best to ignore those decisions.