Where will the church be in 50 years? That was the topic up for debate and discussion Sunday afternoon in historic St. George’s Anglican overlooking the blue waters of Lake Simcoe.
Will St. George’s or its sister church, St. James, still be here? Considering the former’s historic significance, undoubtedly. Will many of the other Anglican and traditional “mainstream” Christian churches? Probably not.
That was the consensus during a panel discussion, featuring participation from Rev. Canon John Hill, priest and theologian of the Anglican Church of Canada, lay theologian Ken McClure, lay theologian and youth worker Geoffrey Newland, with a special retrospective from Georgina Island First Nations member Delores Charles.
[blockquote] “It didn’t take long for the panelists to get right to the heart of the matter: plunging membership in the church and increasing numbers of empty seats in the pews.” [/blockquote]
Okay, its good to face problems head on, and the liberal-led churches in Canada are steadily losing members, as they are everywhere. But what follows is simply running up the white flag:
[blockquote] “There is hope. “I think that the majority of Christians will begin to practice more intently at home. It will become more part of our lives.†The new faith will be more like Jesus intended, he suggested, reminding the audience that the Last Supper, where the communion was born, was held in the upstairs room of a tavern. “I’m not sure that (Jesus) would have supported the idea of a formalized church.— [/blockquote]
As an orthodox Anglican, I suppose I shouldn’t care if liberals just want to abandon the idea of “formalised church” because they have so spectacularly failed at running one – after all, Anglicans with a heart for evangelism and who know that ‘formalised church’ is just as relevat today as it was in the time of the apostles, will eventually move in to fill the gap left by these liberals who give up. But its still a shame that it had to come to this at all.
It begs the question: What do the members of ACoC really think they have accomplished by their tolerance of liberal teaching (apart from dwindling churches)?
[blockquote] “The message from the pulpit no longer resonates. The question is, in 50 years, what will?” [/blockquote]
The message from orthodox pulpits resonates very well. Anglicans (whether ACNA or continuum) and other denominations seem to be at least holding their own in Canada, and with God’s grace will eventually see substantial growth.