(Please note–directly related to the preceding blog entry–KSH).
Read the original here and check the amended version there. The explanation follows:
The Report of the House of Deputies Committee on the State of the Church presents a church in where key statistical areas from 2000”“2010 show significant decline (Average Sunday Attendance -23%, Easter Attendance -21%, Baptized Members -16%, Communicants in Good Standing -16%). There are significant places of hope and vision where significant efforts are being made to turn this around. These include the Office of Congregational Vitality and the Office of Emergent Church and Church Planting. This resolution seeks to give these ministries solid budgetary support to allow this work to continue and by doing so to bring vitality and growth back to the Episcopal Church.
Program and finance are not the issue.
Last time I asked, someone will give you a Bible for free and explain it to you free of charge. It takes resolve, not resolutions, and there is no need for a budget item.
Forgive the trivia, but I am sorry they did not take the opportunity to correct the spelling of triennial. Or is this one more case where US and UK spelling differs?
No, no. All mainstream churches have declining membership and attendence. There is no special problem in TEc. Please pat yourself on the back and keep on with your coffee hours, decorating committees, and new age and pride adjuncts. These will help us hurdle past the competition.
#4 I love the meta-sarcasm in your last sentence. Gotta have some edge on mere gravity to go down faster, ya know. 😉
The oft-made comment that all mainline churches are losing members, which is sort of an umbrella excuse for what is happening in TEC, fails to take into account that most, if not all, mainline churches are going through the same turmoil TEC is going through. Are they all losing membership at the rate of TEC?
Won’t work. You need to have something to sell that people want to buy.
#7, I think that the declining membership of TEC is the central issue of church life at this moment, and almost no other issues are more consequential than that one. But you must be joking to use an image so crassly commercial.
What’s wrong with using a commercial image? Jesus used them all the time (look at the parable of the pounds for instance – works of charity are symbolised by investing money with the bankers to earn interest).
But at least you acknowledge that declining membership is a very important issue for TEC. One gets the impression that many in the HOB aren’t aware of it.
#2, precisely.
Liberals don’t know how to grow churches, is the bottom line. Never have; never will. They are reliant on the orthodox to gain and keep members, yet they are busy trying to drive the orthodox out of TEC. What a bunch of dills.