Justin Welby, the Bishop of Durham, said the financial crisis and a series of scandals had “toppled the idols” on which British society had been based for decades but could open up the way for a wider return to Christianity.
He said the current mood in the country offered the Church its “greatest moment of opportunity since the Second World War”.
His comments, days before he formally takes over as Archbishop, herald a shift in the direction of the Church of England, with a more explicit drive to win converts rather than being perceived as simply managing decline.
The big opportunity here is for the church to replace the state as a social welfare agency so that way more people will need to have a relationship with the church??
I’m just trying to get the point of what he’s saying.
According to her official biographer, the late Queen Elizabeth (“the Queen Mum”) voiced concern that government could not equal the efforts of charities, including religious groups, to help the poor, ill, young, elderly, etc. Partly as an effort to keep royalty as being viewed as unnecessary and a drain on British society, but also party because of this concern, the Windsors, under George VI and his spouse redoubled their efforts to help charities through the spotlight of royal sponsorship. Bp/to be Archbp Welby is voicing that same notion. The state IMHO, is not so much concerned with “social welfare” and encouraging self-help as with doling out money and increasing dependency. This dependency increasingly becomes dependency upon the state as the source of all goodness. Such is counter to the Bible, which teaches us that the source of all goodness is God.