Thinking of oneself as “Church of England” or “Anglican” is increasingly irrelevant, clergy have suggested, responding to last week’s statistical analysis indicating that Anglicans were in steep decline in the UK….
The Dean of Chelmsford, the Very Revd Nicholas Henshall, writes (Letters) that parish priests and deans are leading “increasingly post-denominational” communities.
He points to the decline in confirmations, even in churches that are growing, as “a version of the same story. . .
“Confirmation suggests an ownership of a specific denominational identity, which is simply not part of the deal for most people. I would suggest that even most people of my generation, and certainly those of my children’s, find denominational identity increasingly irrelevant.”
I suppose it depends on what one means by “decline”.