More than half the world’s Anglicans live in Africa today. By contrast, The Times of London reported in May that at the current rate of decline, there will be fewer than 100,000 churchgoing Anglicans left in England by 2050.
What’s at stake here goes far beyond the future of Anglicanism. Most historical Christian churches today are struggling to deal with the clash of modernity and tradition. Noted religion scholar Philip Jenkins has written that the decline of Christianity in the West and its concomitant rise in the developing world means that we are “at a moment as epochal as the Reformation itself.”
The Anglican turmoil matters because the nature of this crisis is a global bellwether. As goes the Anglican Communion, so likely goes the rest of the Christian world.
Read it all.
Update: There is more on the editorial from Rod Dreher here followed by some reader comments.
A Dallas News Editorial: Anglicans on the brink
More than half the world’s Anglicans live in Africa today. By contrast, The Times of London reported in May that at the current rate of decline, there will be fewer than 100,000 churchgoing Anglicans left in England by 2050.
What’s at stake here goes far beyond the future of Anglicanism. Most historical Christian churches today are struggling to deal with the clash of modernity and tradition. Noted religion scholar Philip Jenkins has written that the decline of Christianity in the West and its concomitant rise in the developing world means that we are “at a moment as epochal as the Reformation itself.”
The Anglican turmoil matters because the nature of this crisis is a global bellwether. As goes the Anglican Communion, so likely goes the rest of the Christian world.
Read it all.
Update: There is more on the editorial from Rod Dreher here followed by some reader comments.