{"id":147335,"date":"2026-09-17T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=147335"},"modified":"2026-09-17T17:41:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T21:41:46","slug":"first-things-the-fraying-fabric-of-the-church-of-england","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=147335","title":{"rendered":"(First Things) Stephen Daisley–The Fraying Fabric of the Church of England"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The sight of London\u2019s Muslim mayor celebrating the transformation of a crown jewel of the Anglican estate into a semi-secular setting, and doing so while reducing a venerated place of English Christian worship to the status of a landmark, felt like a provocation to some. Taking up Khan\u2019s challenge, the journalist Tom Harwood proposed<\/a>: \u201cHeaven nightclub. Baitul Futuh Mosque,\u201d referencing a prominent gay nightspot and a south London masjid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mayor\u2019s disregard for England\u2019s Christian heritage notwithstanding, the Fabric collaboration comes at a time of profound tribulation for Anglicanism. The denomination has been the established church in England continuously since the seventeenth century, but its origins stretch back to the Reformation. Its (temporal) head is King Charles III, and its bishops sit in the House of Lords, but its nominal flock, the English, are a thoroughly irreligious lot. Just 5 percent of British adults attend church weekly, a figure that rises to a mere 13 percent for professed Christians. The collapse in formal worship in the United States in recent years might leave American clergy despairing, but their English brethren would consider such numbers a gift from the Almighty. The sunset of English religiosity is by no means only an Anglican phenomenon, as a glimpse at a typical Sunday Mass in England\u2019s Catholic churches will attest. Only Islam is experiencing growth in Blighty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The emptying of the pews has coincided with a hollowing out of the church in other senses. Between 2010 and 2019, 423 Anglican churches closed their doors permanently. The Church of England\u2019s website<\/a> advertises shuttered churches for lease or sale. There are currently forty-one listed. Amid widespread reports of overstretched and underpaid vicars, forced by a decline in vocations to minister to an ever-growing number of parishes, our friend Rev. Walker recently warned the church was \u201con a path to annihilation,\u201d noting a 20 percent drop in paid clergy since the turn of the century. The Labour government hardly eased the financial pressure when it announced that grants from a \u00a323 million per annum church restoration fund would now be liable for 20 percent value-added tax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Church of England benefits from an \u00a311.6 billion endowment fund, but parishes see precious little of it. Commercial ventures like concert-hosting might seem benign enough as money-spinning schemes go, but whether it\u2019s raves in the naves or Fiona Apple by the lady chapel, there is a risk that by welcoming in the secular, England\u2019s cathedrals and churches are letting some of the sacred escape. A Christian house of worship offers the pilgrim something no secular space can: the chance to encounter the Divine within a monument to his majesty. Step over the threshold to a church, and you are instantly aware of having left behind the worldly and ventured into the spiritual. Nothing that diminishes this experience is worth any financial reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>

What happens when the Church tries to fill its empty pews by making room for the secular world?

Stephen Daisley examines the Church of England\u2019s struggle to preserve the sacred and what is lost when churches begin to look more like cultural venues than houses of worship.

Read\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/zPh1rppxtv<\/a><\/p>— First Things (@firstthingsmag) September 15, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote>