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T
HE CHURCHES
in Britai n have
steadily a nd incxorab ly los t
the ir inftue ncc on the li ves o f
the maj o rity o f the peoplc. A recent
po li ca rried out by the O pinion Rc–
sea rch Centre found tha t only 29
percent of a ll Britons now bclieve in
a pe rsona l God . 42 pe rcent never go
to church , and ano t her 11 pe rcent
go less tha n once a yea r.
This loss o f re lig ious in ll ucnce is
no less tru c of the Church o f
England - the Anglican Church -
tha n it is of the othe r churches.
In s ucccss ion to Dr. M ichae l
Ramsey. Dr. Dona ld Cogga n has as–
cended the th rone o f Augustine lo
become the
1
O
1st Archbishop of
Ca nte rbury a nd Prima te of Al!
England . Ma ny a re looking to him
to breath e new life in to the Church
o f Eng land.
Declining Fortunes
Be tween 1960 a nd 1970 regula r
church a ttenda nce in the Church of
Eng land declined by 19 percent. In
1963. 632 me n were o rda incd to the
mini stry. T en years la ter o rd inations
had droppcd to 373. Forty percent
o f the clergy a re aged 55 o r over.
a nd it is es ti mated tha t 6.000 will
have retired by 1980, to be repl aced
by only about 3,000.
Simila r d isma l figures could be
given fo r most denom inat ions in
Brita in and Weste rn Europe gener–
a lly. [n a Ga llu p po li published in
1973. 70 pe rcent ofthe Brit ish pub–
ti c thought tha t re ligion was losi ng
its inftuence in British life.
In ligh t of these sta tis tics, ma ny
a re asking wha t has gone wrong . Dr.
M e r vy n S tockwood. A ng li can
bishop of Southwa rk. sa id in an ar–
ticle in the
Times
recen tly: ·'Today
churchmen s hould be conce rned
with the surv iva l o f the C hris ti an
fa ith as a phil osophy. a re ligion and
a
way
of lije. "
" [t is significan !," he continued.
" th a t during the decade in whi ch
the re has becn an ala rming decline
in Church a tte nda nce a nd o rdina–
ti o n ca ndi da t es . th e Churc h o f
England ha spen t more time a nd
money tha n it has ever done pre-
PLAIN TRUTH December 1974
viously upon constitutiona l refo rm,
can o n la w r ev is ion. liturg ical
changes a nd inte r-Church rela tion–
ships.' '
Refe rring to th e ma la ise into
which religion in Br itain has fa ll en,
he commentcd : ' 'There has becn a
shift of consciousness, a shift from a
socie ty which felt itself dependen!
upon God to a society which be–
lieves it can shape its own future.
Life is no longer nasty, brutish and
sho rt as it was until compa ratively
recently a nd ma n with o ma ny
mo re years a t his disposal be li eves
he can creatc the conditions which
will mee t his needs. Of course. there
a re still gaps to be fill ed but he no
longer looks to God to fill them."
How has thi s ma la ise come
a bout?
Religion a Thing of
the Past?
The re is a very common assump–
tio n among students o f reli gion that
modern ma n can get along pc rfectly
we ll without a ny re ligious creed to
gove rn his life. Pro fessor Peter Ber–
ger says in his book
Rumour of An–
gels:
"Wha tever the situa tion may
have been in the past. today the
supe rnatura l as a meaningful reality
is a bsent or remo te from the ho ri–
zons o f everyday life o f la rge num–
bers, very probably of the majority ,
of peopl e in mode rn socie ti es, who
seem to manage to get along with–
out it quit e well. "
lt
is again t this background o f
a lmos! to ta l
~ecularization
tha t the
decl ine ín thc impact of religion in
Britain and th e Western wo rld as a
who le must be examined . In con–
trad iction to the views exp ressed
above, the re is no reason to be li eve
tha t t he supe rna tura l need be any
mo re absent or remo le from the
horizons of eve ryday li fe of mos t
people today than it was six thou–
sand yea r ago. lfthe re is some thing
a t fa ul t. it is in the re ligion.
Are the Churches on Their
Last Legs?
In his book.
"The Church in
an
Age of Revolution,"
Alee Vidle r
commented on the decade afte r
1960: " AII in all. whil e the Churches
ha ve survived a nd their future is
still open , it can ha rdly be said tha t
they have revived in such a way as
to o fre r a n assurance ro the d is–
pass ionat e obse rver tha t they will
not become me re surviva ls in a
world tha t will have no further use
for th em. ...
"Christopher Dawson once ob–
se rved that ' men today a re di vided
between those who have kept thc ir
s pi ritua l roots a nd los t the ir contact
with the ex isting o rde r o f socie ty.
a nd those who have preserved thc ir
socia l cont acts and lost the ir spiri–
tu a l roots.' To survey the histo ry of
th e Church si nce the French Revo–
lution is to be made awa re of this
schism in the souls o f mode rn ma n
and in the souls of many Chris tian
men . lt does not ena bl e one to say
with confidence whe ther or no t the
schism can be hea led.' '
Twenty-fi ve m ill ion peopl e in
Brita in are membe rs of the Church
of Engla nd . Millions more cla im
mem be rship in o th er c hurches.
whe the r Protesta n! o r Ca tholic. But
the vast majority have chosen to
preserve " th eir socia l contacts and
have lost their spiritua l roots." They
fi nd the Church has very little to
o ffe r t hem.
For those laymen who still attend
chu rch regularly, there is a growing
a nd dange rous gul f be tween the cx–
pe r ts in the un iversities a nd the
cle rgy on the one ha nd a nd the ordi–
na ry layman on the o the r.
Theology in the uni versiti es is be–
coming more a nd mo re remo te from
t he inte rests a nd concerns of th e
ma n on the st reet. Sma ll wonder,
then , that so ma ny fee l the churches
a nd re lig ion have little if a ny thing
to o ffer th em.
Can Britain Claim to Be
Christian?
With declining attend ance fi gures
a nd fewer tra in ing for th e ministry.
it is obvious that the churches are in
trouble.
Recently, Mr. Harry Mo rton, a
fo rmer presi den! o f the Methodist
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