There’s little doubt that many within the Church of England hierarchy will be glad to see the back of February. It's not exactly been the best of months for them. In fact, it’s been a disastrous four weeks in terms of public relations.
It started with criticism of the Church’s role in asylum claims of cross-channel migrants’ supposed ‘conversion’ to Christianity. It became clear that the Church of England plays a highly significant role in the approvals process in such claims (though this is now likely to become considerably restricted). The Church was blasted from all sides – by MPs of all political persuasions, by the media, and by ordinary folk, furious that church officials could be so crass and naive. As a result of the fallout, the Church is looking at reviewing its guidelines.
Cash for Canterbury
Around the same time came news that Canterbury cathedral was hosting two alcohol-fuelled silent discos, in an attempt to reach out to younger people and to raise “large sums” in order to keep the Cathedral running. The event sparked outrage, and the story was reported across the world. Though thousands protested or signed a petition against the ‘rave in the nave’, it was announced that another half-dozen cathedrals have signed up to host silent discos in their own sacred arenas in coming weeks, while Manchester Cathedral even arranged for a Punk Rock Club night before the end of February.
Manchester Cathedral even arranged for a Punk Rock Club night before the end of February.
This wasn’t to be Canterbury’s only novel means of raising cash in an ecclesiastical setting where donations and offerings are plummeting. Just some days ago, Justin Welby was drawn into a row after it emerged that promotional material for a £950-a-head Easter Retreat at the Cathedral offered worshippers an 'intimate gathering', a chance 'to go behind the scenes' to meet staff, including the Archbishop and the Dean, Dr David Monteith. The fundraising initiative sparked an immediate backlash, with critics saying it offers ‘cash for VIP access’ at a ‘Holy week’ occasion when Christians are entering a period of reflection.
Church attendance
With such desperate efforts to raise coffers for the Church, it surprised few folk when a Telegraph study published in the middle of February revealed that C of E attendance was dropping off at a record rate. Sunday church attendance is just 80% of what it was in 2019, despite the Church of England claiming that it has “bounced back” after the pandemic. The figures reveal that church attendance has more than halved since 1987, prompting clergy to warn: “This is a doom spiral of the church’s own choosing.” Dozens of parishes are continuing to close or merge each year, with 641 churches (4%) having been closed since 2000.
The situation looks even worse for the Church of England given that attendance at churches of other denominations in the country is actually growing. Research conducted by The Bible Society found that the proportion of people attending church changed very little between 2018 and 2023, with 7% of the population attending church weekly and one in ten attending once a month.
Research conducted by The Bible Society found that the proportion of people attending church changed very little between 2018 and 2023 ...
Not to be trusted
A string of further negative headlines was to hit the national Church before February came to a close. Last week, a damning report published by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse concluded that the Church of England should be stripped of its power to investigate and punish sexual abusers because victims cannot trust it. There is “inconsistent guidance, data collection, accountability, professional practice and scrutiny” in the Church’s safeguarding, it said, and it “falls below the standards of secular organisations”.
Also this week, the Church of England told all of its parishes to draw up “race action plans” after the Rt Rev Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the Bishop of Dover, who led prayers at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle in May 2018 and is staunchly pro-Black Lives Matter, urged that it's good to be “woke”, and the Church should embrace 'wokeness' and “further embed racial justice”. A Synod motion to this end passed by a striking 364 votes in favour to zero against.
Synod stirrings
Then, also within the past week, followed further revelations from inside the Church’s General Synod, the Church’s legislative body. In his opening address, Justin Welby said “malign forces” within the C of E were doing the “Devil’s work” by regarding others within the Church as their enemies. Lambeth Palace, Welby admitted, is regularly deluged by hate mail that came predominantly from “within the Church”, particularly in regard to staunch disagreement over same-sex marriage, which has caused deep division within church ranks.
Lambeth Palace, Welby admitted, is regularly deluged by hate mail that was came predominantly from “within the Church”
Perhaps the real low point of the Synod was when members voted down an amendment to ‘reaffirm the value of marriage, especially when loving, as providing the most stable and permanent environment for bringing up children’. The next day, the chairman of the Archbishop's Council Finance Committee, Carl Hughes, expressed his singular deep disappointment that ‘Synod was unable to affirm the Church’s teaching on the value of marriage as providing the most stable and permanent environment for bringing up children.’
International concerns
Criticism of the Church has not been confined to sources within the UK. It has been revealed that two official Ukrainian bodies protested at the Church of England briefing document prepared ahead of this week’s Synod debate on the Russia-Ukraine war.
The briefing document is said to be ‘inappropriately even-handed', as if both sides in the conflict are caught up in a tragic muddle, and as if no particular religious body is more culpable than any other. The document is charged, among other things, with repeating “pro-Russian propaganda narratives”, and with misrepresenting “the religious dimension of Russian aggression.” It was also regarded as rather odd that the only non-Anglican to speak at the debate was a Russian Orthodox priest.
On and on …
Synod apart, the Church of England was in the news again a couple of days ago, when a court heard that a decision to dissolve the parish of the first black female deacon in the Church supposedly due purely to cost-cutting proposals, is “indirectly discriminatory”.
It was also regarded as rather odd that the only non-Anglican to speak at the Synod debate was a Russian Orthodox priest.
The negative news stories continue, with revelations this week that hugely controversial Church of England guidance telling primary schools that children as young as five can be transgender was funded by the equally controversial LGBT charity Stonewall. Just yesterday, on the last day of February, Justin Welby made a u-turn, apologising for cancelling a meeting with a Bethlehem-based pastor because he shared a platform with Jeremy Corbyn at a pro-Palestine rally, and offering to meet him next week.
Update. And to top it all, the Church of England has just announced that it's hiring a “deconstructing whiteness” officer to combat racial injustice.
Enough has been shared to evidence the reality that things are not going well for the Church of England.
Brink of a precipice
The Rev Ian Paul, a member of the Archbishop's Council, has claimed that the Church of England is "standing on the brink of a precipice" – a precipice which could leave the next generation with nothing but a "heap of ruins" to fight over. In equally stinging sentiments, Tim Dieppe of Christian Concern, in an article in Premier Christianity, stated unequivocally, "The Church of England must repent. It’s the only way to stop the decline.”
It's clear that things are not well for the Church of England when it feels forced to resort to employ imaginative and new-fangled but somewhat desperate methods of attracting young folk into its buildings – be that in the form of helter-skelters, crazy golf courses or silent discos.
It’s in Christ that new life is found, and it’s by discovering and living out that truth that hundreds of non-institutional churches (together with, thankfully, a few, biblically faithful Anglican ones) throughout the country are currently thriving.
Will the Church ever face up to the reality that, for the main part, it has lost relevance with the British public, with its (all-too-often) dreary sermons, its insistence on conforming to woke and unbiblical social ethics (not least regarding gender identity and same-sex marriage), and its overtly left-leaning politics?
Will it ever return to the simplicity of preaching Jesus Christ, and the gospel truth that salvation is found in Him alone? It’s in Christ that new life is found, and it’s by discovering and living out that truth that hundreds of non-institutional churches (together with, thankfully, a few, biblically faithful Anglican ones) throughout the country are currently thriving.
The Church of England, meanwhile, for the most part, chooses to continue to tread the pathway of decline, lifelessness and irrelevance, which ultimately, appears to hurtle it ever closer in the direction of self-extinction.