Rule Brittannia?

Britain is no longer

a Christian nation,

claims Church of England

Bishop

Britain is no longer a Christian nation and the Church of England could die out within a generation, an Anglican bishop has warned.

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Published: 9:00PM BST 27 Jun 2009

"The Rt Rev Paul Richardson said declining church attendance and the rise in multiculturalism meant that "Christian Britain is dead".

He criticised his fellow bishops for failing to appreciate the scale of the crisis and warned that their inaction could seal the Church's fate.

As one of the Church's longest-serving bishops, the comments by the assistant Bishop of Newcastle are set to fuel the debate over its future.

The General Synod, the Church's parliament, will next month consider proposals to cut the number of bishops and senior clergy amid fears over the Church's finances.

Writing for The Sunday Telegraph, Bishop Richardson said: "Many bishops prefer to turn their heads, to carry on as if nothing has changed, rather than face the reality that Britain is no longer a Christian nation.

"Many of them think that we are still living in the 1950s – a period described by historians as representing a hey day for the established church."

He said that the Church had lost more than one in ten of its regular worshippers between 1996 and 2006, with a fall from more than one million to 880,000.

"At this rate it is hard to see the church surviving for more than 30 years though few of its leaders are prepared to face that possibility," said Bishop Richardson.

Nearly half of the population in England regard themselves as belonging to the Church of England, while seven in ten described themselves as Christian in the last census.

However, the Bishop said that the fall in church marriages and baptisms revealed that Britain was no longer a Christian nation.

The number of babies being baptised has fallen from 609 in every 1,000 at the turn of the twentieth century to only 128 in 2006/7 and church marriages have also dropped.

Bishop Richardson said: "The church is being hit by a double whammy: on the one hand it confronts the challenge of institutional decline but on the other hand it has to face the rise of cultural and religious pluralism in Britain."

He says that the way the Church responds to this will be "crucial in determining whether it will be able to survive as a viable organisation and make a contribution to national life".

"At present church leaders show little signs of understanding the situation. They don't understand the culture we now live in."

The bishop believed it is inevitable that disestablishment will happen and suggests that the Church should take a lead on the issue rather than being dictated to by Parliament.

"Rather than try to cling on to their places in the House of Lords, they should take the initiative by withdrawing, which shows that they appreciate Christian Britain is dead."

Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury has also delivered a bleak assessment of the future of Christianity in this country, claiming previously that Britain's Churches are in such serious decline that if they were shops they would have been declared bankrupt long ago."

See the full story at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/5662294/Britain-is-no-longer-a-Christian-nation.html

___________________________________

This all started long long ago........

 

and there is only one antidote.......

Our Lady of Walsingham, intercede for your English sons & daughters!

Comments

[Cristian]

The picture of King Henry VIII is poignant in that much of England's spiritual crisis is from the Nation falling to protestantism. But if that were the only explanation, what do we Catholics say to Italy, Spain, and France facing a similar fate--not as severe, but severe nevertheless?

[Michael]

Very recently a religious service on Radio 4, Sunday 21st. June, commemorating the 500th. anniversary of Henry VIII, the CofE cleric opined:

The Reformation was merely to bring the scriptures to the people per the vernacular;

The CofE was the Reformed Catholic Church, truly Catholic, but reformed;

No mention of Henry VIII's divorce or whatever;

Where the 39 Articles comes into the cleric's thinking I know not.

[Simonian]

"England is no longer a Christian nation". Well, that scores a big "DUH!" But the heretic CofE sealed its fate long ago. And good ridance. The sooner it is relegated to a comical footnote in religious texts the better.

[James M. Essig]

As a Roman Catholic U.S. citizen, I say what a great opportuinity for the Catholic Church to evangelize in Great Britain. Many of these former faithful of the Church of England are still open to the spiritual and perhaps feeding them with Catholic Culture and Faith can lead them to a more fuller conversion.

It is a shame that so many folks, even Christians of various denomenations are turning to pantheistic religions, eastern religions such as Bhuddism, Hindu, and even spiritism and UFO space alien forms of religion.

All of these other religions or religions outside the realm of the Judaeo-Christian religions are not Divine Revelation, but are human attempts to learn of the Divine, which in themselves are noble, but far fall short of the truth of Divine Revelation especially that of the Catholic Church, its Ordinary and Supreme Majesterial Teachings, its authentic Tradition, and the Sacred Scriptures validly interpreted.

It seems more and more that folks especially youth are turning to crap like Harry Potter books, the dubious practices of parapsychological phenomenon, and transcendental meditation, in a effort to try to become invunerable by attempting to consolidate hidden powers while avoiding suffering at all costs, when in reality, they should turn back to the Catholic Church, or at least some noble protestant denomination, and take up their dailly crosses and offer up their sufferings instead of trying to escape their sufferings with practices that are ineffective at best, and most likely involve much superstition, and at worst, involve unwilling recourse to or the intervention of the power of Evil Spirits.

The new Catholic Catechism has clearly warned us about the dangers of the Occult, Spiritism, and other demonic trash.

The most powerful spiritual force in all of creation is the power of the cross and all of the vunerablities and limitations that our human nature entails. It was the power of Christ's affliction, passion, and death on the Cross: that; saved the world, is saving the world, and will save the world; that, saved us, is saving us, and will save us.

The world finds this hard to believe, especially humanitarians, and social scientists, as well as many well intentioned psychologists and psychiatrists, but I must say, no pain, no gain, and this means physical suffering, social suffering, mental and emotional suffering, and spiritual suffering. Certainly, mental disorders should be treated but mental health practicianers should not shy away from the religious devotions of their clients as such chronic conditions often motivate their clients to a sense of a deeper meaning of life.

Without the cross, there is no Ressurrection and there is no Eternal Glory behing all imagining.

God Bless;

Jim

[Simonian]

Jim - "noble Protestant denomination" is an oxymoron. There is nothing noble about heresy. I understand that you are probably just conditioned to think this way due to the Vatican II principles that "all religions have a path to God" etc. But just to be clear, heresy = lies, and ALL lies come from Satan. To follow heresy is to follow Satan, willingly or obliviously.

It is indeed sad and disheartening that so few in our Catholic faith are willing to use the accurate term "heresy", opting instead to use euphemisms like "separated bretheren", "brothers in Christ" or "noble Protestant denominations" since they don't want to appear remotely "judgemental". If we came across a heroin addict, would we say, "well, that's one way to spend your time"? So, why then should we not be equally as direct when trying to save people from heresy, which is far more destructive?

[Batjacboy]

Simonian,

Wow! Spot on! And I say this with absolutely no disrespect to Jim and his post, which had many good points.

But what you've said here is crucial. Calling heresy by its proper name is an act of charity. Tolerating it, in word or deed, is not.