And it all leads to stories like this one:
What is wrong with The Episcopal Church?
This is not a rhetorical question. Conversations about how to "fix" the church are raging all over the place. But it isn't clear that we agree on what is wrong with it. One can even argue that nothing is wrong, and the decline in church membership is symptomatic of cultural forces beyond our control. What is your diagnosis?
My sense is that we have are not doing a good enough job in congregational development and evangelism to attract and inspire people. I am aware that there are any number of presuppositions and begged questions in that brief statement, but I toss it out just to get the ball rolling.
I think this is an important conversation to have, because if we can't agree on a diagnosis, we certainly won't agree on a prescription.
I may take a stab at that question tomorrow.
1 comment:
Dan,
The Episcopal parish that I'm currently attending (St Matthew's, Portland OR) could almost be a case study for you.It was actually a large, thriving parish, until a group of fundies wormed their way in. Aided by a narrow-minded, legalistic rector, they pulled off a nearly perfect steeplejacking. They weren't happy with the ordination of women. They were VERY unhappy about female bishops, and VERY VERY unhappy at having a female Presiding Bishop. They were also unhappy with the ordination of gays, and Gene Robinson sent them around the bend. There was lots of mumbling and harrumphing about Biblical Values and Biblical Teaching and Getting Back To The Bible. Apparently the last straw was when a young couple arrived, one of whom was LEM and intended to serve at the altar rail. But they were gay, and apparently that's catching? They finally held a vote, and all but about 20-25 voted to leave the ECUSA. (This landed on the desk of the new bishop, a week before consecration. Welcome, dude.)
(The split made the front page of the Oregonian. I didn't even know these people yet, but the story made me weep. All that was left was a handful of people, average age 80, looking at each other and saying "What happened to our lovely church?" They've all been here for 40, 50 years or more. Some of them have family in the group that left. Kids, grandkids, greatgrandkids...)
However, it seems that the group who left thought that they were going to keep their lovely building and all the neat stuff. And the Diocese pointed out that this was not the case. You wanna leave? Fine. But the stuff stays.
So now there's St. Matthew's Anglican (yes, they affiliated with one of the African groups) and St Matthew's Episcopal. We've heard that the Anglican group is having trouble financially, and finding meeting space. (I confess that I do not weep for them.) But we're recovering. Attendance Sunday morning is running about 45 and slowly creeping up. I'm still usually the youngest person in the room, but that's ok for now. We're a family, and it is very good. We're doing some stuff in the community that we hadn't done before the split, and I think that for all that it was hard, it really has brought people together. And loving one another is part of what it's about, isn't it?
-- Lainie
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