Will the Last One Out Please Blow Out the Candles?

 

According to current projections, the last Anglican in England will die by about 2060.

Evangelical and Pentecostal groups, on the other hand, are growing.

The Anglican Church serves no purpose. They now simply tailor their teaching to whatever the public wants. They have just approved the blessing of gay marriages; despite the prohibition of homosexual sex in the Bible.

So why bother with church? 

Imagine if you went to a doctor, and the doctor simply asked “What do you think the problem is?”

Whatever you suggested, he agreed with. Then he asked,

“What do you think would help?”

And agreed with whatever you said.

Why would you bother going to the doctor?

Perhaps Evangelicals and Pentecostals only have snake oil to sell. Revivalist denominations seem to lose all energy within a generation or two. But at least they offer hope of something better.

The Catholic Church in Britain cannot be complacent. It is dying at about the same rate as the Anglicans.

But Catholicism really does have something to sell. Even without appealing to the truth of its doctrines, to religious faith, it has in its traditions the wisdom of the ages on the care and feeding of the human soul.

This demands strict adherence to the Bible, the ancient creeds, the ancient liturgies, the old traditions. They are valid and do their good whether or not the ordained cleric has any idea what he is about. 

Unfortunately, the Anglicans have thrown out all that dusty old ballast. Because the Anglican hierarchy decided they were smarter than their ancestors.

Under Pope Francis, that seems to be the Catholic program as well.

It is a fatal mistake.