WHERE IS YOUR CHURCH NOW?
1. The Anglican Church of Canada has been seriously weakened by the gay marriage dispute, losing both clergy, congregations and individual members. I am sure that morally the right decision was made, but the costs will be very high and I, among others, am very ambivalent about it.
2. In my parish and the part of my diocese that I am aware of, we have an aging membership which is not being replaced by younger members.
3. I feel that we do not project a clear image of our beliefs and what we stand for; rather, we are “not this” or “not that”.
4. In an effort to please everyone, we have not developed a realistic plan to cut our losses and build on the strengths of more successful parishes. Cutting losses means closing down sinking parishes, selling church sites and re-investing the money in fewer, stronger parishes and social services. This is poor planning and poor business practice.
5. On a positive note, there are successful, thriving parishes which, through hard clergy and parishoner work, are slowly growing and offering a wonderful level of support to their members. These parishes should be identified and used as models.
WHERE DO YOU WANT THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA TO BE BY 2019?
We should be:
- smaller but stronger
- community-centred
- ecumenical
- youth-friendly
- strong social advocates for our parish and community
We should return to the essentials of primitive Christianity, practicing the principles of
- love
- peace (actively anti-war)
- caring
- actively anti-poverty
- the light of the world
- the salt of the earth
- the leaven in the loaf
in short, de-institutionalize ourselves so that we can show Canada and the world why the practice of the Christian faith is beautiful, freeing and the only answer to the hate and violence of the contemporary world.
Sadly, we compromise Christian beliefs and principles every day so as to appear “patriotic”, “with the tour”, “not making waves”, “cool”. We have become too respectable and it is killing us. Our aim should be to be a leader and example in Canada of how a true Christian should live. Christianity was never meant to be comfortable. Maintaining our status quo is not a viable option,as it will lead us to total irrelevancy and slow death.
I say these things as a passionate, lifelong Anglican who still has great hopes and expectations of my church.
