The end of Christendom means that congregations must learn anew how to do adult Christian formation. Too highly rational or intellectual congregations need to rediscover spirituality. They need to re-encounter both mystery and a living God.
“When members meet Tuesday at the church, they’ll be assigned different routes in a one-mile radius. Members, whom Seles said should invite a friend to join them on the walk, are to be observant as to what they see and who they meet.”
St. Matthias Episcopal Church was overrun with prospective volunteers on Saturday, and the Compassion Coalition that had set up a clearinghouse for volunteers there appeared unprepared to handle the crowd
A years-long dispute between the Episcopal Church and several breakaway congregations … will likely be decided on mundane aspects of real estate and contract law.
On the heels of our last item about closing small churches, comes this item on saving small churches. Thanks to Sally Hicks at the Duke
Parishioners realized that closing a church would call for a great deal of letting go. They were deeply attached to their building and its contents, for which they had given and worked across the years. They knew the names of people who had given the pews, altar rails, statues, and specific fixtures.
The New Haven Register (CT)
How we worship and work together as a church is, indeed, the expression of what we believe – the traditional lex orandi, lex credendi has always been what unites Anglicans.
More and more it seems like you’re just going through the motions. You’re doing what you know how to do. You’re doing what has always worked before. But now, it just doesn’t seem to be working. And you wonder what’s wrong—what’s wrong with the church, with the people, with the leaders, with yourself.
When we consider the progressive political leanings of younger generations, we realize they long for spiritual communities that care deeply about social-justice issues—the same issues that our denominational congregations have been organizing around for hundreds of years.