The problem is that many of the hierachy in the Church of England no longer believe in God (and so fill the God sized hole with fashionable irrelevancies). It is the Catholic Church (along with Eastern Orthodox churches) that still genuinely believe. And faith is winning. At least it will do if Popes stopped being woke and got back to fundamentals like Benedict XVI.
But they aren't concerned with Muslim nationalism, whether within the countries they are colonizing, excuse me, the countries to which they have migrated, nor in their "home" countries. They aren't at all bothered by fervent displays of faith, nor the taking over the public spaces (streets) for prayer, nor amplified "calls to prayer" in European countries. But Christian fervor is out. And Jews--forget about it.
The Church of England in England is no longer a part of the rest of the evangelical Bible based churches. We have broken away from the Church of England. The new female Archbishop precipitated this. GAFCON is a grouping of African, Australian, some American and English breakaway churches. It means the Archbishop of Canterbury is no longer head of the majority of Anglican churches. The new Archbishop’s stand on LGB etc , sane sex marriage and abortion as well as the fact that she is a woman. Biblical leadership shoujd be male. The Church of England no longer receives money or allegiance from GAFCON churches.
Do need to note, though, that many, if not most, of the male leadership of the Church of England (and many other Protestant churches in the USA) as well as the last couple of male Popes have been extremely left wing. So, even if you limit leadership to men, you can get blasphemous, destructive people in positions of authority.
The Church of England is not a church anymore! They are losing worshippers in droves. I am a Christian and I agree with this Bishop. The church is heretical! They are frightened to teach Christian gospels. We need to be strong to support our Church.
'Milquetoast', do you know that I don't think I've ever stumbled across that word before in my sixty odd years, I was toying with the idea of asking for one to go with my cup of tea in the Syrian owned cafe I use most mornings until I looked up what it was. Must be my misspent childhood or the awful Secondary Modern education, crikey!. They're a really nice family and enjoy embracing Englishness and have already stuck the Xmas tree up in the cafe bless them. However, running a cafe and running a church are very different vocations. I miss going to a traditional Anglican communion Sunday service but I couldn't bare the way the C of E was heading and being in super woke Bristol I wouldn't be surprised if they hand you a palastinian flag to stick up your arse on entering church these days!, Good luck with the RCIA Laura, crossed my mind to have a go myself in recent years but since becoming homeless it just doesn't pay to plan too far ahead. Forgive my ramblings luv, it helps me feel I can remain connected to the big wide world, I really ought to keep off the Internet at my age, please keep up the excellent output, take good care and may God bless you.
I became a Christian at age 18 - from a non-believing family and background. One of the first things I learnt, from my first ever attendance at a church, was that it's not the building that is the church - it's actually the people, those who are true believers in Christ as their Saviour, who are 'the Church.'
So, even if we go into the most beautiful, historical, covered-in-gold, type of building, if those who go there regularly do so only out of a sense of 'needing to be religious, because it's the right thing to do,' then that may well leave us empty and unfulfilled.
However, you can meet with other genuine believers in the simplest of ordinary buildings, (or even in your own home secretly if you're in a country where being a Christian openly may get you killed) and - as He promises - meet with the Lord Jesus too, and know His Love.
However, you can meet with other genuine believers in the simplest of ordinary buildings, (or even in your own home secretly if you're in a country where being a Christian openly may get you killed)
Yes, you can, but it's part of civilization to build and to have specialized places--while realizing that learning and worship and godliness and not limited to, nor guaranteed by, beautiful and dignified places of worship and schools.
Scriber, I do get your point. A certain style of building can provide a real special 'something' - an awe or an awareness; something 'indefinable', to an experience. (I recall visiting a nearby cathedral, as a new Christian, and realising that people had worshipped 'here' since about 900 A.D. Blew my mind a bit!)
I just wouldn't like to think of someone attending there who might be relying on their attendance at that place, that feeling alone, to mean that their righteousness in God is secured, by merely being there and not by faith in what Christ has done for them.
(Which just gave me the reminder: I had a specific conversation with someone, once, who said 'Well, God would never let me go to Hell - I've sung in St Paul's Cathedral!')
Yes, you can, but buildings have enormous symbolic power. Note that many criticize grand church buildings but have nothing to say about massive sports arenas.
I would like us to value beauty, and sometimes grandeur, in our worship. While it doesn't guarantee that the people who gather in it are righteous, it can elevate the mind to higher things, is completely unlike secular spaces (something that I am convinced is very important), and is full of symbolism and color that I can't help but feel are elevating to the people who build and maintain the buildings as well.
My firm belief is that churches shouldn’t be used for anything other than worship and Christian outreach. The architecture of older churches is inherently Christian and it is actually a form of blasphemy to convert it for secular purposes or worse to be given to another religion. I would rather level the site before conversion to a coffee shop or hotel. For the CofE churches that are emptying the choice should be to either go back to preaching the Gospel (and the church will fill up) or offer it wholesale to Christian denominations that are preaching the Gospel.
I have nothing but disdain for the pathetic version of cowardly Christianity that the Anglican Church has become in England. It has become institutionally perverted on so many levels and will never be an effective antidote to the growing threat of islamism. It will be destroyed by its ridiculous tolerance, a vastly overrated attribute, and can never hope to recover its previous relative prominence in society. It is a totally emasculated entity that is blindly following the tenets of woke intersectionalism that will readily capitulate to the destructive forces of the muslim faith.
The muslim faith is a belief that is diametrically opposed to everything Judaism and Christianity represent, it has absolutely no place in this country.
I speak as a person brought up as a Catholic, which incidentally, was an interesting position to occupy. Being a Catholic in England meant being a member of a very small minority group; a lot smaller than the BAME portion of the population of England. Funny that, I might start an organisation called Catholic Lives Matter and claim a few reparations, what with the burnings and spud famines and all that.
I don't attend church these days, have not done so for years and regard myself as a Catholic agnostic who has settled on the opinion that God does not bother one way or the other about being believed in, probably thinks that it's quite nice if he is paid a bit of attention now and again, but can live without it, He has, after all got a cat to look after.
The nub of the matter is whether God believes in us or to put it another way: Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?
Whether you regard Jesus as the son of God or just a Jew that got himself crucified is almost irrelevant, whether the resurrection is fact or not is not important, what is important is the message of hope without despair that the ideal of the resurection gives.
If the ideals of the early church are abandoned in the face of weak ephemeral ideals and misplaced tolerance of a destructive intolerant religion then all I can see is despair without hope.
Maybe it will be a very good thing if more people embrace the old religion because that could provide a necessary bulwark against the dreadful muslim faith. A good example of this is Poland.
I'm even saddened with the lack of visitor rules (and it's enforcement) inside churches! This includes wearing halter tops, shorts, walking in the middle aisle, approaching the altar, and the noise.
The problem is that many of the hierachy in the Church of England no longer believe in God (and so fill the God sized hole with fashionable irrelevancies). It is the Catholic Church (along with Eastern Orthodox churches) that still genuinely believe. And faith is winning. At least it will do if Popes stopped being woke and got back to fundamentals like Benedict XVI.
the pope is as useless as CofE heads…….
The new one is such a disappointment.
Nicely observed, Laura.
Our lanyarded C of E clerics just don't get where they went wrong.
And they can't explain why their coffee-shop-and-pride churches are empty.
Kinda weird that an official of the Church of ENGLAND is concerned about nationalism in the church.
But they aren't concerned with Muslim nationalism, whether within the countries they are colonizing, excuse me, the countries to which they have migrated, nor in their "home" countries. They aren't at all bothered by fervent displays of faith, nor the taking over the public spaces (streets) for prayer, nor amplified "calls to prayer" in European countries. But Christian fervor is out. And Jews--forget about it.
Spot on Laura !
" My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of thieves". ( Matthew 21:13)
The Church of England in England is no longer a part of the rest of the evangelical Bible based churches. We have broken away from the Church of England. The new female Archbishop precipitated this. GAFCON is a grouping of African, Australian, some American and English breakaway churches. It means the Archbishop of Canterbury is no longer head of the majority of Anglican churches. The new Archbishop’s stand on LGB etc , sane sex marriage and abortion as well as the fact that she is a woman. Biblical leadership shoujd be male. The Church of England no longer receives money or allegiance from GAFCON churches.
Do need to note, though, that many, if not most, of the male leadership of the Church of England (and many other Protestant churches in the USA) as well as the last couple of male Popes have been extremely left wing. So, even if you limit leadership to men, you can get blasphemous, destructive people in positions of authority.
Of course that happens but the head of the church should be male and believe the Bible is the Word of God.
The Church of England is not a church anymore! They are losing worshippers in droves. I am a Christian and I agree with this Bishop. The church is heretical! They are frightened to teach Christian gospels. We need to be strong to support our Church.
'Milquetoast', do you know that I don't think I've ever stumbled across that word before in my sixty odd years, I was toying with the idea of asking for one to go with my cup of tea in the Syrian owned cafe I use most mornings until I looked up what it was. Must be my misspent childhood or the awful Secondary Modern education, crikey!. They're a really nice family and enjoy embracing Englishness and have already stuck the Xmas tree up in the cafe bless them. However, running a cafe and running a church are very different vocations. I miss going to a traditional Anglican communion Sunday service but I couldn't bare the way the C of E was heading and being in super woke Bristol I wouldn't be surprised if they hand you a palastinian flag to stick up your arse on entering church these days!, Good luck with the RCIA Laura, crossed my mind to have a go myself in recent years but since becoming homeless it just doesn't pay to plan too far ahead. Forgive my ramblings luv, it helps me feel I can remain connected to the big wide world, I really ought to keep off the Internet at my age, please keep up the excellent output, take good care and may God bless you.
Your comment is gonna put a BIG smike on the faces of all who read it!
smile
I became a Christian at age 18 - from a non-believing family and background. One of the first things I learnt, from my first ever attendance at a church, was that it's not the building that is the church - it's actually the people, those who are true believers in Christ as their Saviour, who are 'the Church.'
So, even if we go into the most beautiful, historical, covered-in-gold, type of building, if those who go there regularly do so only out of a sense of 'needing to be religious, because it's the right thing to do,' then that may well leave us empty and unfulfilled.
However, you can meet with other genuine believers in the simplest of ordinary buildings, (or even in your own home secretly if you're in a country where being a Christian openly may get you killed) and - as He promises - meet with the Lord Jesus too, and know His Love.
However, you can meet with other genuine believers in the simplest of ordinary buildings, (or even in your own home secretly if you're in a country where being a Christian openly may get you killed)
Think "lockdown".
Yes, you can, but it's part of civilization to build and to have specialized places--while realizing that learning and worship and godliness and not limited to, nor guaranteed by, beautiful and dignified places of worship and schools.
Scriber, I do get your point. A certain style of building can provide a real special 'something' - an awe or an awareness; something 'indefinable', to an experience. (I recall visiting a nearby cathedral, as a new Christian, and realising that people had worshipped 'here' since about 900 A.D. Blew my mind a bit!)
I just wouldn't like to think of someone attending there who might be relying on their attendance at that place, that feeling alone, to mean that their righteousness in God is secured, by merely being there and not by faith in what Christ has done for them.
(Which just gave me the reminder: I had a specific conversation with someone, once, who said 'Well, God would never let me go to Hell - I've sung in St Paul's Cathedral!')
Yes, you can, but buildings have enormous symbolic power. Note that many criticize grand church buildings but have nothing to say about massive sports arenas.
I would like us to value beauty, and sometimes grandeur, in our worship. While it doesn't guarantee that the people who gather in it are righteous, it can elevate the mind to higher things, is completely unlike secular spaces (something that I am convinced is very important), and is full of symbolism and color that I can't help but feel are elevating to the people who build and maintain the buildings as well.
My firm belief is that churches shouldn’t be used for anything other than worship and Christian outreach. The architecture of older churches is inherently Christian and it is actually a form of blasphemy to convert it for secular purposes or worse to be given to another religion. I would rather level the site before conversion to a coffee shop or hotel. For the CofE churches that are emptying the choice should be to either go back to preaching the Gospel (and the church will fill up) or offer it wholesale to Christian denominations that are preaching the Gospel.
This new pope is a joke, blessing an ice chunk and going full on globalist…way too obvious why he was in the plan.
I have nothing but disdain for the pathetic version of cowardly Christianity that the Anglican Church has become in England. It has become institutionally perverted on so many levels and will never be an effective antidote to the growing threat of islamism. It will be destroyed by its ridiculous tolerance, a vastly overrated attribute, and can never hope to recover its previous relative prominence in society. It is a totally emasculated entity that is blindly following the tenets of woke intersectionalism that will readily capitulate to the destructive forces of the muslim faith.
The muslim faith is a belief that is diametrically opposed to everything Judaism and Christianity represent, it has absolutely no place in this country.
I speak as a person brought up as a Catholic, which incidentally, was an interesting position to occupy. Being a Catholic in England meant being a member of a very small minority group; a lot smaller than the BAME portion of the population of England. Funny that, I might start an organisation called Catholic Lives Matter and claim a few reparations, what with the burnings and spud famines and all that.
I don't attend church these days, have not done so for years and regard myself as a Catholic agnostic who has settled on the opinion that God does not bother one way or the other about being believed in, probably thinks that it's quite nice if he is paid a bit of attention now and again, but can live without it, He has, after all got a cat to look after.
The nub of the matter is whether God believes in us or to put it another way: Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?
Whether you regard Jesus as the son of God or just a Jew that got himself crucified is almost irrelevant, whether the resurrection is fact or not is not important, what is important is the message of hope without despair that the ideal of the resurection gives.
If the ideals of the early church are abandoned in the face of weak ephemeral ideals and misplaced tolerance of a destructive intolerant religion then all I can see is despair without hope.
Maybe it will be a very good thing if more people embrace the old religion because that could provide a necessary bulwark against the dreadful muslim faith. A good example of this is Poland.
Don't give up, Roger.
Read/listen to some great resources.
Ummm... (I'm an incey wincey bit biased... but) try:
Ligonier Ministries
AlbertMohler.com
John Lennox
Irreverend
Steve Turley
Neil McCoy-Ward
Vishal Mangalwadi
Rod Dreher
... I could go on.
There is a depth and breadth of stuff out there that will blow your mind.
I hope it does.
I'm even saddened with the lack of visitor rules (and it's enforcement) inside churches! This includes wearing halter tops, shorts, walking in the middle aisle, approaching the altar, and the noise.
dont worry about sky , you believe them or not ! me dont 😂 not bad enuff innit .
A further though from lil' ol' me about the demise of the C of E...
(Inspired by Laura's latest post.)
The Church of England is dying.
The BBC is also dying.
They are both in their death throes.
SUDDENLY... I can see clearly. I now realise that euthanasia is a good thing afterall!
Whodathunkit?
Haha.
Remember: Both the C of E and the BBC are in favour of state-sanctioned killing of the infirm.
YES! LET'S GO FOR IT!!!
Don't give up, Roger.
Read/listen to some great resources.
Ummm... (I'm an incey wincey bit biased... but) try:
Ligonier Ministries
AlbertMohler.com
John Lennox
Irreverend
Steve Turley
Neil McCoy-Ward
Vishal Mangalwadi
Rod Dreher
... I could go on.
There is a depth and breadth of stuff out there that will blow your mind.
I hope it does.
Neither understand each other...