Decline and fall

Gene Robinson, the first openly gay bishop in the Anglican Communion Photo: OLI SCARFF

More bad news for the Church of England. "Attendance plunges to record low: Sunday attendance slumps by 22,000 to 765,000 as older worshippers die and Archbishop of Canterbury warns of struggle in ‘anti-Christian culture’".

Ironically much of the anti-Christian culture will be seen by the majority of the world's 80 million Anglicans as of the church's own making in liberal leaning provinces.

But there is another twist in a story which continues to dominate the media.Yesterday half the BBC's 10 o'clock news bulletin and the whole of Newsnight (I presume as I switched it off) was devoted to the death of David Bowie,"the creative force who changed Britain" as the BBC's Home Editor, Mark Easton, put it.

He wrote: "My parents' generation are puzzled by Bowie-mania, and there is another group of thirtysomethings who remain rather baffled by the attention devoted to his passing". That includes me, not as one of the 'thirtysomethings' but of his parents' generation who will have noted his death rather than his passing which is more reminiscent of driving tests.

Easton continued: " Britain has become far more tolerant of difference. And David Bowie helped us reach that place.....Would gay rights, gender equality legislation or same-sex marriage have enjoyed the broad support they do today without Bowie's androgynous challenge all those years ago? I suspect not. He gave space to oddity… and made it cool".

Gay rights and gender equality have become so skewed that what was tolerance has become intolerance and anyone retaining a sense of balance is condemned as being out of touch. It is not cool. It is a disaster.