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| A tranquil looking St Thomas a Becket Church in Haverfordwest, one of 12 redundant buildings being sold BBC/DYLAN MOORE/GEOGRAPH |
In September BBC News reported that data from the Church in Wales showed 115 Anglican churches have closed over a 10-year period, about 8% of the total, with 1,319 still in use.
One of twelve redundant churches currently being offered for sale is the former St Thomas ? Becket?S Church, illustrated. It is a Grade II listed building in Haverfordwest in the diocese of St Davids. There are three others in the diocese, the former St Cain?S Church located in the village of Llangain, Carmarthenshire, the former St Mary?S Church, Ambleston 9 miles north-east of Haverfordwest and the former St Mary?S Church, Bryngwyn near Aberporth.
The BBC report highlighted the fact that "the last census revealed Wales had the highest number of people with no religion in the UK" but instead of mission and evangelism the Church in Wales is re-organising into Local Ministry Areas (LMAs), something nobody wants but was nodded through by Archbishop Barry Morgan's followers after the change was recommended in the Church in Wales Review. The policy is being put into effect at varying speeds in the six dioceses.
By contrast there has been no action on diocesan structure (Section 15. Dioceses: their number and administration) which supports six diocesan bishops, six deans, numerous Archdeacons and an ever expanding number of LMA facilitators, coordinators, etc, not to mention their expensive administrative supporting structures.
In addition to appointing the first woman Dean of St Davids, the first female bishop of St Davids has 'promoted' another women to her senior staff, the Revd Marianne Osborne, as the diocesan Ministry Area Development (MAD) Officer. In an earth shattering announcement the Bishop "stressed that the harsh realities of a changing world meant new ways of working are now essential. We simply don?T have the money to sustain the existing pattern of ministry, she said". Odd that she has money to expand her senior staff! Well, there will be even less money as the oldies die and the disillusioned follow the sane and stop funding a church that lost its way while trying to be relevant to an indifferent society.
The differences by diocese are marked. In Monmouth where dissent earns a black mark, its CEO bishop has been racing ahead, beating parishes into the desired LMA shape as their Diocesan Conference 2017 Edition of Grapevine illustrates. Googling 'Local Ministry Areas' suggests that apart from St Davids the other dioceses have much catching up to do. One can understand Llandaff being behind with the more pressing need to keep their Cathedral functioning but no doubt bishop June will want to catch up when she has finished working on her parity policy to ensure that ability and seniority are replaced by women and gender issues (see previous entry).
The bishop of St Asaph has been busy with his more important LGBTQI rencana, ensuring that the allegedly unwelcome in our midst are more visible and well supported. This follows the well tried policy that normality springs from familiarity. The bishop of Swansea and Brecon will of course have had other things on his mind with the Jeffrey John affair and the vacancy which he has now filled as Archbishop of Wales.
Bangor? Well who knows what is going on in the Diocese of Bangor but their bishop comments on an ITV Report to be broadcast this evening on S4C that "the main Christian denominations in Wales are suffering 'an alarming decline”'in membership leaving some fearing Christianity 'will disappear'."
The report claims that the Church in Wales "remains the largest denomination" with 45,759 members on its electoral roll which compares with 98,878 in 1990 - a drop of 54%." The reality is worse with regular Sunday attendance down to 28,291 according to2016 figures.
"The Church in Wales are currently implementing a plan named ?2020 Vision?. This plan is intended as a growth strategy to re-energise the Church before its centenary in 2020.
"Bishop of Bangor, the Rt Rev Andy John is a member of the 2020 Vision strategy implementation group. He told the programme changes are afoot to make the Church 'more appealing'."
From another report a quarter of Anglican churches childless: "Twenty-five per cent of Church of England services do not have a single youngster among their congregations". I would imagine that the position in Wales is no better and probably worse given that Wales has the highest number of people with no religion in the UK.
'Fiddling while Rome burns'?
Postscript [26.10.2017]
Mathematics to solve Monmouth Local Ministry Areas masalah.
The bishop of Monmouth has proclaimed that "A third archdeaconry is to be created in Monmouth Diocese following overwhelming support for the move at this year’s Diocesan Conference (21 October)". He said, "As Bishop I am charged with the leadership of this Diocese. Faced with such a challenge I could ignore it and almost certainly let the Anglican presence in the Valleys fade away. Or I could do – what any organisation would do – let alone the church – invest in the area and try and turn it around."
Currently, the Archdeacon of Monmouth is working with 8 Ministry Area Leaders, while the Archdeaconry of Newport, which includes the Valleys, has twice that number at 16, a total of 24.
The solution? Divide 16 by dua and hey presto, 3 x 8 = 24.
Also, 16 - 4 = 12, 8 4 = 12. 12 12 = 24 the number started with at no extra cost.
Ah! But “We need mission and evangelism otherwise this Diocese will find it difficult to survive,” bishop Richard warned. Back to 2005.
Monmouth has been here before. In 'Hope for Monmouth, the diocesan strategy document' which was launched at the Diocesan Conference in October 2005 the previous bishop wrote at length in his Preface, including this under 'Mission':
"Mission includes evangelism but it also includes pastoral care, social concern, teaching the faith, peace and justice issues and worship. What is important is that we connect with all of them! A church that has fine worship but no social concern will become like a cult; a church that is good on pastoral care and social action but is weak on the study of the scriptures and worship will be a church without a gospel. Our worship must connect with our own discipleship, with evangelism and with the suffering world."
What happened?
From my entryChurch in Wales attendance down 5% 2014-2015
Attempts to bolster numbers by adding 'Non-traditional Acts of Worship' such as Animal blessings, Caf? Churches, Teenscreen clubs and Interfaith engagement have served only to emphasis the decline: "Overall, it would seem that just over 30,000 people in total participate in some form of nontraditional worship, compared with 36,000 in 2014danquot;.
The Membership and Finance Report (pdf) is way down the Agenda at item 19 for the next meeting of the Governing Body of the Church in Wales to be held 14 - 15 September 2016. There will be a Motion: That the Governing Body do take note of this report.
Given the seriousness of the situation one would have thought that 'taking note' of the Report is somewhat short of the mark but with "Evangelismdanquot; coming last on the rencana it puts the current state of the Church in Wales in context.
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