
Annual decline in Sunday attendance is running at around 1 per cent. At this rate it is hard to see the church surviving for more than 30 years though few of its leaders are prepared to face that possibility.
In the short term we are likely to see more closures of buildings as the church battles to meet a big pension bill, pay clergy, and maintain a large bureaucracy.
Some of the churches near where my brother lived over there (not too far from Cambridge) have closed up shop. Others, including the one in his village of 500, have been forced to share a clergyman with other area churches. I believe his local minister covered six different churches.
You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |