We finally have some light at the end of the tunnel and governments are starting to let churches open again, but will the core demographic attend? Kevin Kallsen and George Conger discuss this and much more.
We finally have some light at the end of the tunnel and governments are starting to let churches open again, but will the core demographic attend? Kevin Kallsen and George Conger discuss this and much more.
Interesting to note that the retired Bishop of Dover, Richard Llewellin, has taken issue with incoming Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell, over closure of churches, in letter to The Times. Cottrell makes it sound like ‘We were only following orders’ but Llewellin openly calls him to task over this as misrepresentation of the facts. A bitter war has broken out in ‘Thinking Anglicans’ over criticisms of bishops, with several episcopal loyalists (‘My bishop right or wrong’) announcing they’re ‘outta here’.
In reality it doesn’t look as though churches here in the UK will open before July. Although there will be problems to solve in the meantime, it seems to me that it should be perfectly possible to hold services, provided that social distancing guidelines are followed. The bigger problem, however, is how to continue with children’s and youth work – or indeed any group or home-based activities. As far as I can see, we may have to operate with a mixture of church-based and online activities for a considerable time yet; however, anything that causes us to re-focus on the priority of gospel proclamation and discipleship in whatever form may actually be a good thing. And then there’s the issue of demographics, i.e. whether the older generation who have been told to stay at home for their own safety will venture out even to go to church.
In the end, though, this is a time not simply to hanker after the ‘old normal’; we should grasp every opportunity afforded by technology (or merely innovative thinking) to reach out to a world which has been stripped of its ‘vanities’, i.e. the fleeting attractions of shopping, entertainments, holidays, eating out, sport, etc. and which badly needs to hear the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ.
I agree, the livestreaming of services should become normal now, even after churches reopen, and churches need to advertise online pastoral care as much as possible. Big questions hang over lost of churches with small and elderly congregations. Has this visitation dealt them a death blow?
A renormalization will take place in American Anglicanism after the shut down ends just as with WO, new prayerbooks, controversial, provocative and innovative ministers, new theologies, the affirmation and adulation of nasty sex practices, powerful preaching and plenty of parking … Virtual church may be a new paradigm (TV ministries have been around for along time) and a good tool to be used but the overall bases will once again start at a lower level.
“paradigm”?
Thanks for the edit.
Has Justin Welby been breaching his own rules regarding non-hospital chaplains and clergy over 60 going into hospitals? A report in The Telegraph says he’s being going into St Thomas’s Hospital to do chaplaincy work, after forbidding others from doing likewise. What is going on?