The Anglican Church of Canada, having spent many decades trying to persuade us that man’s yearning for transcendence can be satisfied by installing a solar panel and buying a Prius, is continuing to transform itself into a social services agency by converting its buildings into apartments. The latest effort hails from Winnipeg where St. Matthew’s is, so we are told, excited by the fact that it worships in a small corner of the former church building. This must be what revival means in the ACoC.
Fittingly, Fred Hiltz was installed as Primate at St. Matthew’s; clearly he has taken St. Matthew’s decline to 80 parishioners as inspiration for the direction of the entire denomination.
From here:
The congregation at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church is excited to worship in what is only a small corner of the grand brick edifice that once was the largest Anglican church building in Winnipeg.
That’s because the remainder of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church has been converted into 25 low-income apartments, a $7.3-million project under construction for nearly three years.
For recalcitrant Anglicans who remain unmoved by these stirring tales of the Soviet style conversion of churches into apartments, there is this magnificent Hiltzian denunciation of all things not green. An unnamed source high in the Chinese Politburo – they are keen observers of ACoC policies – told me, on the condition of remaining anonymous, that the Standing Committee is so moved by this panegyric to renewing the face of the earth (heaven and hell having long ago been extirpated from the ACoC) that they immediately plan to stop building smog spewing coal fired power plants – currently expanding at the rate of two per week.
This is beyond sad. They think that by becoming a tenant in a small corner of a 1200 seat church that has been there for 101 years they can better serve the community? Why wasn’t the church full? II look at the decline of the “mainline” churches in downtown and westend Vancouver, at least one of which, a beautiful building, was torn down, and then I look at the attendance at places like Westside Church (which bought the big, fairly new, threatre Riverboat played at some years ago, has two services on Sunday, and has two congregations in the Lower Mainland), and Coastal Church (which took over an old Christian Science building and has now grown to services every weekend, and two branch congregations), as well as places like First Baptist in the West End, Tenth Avenue Alliance (which also has at least one branch plant) and, of course, St. John’s Vancouver Anglican, and I sort of just shake my head. So many evangelical and Pentacostal churches are booming, while places like St. Matthew’s Anglican remind me of a very elderly person who does not drive a car, cannot use a computer, a microwave or a cellphone, and who does not even want to give up his or her dial telephone. Always living fifty or sixty years in the past, out of touch with today and not realizing how the world has passed them by. For a church, It makes no sense. On the other hand, so much of what the well-attended churches are doing and teaching is what mainline churches did fifty or sixty years ago. Maybe it all does make sense in that respect.
And, just curiouis, how many people are attending services at St. John’s Shaughnessy now?
As discussed on other posts, church size does not necessarily equate to remaining faithful to the Gospel or having God’s blessing.
1. There is a strong trend, for small or house church formats. Large mega-churches were appealing to people in the 90’s and 20’s but are starting to be less appealing for a variety of reasons: it assumes a capitalistic mindset that we can “program” church and that authentic relationship-building is much more difficult. Of course, some large churches can overcome these challenges.
2. Churches in conservative and evangelical churches (including some ANIC churches) see decline in church attendance. Some churches that remain faithful to preaching the Gospel even close down.
God can bless churches in many different ways. Sometimes he allows growth, sometimes he bless them with wealth. This is not necessarily mean that a small or poor church does not also have God’s blessing.
I think a key point here is how they are serving the community. I agree that some small or even house churches are currently popular among some. However, this was a 1200 seat church that likely served the community well in the past and must have been well-attended at some point in its history, not some little clapboard chapel or a group of people who have decided to meet in someone’s rec room. If the congregation is now so small, it raises the question of why? The other question would involve a discussion of whether the community is better served by the existence of some small churches of little influence, or some relatively anonymous house churches, or whether it is better for the community to have large churches that may have a lot of influence and may attract a correspondingly large number of people to worship and faith.
We should humble ourselves in the presence of God. May God have mercy upon all of us! The task of evangelism is unfinished. Certainly God can bless big and small, wealthy and poor churches. We should learn from the history of the Christian church. 40 or 50 years are short periods in church history. For instance, where are the Asia Minor congregations founded by the Apostle Paul today? Are they great centres of evangelism in today’s world? Churches come and go, but God is still God.
The Church was not full because it was not preaching The Coming of the End Times. That’s what packs ’em in. People _love_ to be scared, and to have the feeling that they’re going to make it — but not _these_ other folks, no, these other guys are going to burn.
A strong, strident eschatological message. That’s what translates into loads of buns in the pews.
“…loads of buns in the pews.”
Hot cross buns I hope. Those are my favourite.
Hardly, but thanks for the humour. Sometimes a little absurdity can be a welcome interjection.
I couldn’t resist.
But to the point raised by Vincent…
I can’t agree with the notion that end time obsessions fill Churches. I have for several months now been attending a local Church of the Nazarene Parish. Over this time I recall hearing only one sermon that would be considered an end times sermon (and this from a guest Pastor filling in while the regular Pastor was away). What I have noticed about the preaching in this Church is that it is always Biblical. They honestly believe that the Holy Bible is given to us by God Himself, and they take it very seriously.
In a conversation that I had with the Pastor a couple of weeks ago I found out that when he arrived at this Parish eight years ago it had a membership of only ten people (that’s right, a membership and not average attendance). I have been counting the people at each service since I started attending there and the average Sunday attendance is in the mid forties. I have no idea why the membership got to be so small, but am thankful that this Parish has recovered and appears to be continuing in its growth.
Another thing that I noticed about the Parishioners there. There are many young families. One week I counted the number of children and there were 18 of them (out of a total of 45 that week. That’s 40%!!!).