Yesterday The Times reported some statistics about Britain:
We believe in Easter, but not in going to church
Sixty-three per cent say that they think of Britain as a Christian country. There is a direct correlation between age and these perceptions. Fewer than half (48 per cent) of 18 to 24 year-olds take this view, compared with roughly three quarters of 55 to 64 year-olds (72 per cent) and of over-65s (75 per cent).
This ties in with the findings of the 2001 Census which showed that nearly seven out ten people in England and Wales identified themselves as white Christians.
Moreover, a similar proportion of black people and a half of those of mixed ethnic backgrounds also identified themselves as Christians.
Fewer than two in five (37 per cent) say they will go to a church service at some point over Easter, and 61 per cent say that they will not go. Even so, these answers are almost certainly an exaggeration of probable church attendance (regularly fewer than one in ten on Sundays, though higher over Easter).
People aged between 18 and 24 are half as likely to say they will go to church as over-65s (23 to 50 per cent). However, more than half the public (55 per cent) say that they personally believe that the “Easter story that Jesus rose from the dead is true”. Personal belief in the Resurrection rises from 39 per cent among 18 to 24 year-olds to 64 per cent among the over-65 age group.
Women are significantly more likely than men to say they plan to go to church (42 against 33 per cent) and to believe in the Resurrection (60 against 48 per cent).
Today the Independent reports Clergy need remedial lessons in Bible, says bishop
Church of England clergy have become so blasé about the Bible that they need “remedial” lessons in its meaning, says Dr Tom Wright, the Bishop of Durham and the third [sic] most senior figure in the Anglican hierarchy.
In an Easter message he complains about the lack of “biblical literacy” even in established congregations. Speaking to The Independent on Sunday, he also attacked the view of the afterlife held by many worshippers.
“The great majority of people think that ‘going to Heaven when you die’ is the name of the game. Yet it ignores the real message of Christianity. This is about commitment to equality, justice, working in the world in the present, which the old platonic dream really doesn’t give you.
“The Bible story is about resurrection and new creation, not about abandoning this world and going off to some disembodied, platonic place called Heaven. Most people in the church have only a sketchy idea of what the biblical world is like.”
and also Prince’s glorious prayer book at risk from ‘dumbing down’
Defenders of Book of Common Prayer warn of ‘piracy’
Foreign imitations are confusing worshippers and destroying the authority of the original, says the Prayer Book Society (PBS), whose influential backers include its patron, the Prince of Wales.
Alternative “Books of Common Prayer”, couched in contemporary language have sprung up around the Anglican world, and from next month, worshippers in the Church of Ireland will be told to use yet another new publication, still titled the Book of Common Prayer.
Now the PBS has issued a call to arms, predicting that correct use of the book will soon be confined to “a minority” and urging its 16,000 members to “act now to prevent this development”.
The society describes the new publications as “acts of piracy” and “breaches of the Trades Descriptions Act”.
The Labour MP Frank Field, a PBS member, is also concerned. “New ordinands don’t actually know the Book of Common Prayer or how to use it,” he said.
Posted by Simon Sarmiento on Sunday, 11 April 2004 at 6:48 PM GMT | TrackBackThe 1662 version is still in use in England, where the modernised service book - including parts of the original - is labelled Common Worship.
But elsewhere in the Anglican Communion, there is no such distinction and new books are given the old title.
“This is clearly ‘passing off’, if not breach of copyright,” protests Roger Evans, PBS chairman, former Conservative MP and a barrister specialising in ecclesiastical law.
The Rev Dr Peter Toon, a PBS spokesman, said that the changes have serious theological implications, as the prayer books are the “standard of doctrine” for Anglicans.
“People will accept the notion of common prayer on the American and Irish models, ” he said.
The Church of Ireland says that its new book contains both new and traditional liturgy: “The Church is again to have one unifying book of common prayer, including within its covers material in both traditional and contemporary language.”
