Death Spiral for the Anglican Church

I want to emphasise and promote an article from Prophecy News Watch that I read some years ago. It embodied what happens when a spiritual body of believers becomes preoccupied by the architecture of a secular institution, and a once Christ-centred body of believers moves into religious institutionalism. It highlights a genuine need for change within the Church today—a change that, in many respects, was identified in the issues Jesus confronted in the Jewish ruling class of His time. The institutional Church as we know it may well become non-existent—indeed, in many places it already has—as its ageing population passes away, and its buildings descend into disrepair. This phenomenon is evident in many New Zealand churches, and considering the secularisation of the last five or six generations, one would have to be wilfully blind not to recognise the seriousness of the situation.

I acknowledge this is a human argument rather than a biblical one, since the number that ultimately defines the “body of Christ” is the prerogative of God alone. My concern is that the institution we have come to know as the Church bears little resemblance to a biblical ekklesia and thus faces a real danger of spiritual, financial, and numerical bankruptcy within a few decades. The exponential nature of this decline may already lie beyond our ability to reverse. I have no updated statistics about the Church of England survey from 2016, and ten years have passed. One could also argue that this state of decline will never improve, if we consider the state of the Church as outlined in the book of Revelation 2-3

Those who serve as spiritual leaders and overseers duplicate the same institutional religious architecture, thus appearing like blind guides who will not see their future written within the prophetic narrative. Seemingly unwilling, they neither change nor acknowledge the growing spiritual emptiness within religious institutions. The same religious architecture pervades all denominations across the board—meaning they’re all similar and extractions of those that have gone before them. Many will likely fall into the same state of disrepair now evident in the Anglican Church in the United Kingdom.

“The Church of England's membership is now declining so swiftly and steadily that it can hardly be considered anything less than a death spiral as millions drop out of the ranks of the faithful. Instead of relying solely on the official figures provided by the Church, which still claims to have over 85 million members, many are now taking a closer look at the British Social Attitudes Survey, conducted every year since 1983. In 2016, the survey was administered to 2,942 adults between July and October, and respondents were asked to report their affiliation with an official church, as indicated on a certificate or registry. Still, instead, they described their actual beliefs, religious identities and behaviour. The results could hardly be worse for the Church of England and Christianity.

Across all age groups, 15% of the British side with the Anglican tradition as their religion, down from 30% in 2000. But even more striking is the gap between the age cohorts. Only 3% of the adult population, between the ages of 18-24 identifies as Anglican, compared to as many as 40% of those over 75. The implication is that the congregations will soon pass away from advanced age, and there will be few from the next generation to replace them in the pews.

Catholicism has remained little changed over the past 30 years, with roughly 10% of the population, but in the 18-24 age group, a mere 5% identify as Catholic. For both Anglicans and Catholics, the matter of identity is no longer a binary question as great numbers of increasingly liberal Christians find themselves at odds with official Church positions on issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion. Thus, the 3% of young adults who claim to be Anglicans and 5% of those who claim to be Catholic have far less in common with their more traditional elders than in generations past, often holding views opposed to those of the Church, which calls into question the future stability of the Church of England as an institution.

In the past, people tended to respond to surveys with a religious identity, such as the Church of England, even if they didn't truly believe or weren't practising. But now, experts are discovering that people are expressing their non-religion more clearly. As Paul Bayes, the Bishop of Liverpool, said in an interview with Christian Today, "In this modern world, people are more willing to be honest and say they have 'no religion' rather than casually saying they are 'C of E'." It is the "rise of the nones", as some have dubbed it.

The recent survey puts the percentage of those who claim "no religion" at 53% when considering the full age range, but a much higher 71% when looking only at the 18-24 age group. Even more astounding is the increase from 62% in the previous year of the study, an increase of 14.5% in a single year. In the 25-34 age range, the number is better at around 66% of the population claiming no religion. In a country where the state supports the church in public schools, it is remarkable that such a small percentage of students graduate with no connection to the church.

The abandonment of the Anglican Church has also given rise to a phenomenon known as secular congregations. These are regular gatherings of people who yearn for a sense of connection and community support without believing in any religion or some form of spirituality. They support each other in times of tragedy, celebration, major life events and day-to-day living. Now taking over abandoned churches in some cases, these secular congregations are an attempt to fill a void being left by the vanishing Anglican Church by a generation that has decided to reject its teachings and values.

One woman, a 26-year-old journalist named Tamsin, was interviewed for a piece on secularism by 5 Live. She meets with her Sunday Assembly, one such secular congregation, in London once every two weeks. She said in the interview, "I'm not religious at all. I like that this is a way for the community to come together, without having to be about religion."

In another generation, the Church of England will have virtually faded from the public eye as it hangs on with only a fraction of the population. After that, it will be gone entirely if nothing is done to reverse this death spiral. This is truly how religions are extinguished in the modern age: not by a bloody holy war or continent-burning jihad, but by the quicksand of secular apathy.