“As centuries of faithful witness and service in rural parishes slowly expires, and churches and vicarages disappear, how will the Church ever reconnect with countryfolk with neither the means nor inclination to travel to the nearest town or city every Sunday? Or live up to its strapline to be “a Christian presence in every community”?”
My local parish is undergoing significant changes. For a long time, our local church in Roos, East Yorkshire has been without a priest and we rely on a rural dean who travels to all of the different churches in South Holderness. Roos church relies on support from the Diocese of York to survive but due to the proposed funding changes, it is unlikely that we will be able to afford to pay for the employment of the clergy.
“Secularisation is indeed a catastrophe for the churches. But we won’t outlast this period of history by being more business-like or by adopting slicker models of evangelistic marketing. We won’t…
The National Church Governance Measure presents a chance to redirect money where it is needed most, says Marcus Walker
It is said that we tend to undervalue that with which we are most familiar but in our small parish (about 150 inhabitants) thanks to the foresight of the Diocese and especially the vision of one Archdeacon, we have learned afresh the importance of the traditional parish system which has, for centuries, given the church a foothold in every community.
Rev. Marcus Walker talks about what is happening in the Church. Let’s take a look at what the Diocese of Truro is trying to do. It is forcing dozens of…
There are a number of ways that the old-fashioned model of church avoids some of the pitfalls of celebrity Christianity: There is a willingness to serve difficult communities and be a…