Preaching politics while pews empty
WHAT does your Sunday have in store for you? Or, obviously if you’re settling down to read this at the end of what was hopefully a day of rest, what did you get up to? For some of you a visit to the church will have figured prominently, and I hope the service was enjoyable and the sermon snappy. But there can be no denying that the number of you who included a trip to a Church of England church on your itinerary today is in rapid decline.
Research shows the Church of England has seen congregations halve in three decades. If the current rate of decline continues, according to a British Social Attitudes Survey, Anglicanism will disappear from Britain in 2033.
That means there are just 11 years left to save an institution that was once at the very heart of cultural, legal and obviously religious affairs in this country.
If this was a business, a chief executive faced with this crisis lurking on the horizon would surely seek to seize the problem, work out what had gone so calamitously wrong and toil to put it right.
But not so for “the boss” of the C of E Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury, who one week ago managed to alienate a sizeable chunk of his “customers” with ill-judged and politicised preachings over the Government’s plan to tackle the migrant crisis by sending illegal migrants to Rwanda to have their claims judged.
While I can vouch for the Archbishop being a thoroughly decent man as I’ve been privileged to interview him on a number of occasions, unfortunately this is another example of where he is desperately out of touch with his flock.
While the metropolitan elite with which he probably spends much of his time may scoff at the Rwanda scheme and mutter about “inhumanity” and “barbarism”, regular folk who have a real grip on the problem see it as a possible solution.
Just look at the poll results last week, which showed 47 per cent support Priti Patel’s plan with just 26 per cent opposed. Intriguingly, among Labour voters support is at just over 50 per cent.
Many of these people were once the bedrock of the congregation that filled the pews of a Church that is now edging towards life support on Justin Welby’s watch. In his Easter sermon, the Archbishop said “the principle must stand the judgment of God, and it cannot”.
While I wouldn’t presume to challenge the nation’s most senior faith leader on God’s teachings, surely he can’t be
suggesting “the judgment of God” allows tens of thousands of people to be preyed upon on by vile human traffickers who use violence and even rape to maintain their positions of power? Or that those poor souls who don’t make it across, and sink to an unmarked watery grave, are also part of that divine judgment?
No one is suggesting the Archbishop cannot have an opinion on such vital affairs, but by using his Easter message to give such a politicised view he committed a serious blunder.
Easter is a time of renewal and reflection of the enormous sacrifice God made in that he gave his son to save us all. It’s not an opportunity to have a go at a
Government he clearly doesn’t like. If he’s seeking advice about what does constitute ungodly behaviour, perhaps he’d care to speak out more about Putin and his illegal war in Ukraine. Or explain why he allowed churches up and down the country to be closed interminably during lockdown, a time when spiritual comfort was needed probably more than at any time since the Secondworldwar?
Indeed, churches then remained open during the bombing – but not through Covid. And if he’s so keen to be a politician prelate, we can now all look forward to his solution to the cost-of-living crisis, inflation and climate change.