From the Anglican Journal-
THE FIRST THING you notice about Rev. Gary Nicolosi is that he speaks in sound bytes. He’s a passionate, articulate man and when he talks, people listen. “This is the number one issue for the church today,” he tells a roomful of diocesan editors at the recent Anglican Editors Association conference in Victoria. “Yes, the stats are grim but we have to keep hope alive.”
Even for this somewhat cynical crew, you can hear a pin drop. Mr. Nicolosi is talking about the fact that the Anglican Church in Canada has lost more than half of its membership in the past 50 years. People just aren’t coming to church the way they used to.
As a result, the number of people in the pews has plummeted by 53 percent, from 1.3 million in 1961 down to 658,000 in 2001. Citing statistics from Reginald Bibby’s Project Canada, The Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, Statistics Canada and The Living Church, a U.S. Episcopal Church magazine, Mr. Nicolosi calls the drop in membership “precipitous.” When the census is taken in 2011, he warns, “I think the numbers are going to be under 600,000. I think people are going to be shocked.” Tell people the truth, Mr. Nicolosi implores us, no matter how painful or humiliating. “God is a new god of transformation and death is not the end of the Christian story. We can move on.”
More here-
http://www.anglicanjournal.com/issues/2009/135/sept/07/article/re-thinking-how-we-do-church/?cHash=756e1f371f
1 comment:
Gary and I served in Central Pennsylvania many moons ago. He is a sharp and creative guy. He was, folks may remember, one of the three candidates presented by the nominations committee in the process of our last episcopal election . . . .
Bruce Robison
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