Friday, January 3, 2014

Welby: Good vicars mean growth

From The Church Times-

WHERE a good parish priest is present, churches grow, the Archbishop of Canterbury suggested this week.

In an interview on the BBC's Today programme on Tuesday, the Most Revd Justin Welby suggested that he was "extremely hopeful" about the future of the Church of England, despite falling numbers, partly because of "signs of growth in many places".

He said: "Of course there are churches that are doing better and churches that are struggling more, depending on area and on leadership. But the reality is that where you have a good vicar you will find growing churches."

The Archbishop was invited to give the Thought for the Day by the chief executive of Barclays, Antony Jenkins, the guest editor of the programme for the day. In the subsequent interview, the Archbishop acknowledged that "We are falling in numbers and there is a change in attitude towards the Christian faith in the country, that is unquestionable. We need to be quite realistic about that." He also suggested that "We sometimes give the impression at the national level that we are obsessed with a small number of issues."


More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2014/3-january/news/uk/welby-good-vicars-mean-growth

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