It takes something special to unite Richard Dawkins, Giles Fraser, David Cameron and the archbishop of Canterbury in a common cause, but that’s what Britain’s three biggest cinema chains have accomplished. Their refusal to screen an advert for prayer has provoked scorn and damnation – or, in more Anglican terms, “disappointment”.
Yet, strange as it sounds, I think the cinemas have done the Church of England a huge favour: they’ve given it the dose of reality it desperately needs. The C of E has no right to any special treatment. We still await constitutional disestablishment, but it’s clear that we are in the midst of a cultural disestablishment. The sooner the Anglican church grasps this, the better it will be for all of us.
Looking at hard numbers, the sociologist Linda Woodhead asserts that the big shift started in 1989. We have now reached the point where the majority of under-30s in the UK identity as having no religion. Woodward says that the C of E is “in freefall”. The question is whether it should bother opening the parachute.
More here-
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/25/church-of-england-lords-prayer
1 comment:
In a time of deadly religious conflict it seems right and just to start LEADING a religious campaign for accepting one another...loving one another at CHURCH. JUSTICE and EQUALITY for all (all must mean all)...++Justin has continued the passive/aggressive mission of EXCLUDING LGBTI Anglicans (at high levels of CHURCHLIFE)...the man is a coward/worse and few are willing to follow one disaster of a feckless Archbishop after another...get real, stay real Church of ENGLAND AND set an example of courage (for a change). The RCatholics have sprung back into action by taking more action than ever before...follow the leadership of Pope FRANCIS (and more).
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