Saturday, April 15, 2017

‘A different world’ for churches – and they all know it

 From Massachusetts-

Every Friday morning, the Rev. Tim Schenck orders a cup of coffee at the Redeye Roasters shop at Hingham Harbor. The pastor of St. John the Evangelist Episcopal Church takes a table and, marked by his clerical collar, waits for other customers to talk to him about God and life.

On the first Friday night each month, musicians, poets and artists gather with youth and their parents at The Sanctuary in Marshfield for “safe space” time that doesn’t include a hymn or sermon.

Those are among the ways South Shore congregations are making a presence in their communities at a time when formal church membership continues to decline for Roman Catholics and Protestants here and across the country.

Surveys by the Pew Research Center and other organizations paint a worrisome picture for religious institutions, especially in Massachusetts.


More here-

http://marshfield.wickedlocal.com/news/20170413/a-different-world-for-churches---and-they-all-know-it

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