From Cape Cod-While the incentives for these expressions remain the fundamental beliefs of the various faith traditions involved, institutional survival can also be a motivating force. St. George’s Church-Stuyvesant Square, an Episcopal congregation in New York City, was faced in the 1870s with a departing upper-class congregation and a growing lower-class immigrant population in its neighborhood when, with the support of J. Pierpont Morgan, the Rev. William Rainsford was called to be its rector. Under his leadership, the concept of a church that served the educational, medical, and social needs of that community was fully realized and in time shared in his widely implemented “The Administration of an Institutional Church.”
That was then. The Social Gospel did not survive the disillusionment of World War I, and for many contemporary religious institutions the Institutional Church no longer works as a model for parish life, a vehicle for survival, or an effective tool for mission and ministry. In addition, the modern world has complex challenges and social issues that are beyond the capacity of a single church, denomination or even religion to address fully. These range from substance abuse to human trafficking, gun violence to immigration, racism to economic inequality. What worked in the inter-bellum era no longer adequately addresses the third role of religion in our age. What then should replace them?
More here-
http://www.capecodtimes.com/opinion/20180318/matters-of-faith-social-gospel-in-age-of-religious-diversity
