Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: (Vigil) Margaret Egan, (Anniv).
11.00: Michael Leonard (Month's Mind) & Eamon Lynskey, (Anniv).
6.30: Denis & Kitty Daly, (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

In the 1970s, more than 90% of Irish Catholics said they went to Mass once a week. Now the number is 44%, according to a recent survey. Although a dramatic drop, the level remains high among Western countries. Compared with the situation in the UK, the Church in Ireland is in a state of rude health. (see below .)

What about a general liberalisation of law and practice within the Church itself.? Would that not bring back on board those alienated by the patriarchal, authoritarian and undemocratic face that the Church has presented to the world? Dream on! As sociologists of religion point out, it is the traditionalist and fundamentalist movements that are on the rise throughout the world. It is those churches who have made some effort to adapt to secular culture that are almost everywhere in decline. In the USA, it is the fundamentalist, evangelical churches who are making huge inroads into the mainstream congregations, not the other way around.

In Europe also, the Church as been unable to come up with strategies to withstand secular trends. Thirty years ago, the Church in Europe was aware of these threatening trends.

Liturgical Renewal fared better in Ireland than in many other places. Even in Ireland, men like Michael Paul Gallagher were sounding alarm bells. 30 Years ago the Church in Europe and in Ireland had greater resources in terms of energy and personnel than it has today. If they couldn't buck the trend thirty years ago, I doubt if they can do it in the next thirty years.

Unless there is an enormous external upheaval that shakes the cultural foundations of Europe, organised religion will attract an increasingly small number of adherents. There will of course be a committed small core that will work to revitalise the Churches and attempt to devise strategies to evangelise that mainstream secular culture. However, the possibility of their succeeding is bleak indeed.

What indeed if the Church in Ireland became a smaller remnant? Would the Church be less the People of God for that? Did Israel fall from being God's Chosen People as it moved from being a powerful kingdom under David, to a divided kingdom? And then to a single small state that the Babylonians smashed? Does the fact that the very cradle of Christianity, modern Turkey, has now only vague evidence of a Christian presence, does that break our faith in God?

We should reflect on the Old Testament story, and apply it to ourselves. The Church throughout the western world is going through its 'Israelite' experience, moving from being powerful to being peripheral. This may indeed be no bad thing for us. When powerful, the Church had always faced the temptation of acting as if it were a secular power with secular goals. The humiliation and decline may well so change the focus of the church as to lead to an inner transformation. When the Church is thus purified, it may then be in a position to come up with a strategy to respond to the spiritual needs of the age. Ecclesiastically speaking, we stand at the tomb. Silence becomes us. After all, numbers were not a high priority with the Founder.

-Dick Lyng

SMALL HOPE

It happens, sometimes, after wars
That we meet someone like ourselves - all scars -
And mumble in our minds that hopeful word
'Love'. Could it happen? There is no such thing.
I am no thrush that wakes in storms to sing,
Just a small poet enmeshed in the absurd,
Counting the lost kisses and the broken delf,
Regretting all my life the 'thees' and 'thous',
My forsaken people and the bars
My elbows love to rub and the jars
My liver has absorbed - my thens and nows
Lie broken and lamenting on the shelf.
Sometimes I meet you and forget all vows,
turn your life around and annex myself.

-Michael Hartnett.

FUTURE BLEAK FOR CHURCH IN UK

The number of people attending Church in the UK is declining so fast that regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation, research published on Thursday suggests.

The decline - from the four million people who attend church at least once a month today - means that many of the churches of the Church of England and the Catholic Church, as well as those of other denominations, may well be forced to close.

By contrast, it is predicted that the number of actively religious Muslims will rise from about one million today to 1.96 million in 2035.

According to Religious Trends, an analysis of religious practice in Britain, published by Christian Research, even Hindus may come close to outnumbering churchgoers within a generation. The forecast to 2050 suggests that churchgoing in Britain may decline to 899,000 while the active Hindu population, now at nearly 400,000, will have more than doubled to 855,000. By 2050 there will be 2,660,000 active Muslims in Britain - nearly three times the number of Sunday churchgoers.

The research is based on analysis of membership and attendance of all the religious bodies in Britain, including a church census in 2005.

Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary with responsibility for community cohesion, said: "We will look at these findings very closely. Britain is a secular democracy with a strong Christian tradition but many faiths have a home in Britain." According to the report, Christianity is becoming a minority religion in the UK.

However, the larger evangelical churches of the Baptist and independent denominations seem to be demonstrating some resistance to the trend. Some of these churches also show some decline, however.

Northern Ireland, where the enthusiasm of Pentecostals and other independents has led to a slight increase in numbers of churches, is a small oasis of growth amidst the relative gloom from other parts of the UK. The three growing denominations are the Orthodox, Pentecostals and smaller denominations, all dependent to a degree on immigration.

The crisis is particularly notable among Methodists and Presbyterians, as many worshippers are aged over 65. According to the report, such churches may well merge with others before 2030. "The primary cause of the decrease in attendance is that people are simply dying off," the report says.

By 2050, it is projected there will be just 3,600 churchgoing Methodists left in Britain, Christian Research predicts. Anglicans will be down to 87,800, Catholics to 101,700, Presbyterians to 4,400, Baptists to 123,000 and independents to 168,000.

Witticisms of the Wise

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