United Church considers giving up
Ian | 20 June, 2008 | 11:11Apparently that religion thing just isn’t working and the United Church of Canada is considering “throwing in the towel” and getting on with their lives.
“By even asking that question, we are acting as if we are a human organization rather than a God organization. It is a [national leadership] that is profoundly flawed with no strong sense of purpose or direction or destiny.”
I would say, yes, you are a human organization, and now we all agree.
The only downside I would see to losing the United Church is that they are one of the more liberal churches, often taking part in Gay Pride Parades, and supporting greater dialogues (like Greta Vosper’s “With or Without God”).
The numbers leaving their church however are staggering:
Like most mainstream Protestant denominations, the United Church of Canada has seen dramatic drops in membership. There are now 3,400 United Church congregations; since 1996, the Church has lost about 460 parishes. The Church reports a membership of 558,000, down 21% since 1996.
Although it doesn’t say whether people are leaving church all together, or just going to other (more “traditional”) churches.
(Via Pharyngula)
Thats a shame, I’m part of those numbers!
From what I’ve heard, its going to wind up as some sort of social club (which while really cool, is mostly just a title change), thats how they ran the youth group (we sat in the basement of the church and talked about life, only venturing upstairs to the real service for big events). It would be awesome if more churches were like that.