This past Monday, as Queen Elizabeth was laid to rest, the best of the Anglican tradition was on display. While the liturgies for her memorial service and burial were more elaborate than what most of us have seen, at the core of each was a foundation that should have sounded very familiar to us. Many of the prayers, the order of the service, much of the music, and the solid Easter theology echoed what our own Book of Common Prayer lays out for such occasions. As one friend pointed out, there were millions of people around the world who got a glimpse of ordered common worship and found it moving, even if they didn’t realize what it was they were experiencing. This “old-fashioned” way of worshipping that we hold dear can still offer a lot to a lot of people.

There is a lot of pessimism in the religious community these days. It’s a kind of a depression that has been settling in over the last year. Much has been written by pollsters and religious sociologists about the post-pandemic reality facing organized religion. I touched on it a couple of Sundays ago in my sermon. We have witnessed a generational shift in participation trends that would have come along eventually, but has been greatly advanced through the disruption brought by the pandemic. And it’s not just churches that went virtual or put masking policies in place – it’s affected all denominations across the country. In the same way we’ve seen the labor market, supply chains, and all sorts of things affected by the realities of the last two years, probably permanently, religious engagement looks different than it did, and may not ever return to what once was.  

Most often, this is captured by numbers; fewer people in pews, less participation in volunteer efforts, and smaller deposits (which may or may not also be related to the economy). In some ways, we’re doing just fine at Christ Church, and in other ways we’re seeing the same trends. In-person attendance is still not what it was, while on-line views continue to far outpace pre-pandemic trends. I’ve seen a comparison between the “quiet quitting” phenomenon in the labor market, and the pull back from volunteerism in religious communities (and other volunteer institutions). Yes. We are different now, or at least we behave differently than we used to. Is that automatically a bad thing? In what ways do we need or want things to be the same, and why? Can we see God at work in the changes around us?

These are big questions - questions our Vestry will be tackling in the coming months. I’m not pessimistic though. The mission field is changing, not going away. Much of the decline is demographic, not reactionary, for example. People aren’t leaving churches because they are unhappy or don’t believe in God or Jesus anymore. It’s just that, frankly, as older generations die, there are fewer believers coming in on the other end of the spectrum. Where there used to be a very small portion of people under 35 who claimed no religious affiliation or beliefs a couple of decades ago, that number has risen to more than 40% in recent polling. That 40% is larger than the number of those who claim a Christian orientation. The numbers of the oldest generations in America are much different. Just as the healthcare and retirement industries are dealing with the aging baby boomer wave, so too, will the Church. There will be an acceleration in decline in the coming decade, based on what we see and know right now.

But if a greater number of people, especially younger people, are not claiming religious affiliation, and also not opposed to God, there is opportunity there. We have an increasingly broad mission field in which to do the work of bringing in God’s harvest. We shouldn’t be afraid of that; the church was formed in the midst of a pluralistic society that didn’t really care much about those new Christians. The things that helped the church grow back then will help it grow again; serving the poor, offering hope, living in a such a way that people who recognize the love and excitement of the Christian community find it infectious.  

If the only future we can envision is a mirror reflection of the past we’re in trouble.  I’m pessimistic about such a reality. Instead, I’m excited to join God in being creative and responding to the deep needs of the world around us. We have a great and vast treasure to share with the world, a treasure that is valuable and sought after, even if people can’t name it right now. An experience of the Jesus movement, or an experience of the ordered traditions of the Episcopal Church might be all it takes to grow the kingdom. God makes all things new, and the Church is being made new even now in ways we can’t even register yet. I’m curious to see where God takes us.

Tom+

Gracious Father, we pray for thy holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ thy Son our Savior. Amen.