Quote:
|
Originally Posted by ammark
the Dutch still have Bishops? and religion?
|
the congregations might be much smaller than they were fifty years ago but the institutions prevail. the dutch reform church still has quite a strong missionary commitment in parts of africa. it should be noted that all the reformed churches in various parts of europe had seen much decline in terms of congregational attendance over the last thirty years. the church of england is in major decline and church buildings are sold each week in parts of the country. secularisation, changing work practises, changing social and gender structure are often seen as the causes of this change.
interestingly, the catholic church had been doing rather better everywhere. here in britain, for the first time since reformation there are more catholic christian attending services in the country. it is largely due to eastern european immigrant workers from poland and slovakia being rather more religious in their lifestyle than the english. catholicism had seen a major revival in europe in general. it could be a cultural response to many seeing their muslim neighbours having such strong faith in their god?
america is quite distinct as a religious map compared to anglo-german-dutch countries. catholicism and protestantism, in its various constituent forms are still thriving in small town america and even the large metropolis churches are often well attended.
on a personal note, one of my best friends gave up his high flying acedemic career (he was head of the department of religious studies at the age of 30 in a small but prestigious uk university college) to be ordained as a church of england minister. i visited him several times at oxford during his training. for those who don't know the process of training for being a church of england vicar, it basically involves a practical course as well as a one year post graduate course taught by a university. the mth (master of theology) or perhaps a research postgraduate degree such as an mphil or phd usually accompany the typical young vicar. in trystan's case he did an mth as he already had a phd from several years ago. during the practical training part of his course he spent some time here in south wales as well as a three month stint in a major church in washington dc.
one of the surprising aspects of church attendance is that how welcome the non-believer is made to feel. i have attended a lot of church services over the years as i have had a lot of friends who went into the (christian) ministry. the local vicar is a friend of mine as we both attended the same night class on classical arabic (yes the local church of england vicar went to a night class to learn arabic!) and i had often been invited to his church's interfaith dialogue seminars and meetings.
i once went to pelham warner's local church on an ocassion when i had stayed overnight at his house. the sunday service had thirty five people all above the age of sixty five! on another ocassion, a mutual friend of ours turhan khaqar, now an associate professor at a prestigious turkish university, had stayed with pelham and we went to the same church. turhan was asked to speak on christianity in a muslim country within the context of religion in turkey for ten minutes after a sunday congregation. turhan's academic speciality is 'early church history' in turkey but he is as devout a muslim as i have ever seen.
just to put a different stance on things, just after americans and british troops invaded iraq, my local vicar friend wanted to attend a local mosque on friday and formally apologise to all the muslims who would have gathered there for prayer. he had gone to the anti-war march in london and wanted to let the muslims in his parish know that most 'good' christians were against this unfair invasion. however, the syltei imam and the mosque council would not allow him entrace to the mosque!