MORE people in Wales are believed to be attending evangelical services every week than are going to traditional services in the Church in Wales, according to a TV programme (Week In Week Out) which airs tonight
Interesting article from Wales Online. Personally none of this takes me by surprise, does it you?
Church not in crisis, insists Archbishop
MORE people in Wales are believed to be attending evangelical services every week than are going to traditional services in the Church in Wales, according to a TV programme which airs tonight
BBC Wales’ current affairs programme Week In Week Out says that although there is no precise figure for the number of evangelical worshippers, estimates from the Evangelical Alliance in Wales put the figure at up to 60,000 every week.
In contrast, those attending a Church in Wales service numbered fewer than 50,000 last year, down from more than 62,000 in 1990.
The Archbishop of the Church in Wales, Dr Barry Morgan, denies claims the church is in crisis, despite the numbers who regularly attend services continuing to fall across the country.
He said: “The fact of the matter is, things ebb and flow. People were writing off the 17th and 18th century churches, and saying it’s so corrupt; it’s so in decline; its buildings are falling down; people who go there don’t really want to be there. It’s bound to disappear. It’s still here. It will still be here.”
But Professor Robert Warner, the former head of theology at Lampeter University now at Chester University, warned the church it needs to take action to ensure its long-term survival.
He said: “The only thing the Church in Wales cannot afford to do is to sweep the crisis under the carpet. It must be faced. If it’s faced, there is plenty of opportunity, I think, for the Church in Wales to reinvent itself. It’s lost so many people and so much influence, the worst thing it could do now is to go into denial.”
Week In Week Out airs at 10.35pm tonight on BBC One Wales.
Tags: Church Life