Confession and safety

[RamiC]

Do you think that to some extent our lack of community and wrap around love disqualifies us from being a primary care giver for wounded souls so the state wants to step in to take over the role because our track record is less than the best ?
Maybe we should rethink our priorities -foster community more - visit families - shift the focus to support - make sure the Sunday service is not the only avenue of hope for the broken?

Around here, recognition of Jesus and our faith as a source of hope for the broken would help, Sunday or other days in community. At my church people do visit families, and we are very community involved. I have a work colleague who is not religious at all but has great respect for the CofE because of help from a local church during a time of struggle for his family. There are others I have met over the years, and our current PM has said the same.

Also in parts of this country where there is a lot of poverty, I have heard of priests checking that their graveyard is out of use, having the ground deconsecrated, and then starting a community vegetable garden around their church. They had plenty of volunteers to help with the gardening in exchange for free food from it when it grew, and from conversations while working on it, gardening volunteers ended up going to church. So certainly meeting needs in your community can get people to the Bible.

I think a huge strength of Anglicanism is in the flexibilty, so we might not all need to do the same thing.

 

[RamiC]

It's been the worship of power and status, and willingness to throw victims under the bus to protect those who abuse.

I think one aspect of the problem is that people really do not understand that they would not recognise an abuser. It is a huge illusion, very hard to see through. Most bullying I have ever seen does not end for the same reason, people already know and like the bully, hence really they do not believe the victim. They think that person would not have done the thing.

 

[RamiC]

I don't think it's lack of community that's meant the state has had to step in.

The problem here is that power and status can corrupt the state too.

 

[The Liturgist]

Yes, we have people here who think Christianity is dying out (they have really missed the part where Christianity starts with some people believing that if they kill Jesus, they would end the trend of following Him). Christianity is smaller here than it was, but our coasts are not the edge of the planet.

The Orthodox Church is growing rapidly. I would love to see Anglicanism resume a growth trajectory.

I have what I think is a mostly uncontroversial idea on how to restore growth which avoids the sensitive political issues, which if the Anglicans will permit I would be happy to share in fellowship, as a friend of the Anglican Communion.

 

[The Liturgist]

I don't think it's lack of community that's meant the state has had to step in. It's been the worship of power and status, and willingness to throw victims under the bus to protect those who abuse.

If there's one idol many of our churches need to tear down, it's power and status.

I agree with this. I think selfish and arrogant clergy, which exist in every denomination, are in many respects the most common example of wolves in sheep’s clothing. I myself have been a victim of clerical abuse during my youth, albeit of a non-sexual nature. Specifically, when my grandfather reposed in the Lord and my mother desired to five him a final kiss, the UMC elder seemed to object to this for some reason and manhandled her, resulting in bruising on her arms. This made the bereavement worse for her, and consequently, since I love my mother and am extremely empathetic, it really hurt me.

 

[Carl Emerson]

I don't think it's lack of community that's meant the state has had to step in. It's been the worship of power and status, and willingness to throw victims under the bus to protect those who abuse.

If there's one idol many of our churches need to tear down, it's power and status.

I think healthy community would not tolerate such power and status abuses.

The present culture around a priestly intellectual elite has failed to serve believers well.

Sadly, the review required to address this is unimaginable given that it is so entrenched.

Yet there is little doubt that the Anglican communion is quite tolerant of individual differences in the way local churches are run but few spring forth with the culture required to eliminate abuse.

 

[RamiC]

The Orthodox Church is growing rapidly. I would love to see Anglicanism resume a growth trajectory.

I have what I think is a mostly uncontroversial idea on how to restore growth which avoids the sensitive political issues, which if the Anglicans will permit I would be happy to share in fellowship, as a friend of the Anglican Communion.

We are growing in the Global South.

It is my country I despair of.

Church growth is OT for this thread although personally I would be delighted to hear your thoughts, and so long as you are within the SOP for this area, I doubt even our ordained friends in here would mind. To stay on topic in here, I have started a new thread a new thread for Church Growth. (blue words are a link to new thread).