Featured letter: Bureaucratic focus does not bode well

Dear editor,
Re: Ecclesiastical provinces to be reviewed (www.anglican.ca news story, June 25, 2007)

“It was noted that in 1971 there was an average of 38,249 Anglicans in each diocese…. By 2001 the number had dropped to 21, 395.”

The Anglican Journal Appeal letter, sent to readers last June, noted, “over the coming months the Anglican Journal will bring you stories … including the most pressing issues facing our faith … in the Anglican Communion.” These included:

• The U.S. Episcopal church’s response to demands from Anglican primates that they limit the role of gays and lesbians in the life of the church;
• Unfolding stories leading up to the 2008 Lambeth Conference;
• The full analysis of the place of the Canadian church within the emerging global situation;
• The possible realignment of the church’s Council and committees and its diocesan and regional boundaries as the denomination examines how to govern itself.”

If this is the bureaucratic focus of those leading our communion, it does not bode well for reversing our declining numbers and the gradual erosion of their influence on the basic structure of our Canadian society.
Randall Evans
Sidney, B.C.