Could one of the ways we might reframe the statistical decline be to acknowledge, even welcome the dying of Christendom–as a deserved rebuke to Anglicans for too long “living off the avails” of a public culture of compromise and easy membership? The earliest churches grew explosively without the benefits of government sympathy, deep pocketed patrons, or societal “influence”, or even superficial “relevance”. They didn’t grow by pushing, pulling, or dazzling folks into their assemblies. They grew by living such faithful and generous and transformed lives that their neighbours wanted to be admitted to their liturgies of praise offered to their maker and redeemer, admissions the earliest churches made with care, not desperation. The folks now in our parish churches really want to be there–there are now few other advantages to church membership. What a wonderful situation for us to be in!

Paul Friesen, St. Paul’s Church, Halifax