What's it like to be an Anglican priest?

[Paidiske]

Is this problem specific to Australian Anglicanism and perhaps the Uniting Church and parts of the Catholic Church, or is it more widespread?

It's most churches, really. Maybe the Pentecostal mega-church types not so much, but everyone else is aging.

My diagnosis is that most local churches have become inward-looking, and more focussed on having church the way they like it ("the way we've always done things"), than building real relationship with people outside their membership. The younger folk, if they do come along, feel themselves on the outer, are not given opportunities for leadership or to shape the culture of the church, and don't find that this is a place where they can best contribute their gifts to making a difference in a way they find meaningful. (And often face personal judgement across the generational divide). So they go elsewhere, or build informal networks amongst themselves, and conclude (not without reason) that the institutional churches are "irrelevant" to them.

The common public perception that, if it knows anything about church, knows these three things: that we covered up child sexual abuse on an industrial scale, that we're sexist to the core, and wrestling with precisely how mean God requires us to be to gay people, doesn't help make us seem like a place which might nurture authentic relationship with God, or with our fellow human beings. That's quite a reputation to get past.

Also, what about Aboriginal communities?

I really don't know. I've never served in really remote areas, which is where those communities still thrive.

 

[Malleeboy]

This is pre covid, where our loooong shutdowns impacted churches (it has taken my church untl now to get back to pre covid service numbers)

A Demographic Snapshot of Christianity and Church Attenders in Australia - McCrindle

The proportion of Australians identifying Christianity as their religion has been declining over the last century – from 96% in 1911 to 61.1% in the 2011

mccrindle.com.au

National Church Life Survey (NCLS) data shows that over the last four decades the proportion of Australians attending church at least once per month has more than halved from 36% (1972) to 15% currently. However this is still a significant proportion of the Australian population and indeed twice as many Australians attend church at least once per month (3.495m) as attend all AFL, NRL, A League and Super Rugby games combined per month (1.684m) during the football season.

Along with an ageing national population, the NCLS data shows the church going population is also ageing with an average age of adult church attenders being 53. While the 70 plus age group are strongly represented in church (comprising 12% of the population but 25% of all church attendees), the age groups under 50 are underrepresented. This divide is increasingly evident with the younger generations, for example the 20-39 year olds make up 34% of the population but just 21% of church attenders.

However the denominational grouping with the youngest church attending population is also the fastest growing denomination. Pentecostal churches had an average age of attending adults as 39 and they have a total church going population of 12% of all church goers. This means that Pentecostal churches are now the second largest denominational grouping of church attenders after Catholics (46%) and ahead of Anglicans (11%).

 

[The Liturgist]

that we covered up child sexual abuse on an industrial scale,

The Anglican Church in Australia had a child abuse issue? I was not aware of this.

 

[The Liturgist]

This means that Pentecostal churches are now the second largest denominational grouping of church attenders after Catholics (46%) and ahead of Anglicans (11%).

That makes me sad, considering Anglicanism seems to me to represent the very essence of what St. Paul meant about worshipping decently and in order. I largely agree with what St. John Wesley had to say about the Anglican liturgy.

 

[Arcangl86]

The Anglican Church in Australia had a child abuse issue? I was not aware of this.

I think it was the Catholics, but for a lot of people, Christians are Christians.

 

[Paidiske]

The Anglican Church in Australia had a child abuse issue? I was not aware of this.

Yes we did. The diocese of Newcastle, in particular, was an area with a massive issue, but to some degree it was everywhere.

 

[Christoph Maria]

That makes me sad, considering Anglicanism seems to me to represent the very essence of what St. Paul meant about worshipping decently and in order. I largely agree with what St. John Wesley had to say about the Anglican liturgy.

That's precisely how I see it too...