Thoughts Of A Former Anglican

[poliphilo]

I started writing an angry piece about the Church of England and gay marriage and then pulled up short. What was the point?  I left the church a quarter century ago because everything about it was so annoying and that really should have been the end of the matter. How does it hurt me that it's placing itself "on the wrong side of history" again? It's what it does. What it's persistently done. It's not as if it'll win.  

It's the assumption of the moral and spiritual high ground that offends me most- that people who know so little about God should presume to speak on behalf of Him/Her/It. Bah! I persist (I don't know why) in expecting better of them. It saddens me that all they seem to care about is what goes on in other people's bedrooms.

I have, I suppose, a vision of what the Church might be. A city set upon a hill. The New Jerusalem. A light to the world. I joined the gang with that vision in mind and quickly found it was all about- other things. 

Individual Christians do sometimes embody that vision. The Church does its best to smother them.

Happily the Church matters less and less. A Tory PM is defying it in the knowledge that it can't really hurt him. How odd that I should be backing a Tory P.M against the Church!

I worry about the buildings. I love old churches. They hold the history and culture of their communities and some of them are (or contain) amazing works of art.  Who will maintain them when the silly old Anglicans are so reduced they can't afford to keep the roofs on? 

Comments

[daisytells.livejournal.com]

Although fundamentalist Christian sects and structures like the famous Crystal Cathedral are flourishing here in the States, age-old RC churches and some Methodist and other mainline protestant churches are rapidly being sold off by their several archdioceses or conferences.

One magnificent old structure in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts (the Blessed Sacrament Church and its school, rectory, convent and church hall) has been turned into condos and stores. We have no idea of what became of some of the beloved statuary and other works of "art" that adorned the interior. What is alarming is that this was one of Boston's largest and richest parishes as recently as twenty five years ago.

It is not just this one church that has suffered this fate. There are literally hundreds of them.

Sometimes parishioners stage a "Live-in" keeping twenty four hour vigils for months at a time in order to prevent closings, all to no avail. My own sister was part of one of those at St. Albert the Great in Weymouth, Massachusetts. They stalled off the inevitable for almost three years, but ultimately the church was sold and converted to other uses.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There's a church in Salford- early 19th century- very prominently placed- that has been converted into flats. Whenever we drive past we speculate on what it must be like to live there.

I'd rather churches were converted to other uses than demolished. Once they're gone they're gone.