70 years ago: Church attendance declines in Britain

The spiritual decline of the United Kingdom isn't a recent phenomenon, but has been going on for a long time. One major problem, of course, has been, as is the case in other European countries, the existence of an official state church, which has the effect of producing and promoting "a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof" (II Timothy 3:5a)--"churchianity" rather than Christianity.

The other usual causes of apostasy, such as the tolerance of heresy in the seminaries and then in the pulpits, are to be found in Britain, as elsewhere. It did come as a surprise to this blogger, however, to read that church attendance was as low as it was in the days mentioned in the following article, as reported by the Canadian Press and published in the Ottawa Citizen September 25, 1948, p. 8:

London -- Church-going in Britain has declined to the point where people are asking: "is worship dying out?"

In 1889 church attendance amounted to about 36 per cent of Britain's adult population. By 1945 it had dropped to 18 per cent. Today it is estimated to be not more than 10 per cent.

Congregations generally seem made up of elderly folk, raised in more devout time, and young people brought to church by their elders. The great mass of active, intelligent citizens between the 20's and the 50's are poorly represented.

"The disasters of the war brought about a temporary increase in church-going," a London clergyman said. "But the incentive of what the troops used to call 'slit-trench Christianity' born of fear, soon passed. After the last 'all-clear' was sounded congregations began dwindling off to their former dismal proportions."

Rev. Peter Symes, Nottingham Wesleyan minister, recently lamented that: "people will listen to the words of Mr. Crosby, but not to those of St. Paul. They will sit entranced at the valour of Errol Flynn, but not at the battles of Gideon or David or Saul, which are really quite as enthralling."

"I believe most people practise the Christiain virtues of kindness and sympathy every bit as much as their fathers and mothers did," wrote Rev. J.R. Ackroyd of Burnley, Lancashire, in his parish magazine, "yet the incentive to go to church seems to be lacking."

Many non-church-goers complain of "hypocrisy" among church-going Christians--of petty rivalries and jealousies among church workers; of slander, gossip and personal vindictiveness among members of the church congregation.

Others declare frankly that they cannot bring themselves to subscribe to a sacred ritual in which they do not believe. Wrote a correspondent to the Daily Telegraph:

"I know what is right and wrong most clearly and I can understand the teachings of Jesus Christ. But the procedure from this clear and simple understanding to the acceptance of trans-substantiation and Papal infallibility are beyond my grasp."

The writer of that letter to the Daily Telegraph is correct to recognize the lack of connections between the teachings of Jesus Christ and the unbiblical Roman Catholic doctrines of transubstantiation and papal infallibility. Whether that writer was able to recognize that Roman Catholicism is not in fact true Christianity is unclear.