The Church of England is a business that is in terminal decline. People prefer other brands of superstition and now the government has mass media it no longer needs the church to keep the populace under control.
So when Sony used the interior of Manchester Cathedral in their game Resistance: Fall of Man you would have thought that the Church of England would be happy. For once the inside of one of their buildings would be seen by a large audience. But no, they showed their complete detachment from the realities of society by having a big whinge.
And now they are at it again. The Very Rev. Rogers Govender, dean of the cathedral, is whingeing that the game has been nominated for a BAFTAÂ (not that a gaming BAFTA has much credibility). He should be rejoicing. The decline of the Church of England is such that one day his cathedral will find a better use. As a car park, a shopping mall or maybe as a mosque. So the game will be an historic religious relic to remind of the days when such an important city centre site could be wasted on the irrelevant frippery of a Church of England cathedral.
He really should get out more.
So are you a fan of cucumber sandwiches and tea at the vicarage or do you follow the eminently sensible view that religion is the root of all evil (well, most of it)?
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>The Church of England is a business that is in terminal decline.
Interesting statement, Bruce. Any recent evidence?
I blogged this Sony question extensively back in July. My understanding is that the “hard” issue is basically about persuading Sony to obey the law. There are various soft issues as well.
My assessment is that they thought they were in the clear, got caught with their legal trousers down, and are scared to admit it. For some reason they recruited their first ip specialist in the UK the next month.
I’ll be having another look this weekend.
The link is to the legal analysis I wrote back then.
Thanks for the article.
Matt
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The churches are empty except for a few old people. Even weddings now happen on tropical beaches and in castles. Islam is well on the way to being the most regularly practiced religion in Britain.
Here is some stuff:
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_060113attendence.shtml
http://www.vexen.co.uk/UK/religion.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/08/17/nrelig17.xml
Of course the CoE owns the image rights to it’s buildings. But that misses the point. The CoE had a chance to make itself more relevant to the youth of today and they failed. They are just so full of a false view of their own importance that they took all the wrong actions. And still are.
In 100 years time the CoE will be a small rump cult like the Druids.
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Bruce
Thanks for your reply – I’ll write an article later and ping this post back.
Matt
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I’m 30 and go to a church (CofE) in Coventry where there is a regular congregation of 280 people on a Sunday. Of them, 65% are below the age of 30. The building is packed on a Sunday. I also know of at least another three churches in Warwick and Leamington that are packed to the rafters with young people every week.
My sister and brother in law go to a church in Nottingham that has a congregation of 800 and has just raised £4m to build a new church building as there current one is too small.
There are lots of declining churches around the country obviously (and very empty ones at that) but that is primarily because communities have broken down now from Parochial Local communities into more nomadic cultures where people travel to the churches they want to go to.
Ultimately, the churches that don’t work – with old clergy and an inflexibility to the needs of modern society will die out. The CofE is adapting to this and will ultimately be a stronger organisation because of this.
The ‘Church’ in general will certainly look different in 100 years time but I suspect it won’t be as small as you think, Bruce. Consider that Christianity is the fastest growing religion in China, with approx 200,000 converts last year alone…
As for the whole Sony thing, I just think it’s funny that Sony got pulled up for it… 🙂
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Thanks for you input gentlemen.
Regardless of anyone’s faith the fact remains that the CoE handled the whole situation apallingly. They have alienated a huge audience when they had the potential to do the opposite.
They need a Max Clifford or an Alistair Cambell to tell them what to do.
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James, Coventry has a population of 303,000. Are CoE congregations in the city even 1% of that? It is in terminal decline as a business and as a superstition.
The CoE is completely out of touch with it’s potential customers. The Manchester Cathedral episode proved this.
Personally I think this is a very good thing. Religion is responsible for most of the evil in the world.