Religion’s Slide in Britain

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN BRITAIN

THE SUNDAY TIMES of London reported that 1,500 Britons are abandoning mainstream churches every week. The Roman Catholic Church has lost some 600,000 attenders since 1980, and the Church of England—still “hemorrhaging” 600 each week—has fewer than one million at its services, less than half the attenders of 50 years ago. Following the 1992 General Synod decision to ordain women, about 500 Church of England clergymen have left.

Many who have left the churches often feel angry and disappointed that nobody tried to stop them from leaving or followed through to see what could be done to help them once they had gone, reported The Times. Some “said that the Church failed to connect with their life,” the paper observed.

British society is living off “a dwindling supply of spiritual and moral capital,” asserted cardinal Basil Hume, the Roman Catholic archbishop of Westminster. What has caused this drain? “A Famine of the Word of God,” headlined the Catholic Herald. It stated: “At Mass we are read extracts from the Old and New Testaments, but are rarely, if ever, given their context. . . . Lives of the saints and various books of spiritual reflection are fine, but they are not adequate as a key to unlock the Scriptures.” This article concluded that a “modern, biblical presentation with a pastoral goal” is lacking.

In a letter to the Lincolnshire Boston Target, a reader said: “People are losing their faith in religions . . . What do these church ministers do all day? They certainly do not go out like Christ did and meet the people . . . The only religion that seems to care are the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who go out and meet people and are genuinely involved in preaching the truth—they invite you to come to their services, they talk about and do something about environmental matters. I am not a JW, but I do respect these people and I listen to them.”

Have you ever attended meetings at the local Kingdom Hall? There you will find instruction that is both stimulating and helpful. Would you like to have your Bible questions answered? Last year, in 233 lands, Jehovah’s Witnesses devoted more than one billion hours of their time free of charge to helping people understand the Bible, conducting more than four million home Bible studies. Jehovah’s Witnesses view this Bible educational activity as the most important work being done at this time. We invite you to find out why.—Matthew 24:14; 28:19, 20.