A little while ago I was walking along with my wife and a couple of friends and they were discussing the changes that were happening at their church.
Now let's start off with the fact that I don't care that much for religion and I excluded myself from this conversation and was more of just an observer. Anyway I observed the following.
Over the years through faithful service my friends have been having the feeling of being pushed out of their church as things have changed. These reasons are long and complex but the summary is that after trying hard to keep the better parts of the weekly services in they are now being dropped by the current clergy. This results in less of a role for the choir and a borderline insult to choir as well.
I don't hear many people saying that these are good changes. If church is for the masses then this is a failure of the church as they are no longer working for the masses but a select number of individuals who, frankly, may not be around for much longer.
4 comments:
I have to request a correction in your post. I agree that the church administration has made some very bad decisions which is leading to some difficult decisions for many of us. However, the title of your post is not accurate. My religion has never failed me -- just a few humans who made some mistakes.
So your faith is not disturbed but you view of the church has been?
Not that I'd want to put words in purplemangos' mouth, but I doubt she'd agree with your use of "the church" either. Perhaps, "this [specific, particular] church". Rather than saying that religion has in this case failed anyone, it would probably be more correct to say that certain people with a lot of control over the way in which that church is run have failed their religion. We've seen them repeatedly ask for and then ignore the views of the community around them. Given that, it's not really surprising that that church's congregation has been dwindling... My US$0.0214.
Thanks, MotivatedTea. I particularly liked the way you phrased it as follows: "certain people ... have failed their religion."
And Phalse, let me anticipate your next statement. No, my view of the church has not changed -- and that refers both to my view of the church as in the overall organization (The Anglican Church of *insert country here*) and to the specific church in question. I still love and support my church, which is why I am finding this a difficult personal decision to make.
You also can't say that my opinion of the current church administrators has changed, because it definitely hasn't -- I have had problems with some of them for a long time. The only real change is my personal patience/tolerance level. I have been waiting for movement in "the right" (in my opinion, of course) direction for some time, and I am now at the point where I don't think I can wait anymore. My loyalty to my faith and my church are unchanged.
To be fair, Bubbles may feel differently.
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