Local vicars in Winscombe and Sandford in Somerset have been pressing to have prayers reinstated at the beginning of Parish Council meetings, a month after they were dropped.
The reason why they were dropped is not that the Parish Council wished to stop individuals talking to their imaginary friends in the privacy of their own homes, but that the Council had been advised that in the light of the forthcoming Equality Bill, Councils could no longer presume that prayers to a Christian God in business meetings would be acceptable by people of other faiths and of none. There is a difference between private and public space, and there is no longer unity of faith (if ever such was the reality) in the public space.
It is interesting to see the reasons being argued for their re-introduction. It is not the the Parish Council members are declaring themselves as all being ardent or lapsed Christians who are significantly missing this additional public opportunity to commune with the alleged almighty. Neither is it being argued that the prayers held before the meetings were so blatantly efficacious that their absence has significantly contributed to a quantifiable deterioration in the service offered by the elected members. In fact, it could be argued that the supposed reason being argued for the reintroduction of prayers hardly qualifies as a reason at all, and is, in fact, more of a manipulative and irrelevant plea.
The Rev Mike Slade — who is supported in his request by other clergy in the area — offered to lead prayers at the start of meetings, said: “At a time when our villages have suffered much through unexpected deaths, road traffic accidents as well as the enduring effects of the recession, your decision has added to people’s feeling of dismay and hurt. That can be changed quite simply and I pray that wisdom and common sense will prevail as you consider this request.”
Note, it is not claimed that the reintroduction of prayers will do anything to bring back the dead or heal the wounded in traffic accidents or allieviate the effects of the recession. (You might be able to argue that from the bible, though it is doubtful whether the Rev Mike Slade would have enough faith the bring about those results.) Even if it is true that the majority of parishioners in Winscombe and Sandford give a fig about the prayers at Parish Council Meetings (and I seriously doubt it) it is stretching it to argue that saying a prayer before a business meeting could prevent dismay and hurt caused by other tragic life events.
To me the whole incident was just another example of a group of people who had former influence (local vicars) failing to take on board the secularization of the country and the decline of the mother church. Thirty years ago 11 per cent of the UK population went to church and the average age of the flock was 37. Today, only 6 per cent are regular observers and the average age is 51. Figures revealed in The Times today show that the Church of England faces a financial crisis with liabilities almost double the assets that it has. In order to address the crisis congregations will have to give significantly more, and the church will be forced to lose a tenth of its clergy within 5 years. And while all this is going on, the church is hemorrhaging existing members and failing to attract new ones due to increased secularization in society, and the rows over female priests and bishops, and over homosexuality.
In the past, part of the reason for giving certain privileges to the Anglican Church was that it had its finger on the pulse of the local community. Clearly it is difficult to go on seriously arguing that. The numbers of the faithful are going down. The local community can no longer be assumed to be in sympathy with the values of the church. There is no longer a priest in every parish. The Tory Party at prayer has always had difficulty in claiming that it has its finger on the pulse of the ‘great unwashed’ who rarely darken its doors, or only do so very occasionally and very reluctantly with incredible awkwardness and embarrassment at weddings, christenings, and funerals.
I am angry that hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money is spent on training clergy. I am angry that the Church of England has undue influence and power in government and has automatic right to sit in the House of Lords. But I am relieved that someone in Somerset has had the wisdom to challenge the status quo and stop public prayers at the start of Winscombe and Sandford Parish Council Meetings.
The arguments put forward for the re-introduction of the prayers are clearly ludicrous.
What is the source of the statistics quoted on church attendance? They intrigued me a little and I would be interested to see the data-set or at least a breakdown by age group, or in terms of what constituted church attendance. One wonders what Mr and Mrs Average Church Attendee of 1979, now of course aged 67, think of all these young upstarts (51 year olds) taking over their church. Seriously though - I’d be interested to see the statistics as they pose all sorts of questions about distribution curves and trends and you know me, I love playing with figures.
Reluctant Blogger
The source of the stats was the leader in The Times that I linked to. Don’t have the original source I’m afraid.
Your clock is set wrongly. We look a bit sad really commenting on blogs in the early hours of the morning. I’m sure I was here several hours earlier than 12.51am.
I shall have to test it out. It is now 23.09.
If you have no faith in an Almighty God, then I think your blog site of Thinking Man is nothing more than someone who accepts the here and now and has not thought for tomorrow. The bible interpretation for that is Foolish Man. Yes, this society is increasingly secular but God did tell us that ‘In the last days, there would be a great falling away, with people seeking pleasures and material things as opposed to Him’. Unfortunately for society, God has the last laugh because we all have to die someday, and if you die without repenting then you are relying on a No-Hell situation. I suppose you believe in evolution as well. As a car, it is not very reliable, and as a believe system to replace God, has more holes in it than enough. I am sorry that you do not see Christian virtues in our society, if that is the case then how come the Police try to implement then all the time. If we are truly evolved then why do we fight over faith, when the rest of the animal kingdom is oblivious to it. Why do we say that if a man is mass murderer then he has not conscience, this conscience cannot be explained by evolution. It is God given. Why do we train our children to be good or as you would say, acceptable to live within our society, when their natural instinct is to ignore what we as parents say. Most of the todays’ problems are not because people believe in God, it is because most people do not believe in God. If you remove Him from the equation, then anarchy reigns. There is no accountability, and people will more and more demand their rights, as they see it. In fact we become a blame culture, or are we already that?
We need to have more Vicars stand up for what is right. The term PARISH, means Church related, the argument should be - remove the PARISH bit and make it just a Council, unfortunately we already have ones that cover the area, so these people, who want to keep there little village “English”, will have their rights removed. They would have less influence is stopping developers from moving in and building that 3 lane highway outside their back-gardens. They cannot have their cake and eat it. If the Parish Council is run by the Parish or Vicar, then it should be under the guidance of the Church, and as such should have Divine unction. A little pray never hurt anyone, unless of course you are an ardent evolutionist, who wants to deny God, because it means accountability.
As for the argument that sick people don’t get better, even the hospital community believe in miracles. God can and does raise the dead, unfortunately it requires a little faith the size of a mustard seed, society is trying hard to destroy mustard seeds.
We will become a Muslim nation by the simple fact that people want absolutes and the more, the church waters down fundamental Christianity to fit into todays’ secularism, the more people will turn to Allah. Your time as a free thinker is limited.
I want to say thank you for this privilage to write a response.