An atheist's prayer for the churches that keep our soul

[rug]

After a year of bad news, spare a thought at Christmas for one of the threads that binds communities together



'The layout of chancel, choir, transepts and aisles makes full sense only with the murmur of the mass, the smell of incense, the busying of priests about the altar' … Lincoln cathedral. Photograph: David Lyons/Alamy

Simon Jenkins
The Guardian
Thursday 20 December 2012

Now is the season to think of the outcast and disadvantaged. Spare a thought for the BBC, whose bosses have behaved no worse than any flatulent organisation with too much public money. Have a care for Nick Clegg in this time of goodwill, as he painfully wrestles with his political conscience over taxes and drug laws. And weep for the Church of England. It has had a terrible year, torn by internal strife and falling numbers, out of cash and with even the lead stolen from its roofs. This is supposed to be its bonus day, Christmas.

This month, the census appeared to confirm a Religious Trends report that church attendance was falling so fast that by 2035 there would be more active Muslims than Christians in Britain, and by 2050 as many Hindus. On any showing this is a seismic moment in English history. (I leave Welsh, Scottish and Irish to them.) Will Prince William be crowned in a mosque? Has Saladin had the last laugh? Is Richard the Lionheart turning in his grave?

As an atheist I may be careless of the Anglican church and listen to doctrinal feuds over female bishops and gay marriages with bafflement. But I am intensely careful of churches, and not just churches as buildings, glorious as many of them are. Those who deride the church should recognise them also as institutions of local art, ancestry, history and ceremony. Why else have cathedral attendances risen by a quarter in the past decade? Why do all churches surge at Christmas?

It is simply inconceivable that England's 47,000 parish churches will disappear, even with the decline in religion. But to enjoy a church involves willing its upkeep. I believe that a building designed for a purpose, however eccentric, is ideally best used for that purpose. I would think the same of a theatre, a town hall or a freemason's lodge.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2012/dec/21/atheist-prayer-churches

[Jim__]

1. "... the church and its clergy are one of the last human threads binding villages ... together."

... But when government is bleeding civic purpose from every community in the land, the church and its clergy are one of the last human threads binding villages, towns and inner city communities together.

I have visited estates outside Sheffield, Manchester and east London from which doctors, teachers, policemen, social workers, professionals of all sorts, have fled, or at least confined themselves to cars. The only "leader" left in residence is the priest, of whatever denomination, underpaid, working in appalling surroundings and motivated by a grim but sincere philanthropy. The nearest I have found to saints have been priests in tough areas. And most are desperately alone. When a river floods, a child vanishes or a murder is committed, the only person the media can find to comment is usually a priest. He or she is the closest England gets to a mayor.

...

As churches are eliminated, we really can't afford to neglect the role they play in the establishment of community. TV and the internet are not a substitute, nor are big-box corporate stores, nor the mall. Destruction of community is a real problem and we need to recognize and address it.