A long-serving Church of England bishop has predicted that the CofE will cease to exist within a generation. In an article in the Sunday Telegraph, the Rt Rev Paul Richardson said declining church attendance and the rise in multiculturalism meant that “Christian Britain is dead”.

The Church is rapidly declining, with attendances at its services in freefall, a proposal on the table at the next General Synod meeting to cut the number of bishops, and huge holes in its finances due to the economic downturn and a lack of congregants to donate to the collection plate. Read the article in full here.

Mr Richardson said that the Church had lost more than one in ten of its regular worshippers between 1996 and 2006, with a fall from more than one million to 880,000. “At this rate it is hard to see the church surviving for more than 30 years though few of its leaders are prepared to face that possibility.”

While seven in ten people described themselves as ‘Christian’ in the last census, the fall in church marriages and baptisms confirmed that the census could not be taken as a true guide to the situation. Britain was no longer a Christian nation.

The number of babies being baptised has fallen from 609 in every 1,000 at the start of the twentieth century to only 128 in 2006/7 and church marriages have also dropped

I guess you will hate Muslims next since they seem to be on the rise there and soon you will have to abide by sharia law.

You will be begging God for Christians once the Muslim extremists take over.

The UK is very secular,everyone knows it.A large majority of people probably say they are catholic protestant christian etc etc just for the sake of it and not because they actually give two peeps about religion.

Well I guess some good came out the recession now If we could just get people in america to throw out their mythology we'd be good to go and my family wouldn't throw bibles at me anymore, I mean literally throw them at me by the way

Thats BS!! Im not religous but there are about 4 churches in my city and one every 10 miles in the countryside.

UK is Christian and always will be.

Originally posted by WhatTheory
I guess you will hate Muslims next since they seem to be on the rise there and soon you will have to abide by sharia law.

You will be begging God for Christians once the Muslim extremists take over.

I don't hate anyone my friend, and I'm certainly not susceptible to xtian paranoia in relation to Muslims.

The UK and US forces are not exactly defending sharia law over in Iraq and Afghanistan now are they ?

Originally posted by Haydn_17
Thats BS!! Im not religous but there are about 4 churches in my city and one every 10 miles in the countryside.

UK is Christian and always will be.

The Uk is steadily progressing toward being a secular nation, and rightly so it has been xtian in name only as of late.

Churches and chapels are closing down my friend, granted there are ardent followers who attend other churches to give the impression that the numbers are there but the truth is there are no bums on seats.

To be truthful I really enjoy the architecture of the old churches and chapels and it's a shame to see them turned into gaudy flats or mosques but that's progress for you.

You have to consider that a lot of these buildings are still standing and maintained because of the tax scam of religion.
Just because the building is there does not mean it is used. Xtianity is desperate to get bums on seats haven't you seen the adverts on buses and the like ?


The irony is that when these buildings need repair because of the acts of the jesus yahweh god, they have the bollocks to knock my door for money !! Get god to fix it, it is broken then god broke it

I think 95% of Primary schools in the UK are Church of England. So as secular as we like to make out, we still push mythology at all our primary schools.

Originally posted by moocowman
Then clearly xtians hate homosexuals,

Is that a statement, a fact or a question?
Way to NOT respond to any of the points in my previous post.

[edit on 7/6/2009 by WhatTheory]

gone in ten years, perhaps, but then in 1996 they only had a million regular worshipers anyway. clearly the numbers weren't great back then either.

what will change in the next ten years that will make the flock so much smaller?

Originally posted by woodwardjnr
I think 95% of Primary schools in the UK are Church of England. So as secular as we like to make out, we still push mythology at all our primary schools.

We don't push the mythology it is the Anglican church sitting in positions of influence forcing the law that British schools have to have a religious assembly.

The schools claim their assemblies are "broadly xtian " this is a complete joke and is taking the piss out of the parents.

If your child goes to a uk school and is of no religious belief or a muslim sheik or anything else, then that child is at the mercy of the teaching staffs version of the repugnant xtian belief.

The sooner religions are removed from the public domain the better.

There are 25.3% Church of England primary schools in the UK, there are also a few Muslim and Jewish schools.

The attendence in C of E churches may be falling, yet membership of others such as Baptist, Methodist, United Reform, Gospel Hall etc., is on the increase.
I live in a little Devon town there are nine churches all have a large congregation.

Many feel alienated from the C of E, for such things as agreeing Sharia law has a place in the UK, and because of the Churches wealth and hierarchy.

Originally posted by moocowman
The sooner religions are removed from the public domain the better.

why, what do they do that is so repugnant, and i'm not talking about 500 years ago, i mean now, today.

Originally posted by rapinbatsisaltherage
I wasn't aware that the majority of the Muslims were extremists.

I did not say that the majority are extremists, so what's your point?
All you have to do is look to the middle east to see that the majority of Muslims are NOT extremists yet the extremists have the control and make life miserable for everyone.

Thanks for sharing that with us.

Anytime!

The hypocrisy among Christians is ridiculous and just as ramped as with any other religion

You are not being clear. What hypocrisy?
If you were trying to say that I am a Christian, then again, you would be wrong. I guess you have knee-jerk reactions when someone criticizes a secularist.