Church school demand triggers middle class ‘rush to the font’; Archbishop: Everyone is called to be a disciple; Bishop Wallace Benn – all complaints and charges dismissed; Barclays let down society, says C of E
Church school demand triggers middle class ‘rush to the font’
Telegraph – Middle class parents vying to get their children into church schools have started a “rush to the font”, official figures showing a surge in demand for baptisms of nursery-age children suggest, John Bingham writes.
While the most recent annual figures from the Church of England show a further slight fall in attendance at Sunday services, the number of couples having their children baptised is on the rise.
And although the numbers of families having babies christened are growing steadily, demand for baptism from those with older children – mostly preschool age – are growing three times as fast.
There was also a boom in demand for less formal “thanksgiving” services for children, again primarily for toddlers and young children rather than babies.
The Church of England said it was clear that parents still see it as important to have their child baptised but are increasingly leaving it later to do so.
But, according to the Rev Dr Sandra Millar, who now runs the Church of England’s
Christenings Project – an ongoing “market research” programme on baptisms, their motives are often mixed.
Dr Millar, a former parish priest in north London and Gloucestershire, said that competition for school places tended to be more of an issue in cities, such as London, rather than villages where often there is only one school, usually run by the church.
“It is very specific to locality,” she said.
“We are very tolerant as a church, we welcome people anyway.
“We are not going to condemn people because that is not what we do, we just accept that this is about the love of God at work in someone’s life and we trust and pray for that family just the same.
“And, if they are going to go to a church school, it can’t do them any harm to have contact with the Christian faith as small children.”
Some Anglican schools reserve up to 50 per cent of places for regular churchgoers fuelling popular jokes about getting “on your knees to avoid the fees”.
Officially, the coveted places for churchgoers are usually allocated on the basis of whether parents regularly attend rather than baptism itself – but it is a distinction which many parents are unlikely to make.
More at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10049636/Church-school-demand-triggers-middle-class-rush-to-the-font.html
Archbishop: Everyone is called to be a disciple
Christyian Today – The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby opened up about his conversion, losing his daughter Johanna, and what he learned from working in the oil industry in a wide-ranging interview at Holy Trinity Brompton’s Leadership Conference on Monday.
He was interviewed by long-time friend and vicar of HTB, Nicky Gumbel, on day one of the conference at the Royal Albert Hall.
Archbishop Welby said that working with mainly non-Christians in his oil industry days had presented him with the challenge of working out what being a Christian meant in the world.
“It taught me to value that everyone has a vocation, everyone is called to be a Christian disciple wherever they are, it’s not just for people who are called to be ordained,” he said.
There was pin drop silence as the Archbishop spoke movingly about the experience of losing his seven-month-old daughter, Johanna, in 1983.
Although it was “indescribably painful”, the Archbishop and his wife Caroline remember it as a time when “there was a sense of the presence of God [more] than almost any other time in our life – and the reality of God’s love”, he shared.
“It was this extraordinarily intimate relationship with God of weeping and praying … We were deeply surrounded by love and most of all very deeply by the love of Christ who sustained us through that.
“It’s still a pretty rare day when I don’t think about Johanna and I think that’s true for most parents who’ve been through this and yet it’s never to think about her without remembering the almost tangible way in which Christ held her and us, and holds her still.”
But there was a lot of humour in the interview too as the Archbishop recounted his conversion to the faith after a “staggeringly boring” talk by the Christian Union at Trinity College, Cambridge.
He also drew laughs when speaking about one experience on his cathedral tour in the days leading up to his enthronement.
On his Chichester stop, a man who didn’t recognise him approached him and said: “I’ve heard the Archbishop of Canterbury’s here today … Is there any chance you can introduce me to him?”
When the Archbishop told the man that he was in fact the Archbishop of Canterbury, the man answered with a rather disappointed “Oh”.
Turning his attention to the state of the church in Britain today, Archbishop Welby told the some 5,000 Christians present that a “risk-taking church” was needed.
“There is no safety in Christ – there is absolute security, but there is no safety,” he said.
He said it was “natural for churches to grow” but admitted it took a lot of “hard work” and that churches needed to find new ways of “liberating people to be risk-takers in the service of Christ”.
He also spoke of the need for Christians of all denominations to be united.
“We cannot live for our cause to win, we have to live for His cause to win,” he said, adding that “very often the biggest wounds we will experience will come from other Christians”.
Bishop Wallace Benn – all complaints and charges dismissed
Bishop Wallace Benn, who was Bishop of Lewes until October last year until his retirement, has this week issued a public statement (dated 11 May) concerning the dismissal of complaints made against him under the Clergy Discipline Measure.
See: http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/006042.html
Barclays let down society, says Church
Financial Times – The Church of England has accused Barclays of having “repeatedly let down society” and called for a “fundamental turnround” in the bank’s culture, in its annual investment report published on Wednesday. The Church is a Barclays shareholder