Bishop Richardson should take a second look at this statement.

Perhaps the most worrying set of statistics for the Church of England is the decline in baptisms. Out of every 1,000 live births in England in 2006/7 only 128 were baptised as Anglicans.

I believe it reflects the fact that the Euro-English are not reproducing at a replacement rate great enough to sustain themselves.

Speaking overseas on two occasions, our president declared the US is not a Christian nation, and in the second speech, declared that the US is a muslim nation.

Perhaps it is something about being an assisting bishop in Newcastle that is responsible for Paul Richardson being so glum, and the more he writes the glummer he gets, raising fears towards the end of the article that he is verging on the suicidal.

But this is probably what passes for good cheer in Newcastle.

The glumness of an Assisting Bishop in Newcastle would pass for sensible optimism in North America if we were as honest as him.

Were we as honest as he, yet better would we be.

#3 LOL! A good night traipsing round the Bigg Market may be in order…

With Roman Catholic adoption agencies in Britain having either to shut or sever links with the Church, whilst the Established Churches fiddle on with resolute reserve, one cannot help responding, ‘Hear! Hear!’ to Bishop Richardson’s sobering acerbic assessment.

I understand from my English friends that Bishop Richardson has had an “epiphany” much like that of the Bishop of Chichester, the Rt. Rev’d John Hind, and which the latter expressed at the February 14, 2009 “special general meeting” of FIF/UK:

http://www.forwardinfaith.com/news/na09-02.html

Why the narrow definition of ‘Christian’? How are the other denominations faring?

For the northern European “protestant” nations it’s more or less a universal pattern. In terms of Sunday attendance, individual churches may grow (and there is some question as to how far such growth comes from drawing in people from smaller churches) but to my knowledge no christian denomination in England has consistently grown over the last 20 years let alone the last century. There’s some evidence that conservative evangelical churches held steady during the 1990s and 2000s and the house churches grew in the 1980s (but declined in the 1990s).

It’s a complicated picture. If you are really interested have a look at the work of the sociologist Grace Davie.