How two Anglican churches came back to life By: Justin Brierley | Jul 2015 The statistics tell us that St Peter's Brighton and St Swithun's Bournemouth should be carpet warehouses or gastropubs by now. Justin Brierley finds out why they are welcoming hundreds of parishioners through their doors again 'Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated'. So said writer Mark Twain after a 19th century newspaper mistakenly published his obituary. The same could be said of the dear old Church of England. Some parts of the press just seem to be awaiting its inevitable demise after a long, drawn out illness. After all, the buildings are empty, the vicars are demoralised and normal people prefer to go to M&S on a Sunday now, don't they? But, despite the tide of assumed decline, there are plenty of stories bucking the stereotype. When I recently spoke to Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB) leader Nicky Gumbel about his strategy for the revitalisation of CofE churches, he described a 'hidden revival' taking place. That revival isn't so hidden in the case of some of the churches who are now bursting at the seams after HTB planted into historic Anglican church buildings on the verge of closure Here, in the words of their vicars, are two stories to remind us that there's life in the Church of England yet: Rev Archie Coates, vicar of St Peter’s, Brighton, describes how a team from HTB rescued the city’s ‘unofficial cathedral’ in 2005. They now welcome over 1000 people into the church for weekend worship services. 'St Peter’s is one of Brighton’s iconic buildings, so when it was due to close there was a huge public outcry and 6,500 people signed the petition to keep it open. The building is incredible, but it’s also a nightmare because it’s crumbling. I remember giving sermons wearing hard hats. We didn’t have any heating for four winters, so people used to come to church in a hat carrying a hot-water bottle. I think this is a visual aid for the wider work. The local churches all said that when the building looks like it’s closed and dying on its feet, that sends out the message to Brighton that that’s what God is like as well. But equally if you could do the opposite – open it up, fix it up – then that would send out the message: ‘Wow, the Church is alive and God is on the move.’ When we began, we were about 30, including children: our family and about three other families. If you’re going to attract other people to come, there needs to be a certain group for them to come into, and it’s quite hard to do that with less than 30. Also, in terms of establishing a DNA, if you’ve got people with you who already carry that from where you’ve planted from (in our case HTB), that really helps when others come in. Now, as it’s grown, it has become more systematised, but at the heart I think it was: ‘Archie and Sam and their kids are going to go and live by the sea and see what we can do, and you’re welcome to join us.’' Rev Tim Matthews, vicar of St Swithun’s in Bournemouth, whose HTB team planted into the empty church in September 2014, has seen rapid growth with over 500 now in regular attendance. Click here for the rest of the article: http://www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/Not-Dead-Yet-How-two-Anglican-churches-came-back-to-life
Has anyone on the forums or their parishes used the Alpha Course? If so, what are your thoughts. Fr. Mark
From what I've heard it seems like a middling catechesis course that is more ecumenical than Anglican really. There are local roman catholics that use it for their own catechesis...
When I was in preparation for baptism by the Roman Catholics at the local cathedral, the Alpha Course videos used up the first half of the year. A specifically-Catholic catechesis occurred in the final stretch. I find the fellows at HTB and their whole approach to be distastefully "Low". I do wonder if it's better to have empty traditional churches or full "enthusiast" churches.
A house divided against itself will fall. In my opinion, Anglicanism suffers because of the differences between high and low. There are many many flavours of Protestant worship, somewhere over 30k denominations I believe. I feel that the attraction for many towards Anglicanism is fostered by such things as sacraments, vestments, solemnity, traditition, priests bishops etc. Basically all things "high". Please excuse the unqualified opinion of someone outside your beautiful faith