Why Connecticut Matters

This week Newsweek had a thoughtful article on the disappearance of faith in Europe, quoting extensively the new Pope.  (Hat tip: titusonenine)

I would say so with other words: the attempt, taken to the extreme, to put together human affairs, doing so completely without God, leads us always more and more to the edge of the abyss - to the total isolation of man.

 

The issue has grabbed my attention since my Sabbatical weeks in Ireland and England this summer.  Some moments I marked...

· I saw the economic upturn of Ireland, with new construction projects in every small town, and heard about the heavy debts of European countries that hangs over the economic miracles.

· All over Ireland I saw church ruins filled with old tombstones, relics of a past faith.  I wondered, "Is this our future in the West?"

· I saw the initial paralysis in England as they responded to the bombings.  People on the street in Oxford were edgy, nervous - and strangely disconnected.  The London Times said the difference between 9/11 and 7/7 was that after 9/11 Americans went to their churches.  After 7/7, Brits went to their pubs.

· I heard about the empty churches of modern Europe.  In the 1980’s, church attendance in Great Britain went down by 13%.  In the 1990’s it went down by a further 22%.  Wales, on its current course of membership loss, will close it’s last church in 2020.  There are now more in weekend attendance at mosques in England than there are in C of E Churches.  Newsweek added this data in their article: 

It's telling that the final draft of the European constitution left God out of its preamble. According to the most recent European Values Study, just 21 percent of Europeans say religion is very important to them. A Gallup poll last year found that on average only about 15 percent of Europe's people attend a place of worship once a week, compared with 44 percent of Americans

· I studied about the population decline in Europe.  Europe is loosing population at a faster rate than any time since the black plague of 1350 because of lowered birthrates.  At the same time they are being swamped with Islamic immigrants.

· I heard people again and again try to search for answers to these challenges, and come up empty.  There is plenty of evidence that modern Europe is committed to the proposition that there can be politics and culture and prosperity and civilization - without God. George Weigel writes in his book “the Cube and the Cathedral”. 

"European man has convinced himself that in order to be modern and free, he must be radically secular,"

This is the framework of our lives.  We are caught up in the ongoing struggle between two world views, two Kingdoms.  The first we might call the “Human Project”.  That is the conviction, the confidence, the faith - that the resolution to our problems and the fulfillment of our aspirations lie within the resources of humanity.  The biblical term for it is the Kingdom of Man.

The second is what we might call the Kingdom of God.  It is the conviction, the faith, that the answer to our problems and the fulfillment of our aspirations lies beyond ourselves, in the God of the Bible, and that this good news, this gospel is uniquely revealed and graciously given through Jesus Christ. 

Europe’s values span the Atlantic, as we well know.  They are alive and well in high places in our country, dominating our culture, the academy, and the mainline churches. I left Europe believing that Christendom is history, that Western Civilization is, indeed, on the edge of a cliff, and that the battles we fight in our own spheres of influence will play a critical role in how the future plays out. What happens in Connecticut is that important.

What is needed?  Well, the Pope had it about right in his speech, I think...

That which we need above all in this moment of history are men who, by means of an illumined and lived faith, render God credible in this world. The negative testimony of Christians who spoke of God and lived against Him has obscured the image of God and has opened the gate to unbelief. We need men who hold their gaze directly towards God, learning from Him what it truly means to be human. We need men whose intellect is illuminated by the light of God and who open their hearts to Him, in a manner that their intellect can speak to the intellects of others, and their heart can open the hearts of others. Only by means of men who have been touched by God, can God make a return among men.

I think we have a few of those men and women in Connecticut.  Why not stop by the website for the Connecticut Six, and drop them an encouraging note? You can find it here.

Comments

[Laura]

Geoff,
When Eric and I were in Ireland three years ago, we, too, found the church dying. We attended Sunday services -- and one of the Sundays -- tho' three babies were baptized -- few attended. The services dragged. We saw the Gospel in church windows and heard it in the Eucharist and familiar words of some prayers.

We found the cemeteries fascinating because people are still being buried in wooden coffins one on top of the other in family graves and -- after awhile they collapse -- so there are depressions in the earth of different depths in front of the tombstones.
Also, superstition keeps the graveyards from being well-kept.

We loved the large celtic crosses and followed them into woods and behind barns and into fields of sheep and weeds.

We are glad you all are home and safe. Blessings as you begin your ministry again at St. Stephen's. We missed you all.
Deacon Laura

[Elizabeth Chapman]

This issue is very present for me...just finished The Cube and the Cathedral yesterday. Thank you for the post.

[Becca]

... a brilliant summary quote from the Pope ... amen and amen