Canterbury Fails

Canterbury Cathedral, one of the most venerated houses of worship in Christendom, has plastered its interior with graffiti-style artwork. From the Cathedral's website:

A major new art installation at Canterbury Cathedral in which ordinary people pose questions to God has split public opinion ahead of its official launch, with visitors reporting visceral reactions to the bold graffiti-style graphics and thought-provoking questions displayed on the ancient walls. Whilst many have reported their delight and intrigue, others have been discomforted by encountering the artworks.

Featuring questions including “Are you there?”, “Why did you create hate when love is by far more powerful?” and “Does everything have a soul?”, the “Hear Us” installation is the culmination of poet Alex Vellis and curator Jacquiline Creswell’s collaboration with marginalised communities and a team of skilled artists to create vibrant handwritten literature responding to the question “What would you ask God?”.

Jesus commands His followers to minister to the marginalized and of course He does so Himself. But the marginalized story is not all kumbaya: in today's Gospel from Luke 17:11-19 Jesus heals ten lepers, but only one of these outcasts comes back to thank Jesus. The message seems to be that the lepers may not be loving people themselves, but we are to love them anyway.

Your humble Anglican is not particularly offended by the temporary graffiti stickers. Having regularly winced at the Progressive sensibilities of Anglican-Episcopal clergy (comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable) this is far from an extreme provocation. However, he is sorry for the tourists who were hoping to take photos of the magnificent interior.

Worse, IMHO, is the patronizing point of view of the art sponsors. If I were a law-abiding, God-fearing, hard-working "marginalized" person trying to succeed in British society, I might feel personally insulted that the Anglican church decided that the graffiti format was the best way to speak to me, much as some Black Americans might feel if white elites try to reach them using Ebonics. Snobs are often not self-aware.

Resurging Anglicanism: Signs of Hope

Liturgical worship is coming back (anglicanmom)

There has been much wailing and gnashing of teeth regarding the collapse of British society. There are widespread allegations that the British elites condemn displays of patriotism but look the other way at immigrant grooming gangs and rape culture.

There is reason for hope: there are signs of a resurgent Christianity, led by Anglicanism, that can counter the Islamist wave and beat back the secularism that has dominated British culture in the second half of the 20th century. [bold added]

Across Britain, a wealth of evidence tells of a modest but real Christian revival.

Anglican clergy regularly describe a “steady trickle” of new parishioners seeking to know more about the faith. Some Catholic dioceses note a sharp increase in adults asking to be baptized. In July, the coastal town of Bournemouth witnessed a mass baptism of 92 new Christians in the sea. More than 1,000 attended the service—a striking display in a society where faith tends to be privately nurtured more than it is publicly proclaimed.

Ms. [Jo] Gilbert works for a parish in Brighton and coordinates the Catholic chaplaincy team for the town’s two universities. She has worked with students and young people for two decades. The past few years, she says, have seen a marked change. “A lot of us working in pastoral ministry, and a lot of people in a lot of churches, are saying we’re seeing a renewed interest and spiritual openness, and more new converts.”

...Such stories have been brought into focus by a controversial study from YouGov, one of the U.K.’s most respected polling companies. The study, titled “The Quiet Revival,” claimed that churchgoing surged from 3.7 million in 2018 to 5.8 million in 2024—a 56% increase. The most marked change, according to the data, was among 18- to 24-year-olds, among whom churchgoing was said to have quadrupled.

It's still early days, and indeed some of the enthusiasm with which this trend has been received may be inflated by wishful thinking, but I, for one, prefer to hope than despair.

Spreading the Gospel of Net Present Value

Your humble blogger studied accounting and finance before the personal computer was invented.

The only electronic devices that we brought to class were calculators that performed basic arithmetic. And so it was that we labored over present value/future value problems, pencilling out intermediate solutions so we at least could get partial credit from the proctor.

After learning how the basic formulas were derived, we were taught how to use books of tables to bypass much of the repetitive drudgery in financial calculations. The future-value table below is from McGraw-Hill.

Until financial calculators and PC's came on the scene, such tables were used in finance for 3½ centuries(!) These tables seem extraordinarily crude today, but when they were first published in the 1600's, it sparked the widespread acceptance of "discounting" as an alternative payment. It wasn't businessmen or bankers who spread the word, but the Anglican church. [bold added]

In the early 1600s, the officials running Durham Cathedral, in England, had serious financial problems. Soaring prices had raised expenses. Most cathedral income came from renting land to tenant farmers, who had long leases so officials could not easily raise the rent. Instead, church leaders started charging periodic fees, but these often made tenants furious. And the 1600s, a time of religious schism, was not the moment to alienate church members.

Interest-calculation book from 1700.

But in 1626, Durham officials found a formula for fees that tenants would accept. If tenant farmers paid a fee equal to one year’s net value of the land, it earned them a seven-year lease. A fee equal to 7.75 years of net value earned a 21-year lease.

This was a form of discounting, the now-common technique for evaluating the present and future value of money by assuming a certain rate of return on that money. The Durham officials likely got their numbers from new books of discounting tables. Volumes like this had never existed before, but suddenly local church officials were applying the technique up and down England.

Spreading the "Gospel of Net Present Value" was one of the most important developments in capitalism. With apologies to the bard,

Neither a borrower or a lender be
But if you are either
Be mindful of the NPV.

Liberal Anglicanism: It's Not for Everyone

Pope Francis at the Synod on Synodality on Oct. 23.
He's the guy with the big chair (WSJ photo)

Religions don't survive long unless they provide answers to basic philosophical questions. Furthermore, the questions should not be limited to those that puzzled its original adherents. To endure centuries, even millennia, they must address the human condition broadly. The trick is to understand which principles are immutable and which are not.

Ontario priest Raymond de Souza laments that Pope Francis is overturning too many beliefs too quickly.

conversations veered off to consider whether Catholicism would do better as a facsimile of liberal Anglicanism: ordaining women, revising sexual morality, enhancing lay governance—and, of course, trying to arrest climate change.

Ouch. We Episcopalians felt that one.

Father de Souza wants more dogma and fewer questions.

The articulation of dogma—traditionally the work of Rome—doesn’t bind the soul as much as it frees it, in the same way that a martyr is free, already living beyond the world’s power. Such confidence and clarity have dissipated in Rome in recent years. Question marks litter the landscape; certainty appears to be the problem, not the solution. Without dogma, we’re left only with our own conclusions, which aren’t truths worth dying for and thus aren’t truths worth living for.

I personally like having the Catholic Church argue articulately for traditional Christian theology and practices. Such voices have been stilled in the Episcopal Church, and they shouldn't be excised from American Christianity entirely.

Strength in Numbers

In the world of sports it sometimes happens that the son outshines the father, for example, Bobby Bonds / Barry Bonds and Del Curry / Steph Curry.

In world history former colonies are more powerful than their mother countries, for example, Great Britain / United States and Portugal / Brazil. In these cases the story is over.

Worshipers at an evangelical Christian service near Lagos, Nigeria, 2021 (WSJ photo)

In real time we can watch this ascent / descent occur in Africa: [bold added]

Owing to population growth and the intensity of their religiosity, Africans are now one of the more important constituencies of both Islam and Christianity worldwide, and sub-Saharan Africa is one of the world’s most active and contested religious markets. The region was 59% Christian and 30% Muslim in 2020, according to the World Religion Database. “There is a new scramble for Africa,” said Sheikh Ibrahim Lethome of Jamia Mosque in Nairobi, Kenya, drawing an analogy with the colonization of the continent in the late 19th century. “Christianity is growing, Islam is growing, and there is competition.”

The story is about the (peaceful) competition between Christianity and Islam in Africa, but the story as it affects the West and the United States in particular, is the Africanization of Christianity:

On a continent where indigenous religions dominated just a century ago, Christian missionary efforts, associated with European colonization, have borne fruit in massive conversions. By 2020, there were 643 million Christians in sub-Saharan Africa, a quarter of the world total, up from 7.4 million in 1900. By 2050, it is projected that there will be 1.3 billion Christians in the region, or 38% of all the Christians in the world.

In the worldwide Anglican communion the numbers in Africa (43 million in 2008) are overwhelming the influence of the (United States) Episcopal Church:

leaders of African churches that are among the largest and fastest-growing....refuse to join progressives, led by the U.S. Episcopal Church, who support marriage or blessings for same-sex unions and the ordination of openly gay clergy...

The Episcopal Church numbers two million members. It has shrunk to a husk of its former self. The African converts embraced what the Episcopal missionaries told them half a century ago, that Pride is a sin, that homosexuality is a sin, and redemption can be found by accepting God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. A 180-degree turnabout from supposedly fundamental doctrines seems desperate and frankly crazy to African eyes. Kenyan Archbishop Jackson Ole Sapit:

“We make a humble request to these churches: Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead.”

The Golden Spoon

The new king's official title is:

Charles III, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

The last phrase, Defender of the Faith, sounds quaint, but it is steeped in history.

Though the English dispensed with the divine right of kings when they deposed Charles I in 1649, they haven’t done away with the ideas of divinity, right and kingship. Consecrated, this mild-mannered constitutional monarch emerged from the abbey as one of the world’s few priest-kings. Charles is the head of the state and its church. He symbolically fuses the secular and spiritual, like the pharaohs of Egypt, the despots of Assyria and his late mother.

...Though Charles swore to serve his people, an anointed monarch’s first duty is to God. Charles is the fidei defensor—defender of the faith—in this case the Anglican confession.

The golden coronation spoon is 800-1000 years old

A world-wide audience viewed the coronation, but Charles' anointment as the Supreme Governor of the Church of England was hidden from the cameras:

Behind a hand-woven screen in Westminster Abbey, Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, took up the oldest item in the coronation regalia—a golden spoon—and anointed the king’s hands, chest and head with holy oil...

The crowning was the style, but the Christian rite was the symbolic content. Anointing with chrism reaches back to the prophet Samuel’s anointing of Saul as the first king of ancient Israel, and further back, to the origins of political and religious authority in the kingdoms of the early Bronze Age.

The American founders gave great consideration to how the government they were creating would differ from England's. One obvious change is the omission of the monarchy. The second difference is the prohibition of an "establishment of religion," aka a "wall of separation" between "church and state." The union of the two most powerful institutions in Great Britain, according to American observers at the time, made errors impossible to rectify.

Over two centuries later the passions have subsided. The British monarchy is now largely ceremonial, and the Anglican church is but a shadow of its former self ("UK Church membership has declined from 10.6 million in 1930 to 5.5 Million in 2010, or as a percentage of the population; from about 30% to 11.2%.")

We can admire without reservation the relics of power, like the golden spoon, knowing that their power has dissipated.

The Moment of Truth

Yesterday was a funeral service for a young man, 36, who died earlier this month. I never met him but have known his parents for years. They were reticent about revealing the exact circumstances of his death, and I respect their privacy enough not to inquire directly from them or mutual friends.

The grief was palpable from the three rows of friends and relatives. His father struggled when he gave the eulogy; I told him later how much I admire him.

I thought of Queen Elizabeth and the crowds who attended her state funeral and the millions around the world who watched it on television. I thought how our young man had maybe 40 people attending his service. Like the Queen, he on a much smaller scale had good people who loved him, mourned his passing, and will remember him the rest of their lives.

One key decision when planning an Episcopal/Anglican funeral service is whether to have Holy Communion. The distribution of the Bread and Wine does take time, and the Royal Family was wise to omit Communion with attendance at Westminster Abbey numbering in the thousands. (It's also possible that the ceremony was included at one of the private services.)

On Saturday morning we did have Communion in accordance with Jesus' instruction, included in multiple Gospels, to "do this in remembrance of me."

At all Anglican services the 23rd Psalm is read, as well as the following passage from John 14:

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling-places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.’ Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Whether Queen or commoner, everyone walks through the Valley of Death and at the moment of Truth hopes that there is a mansion waiting on the other side.

Uneasy is the Head that Wears a Mitre

Justin Welby (WSJ photo)

Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is the spiritual leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

He has his work cut out for him trying to avoid schism in the Communion. [bold added]

But as he prepares to receive Anglican bishops from around the world in England this summer in what is known as the Lambeth Conference, he faces a likely boycott by conservatives, including leaders of African churches that are among the largest and fastest-growing. They refuse to join progressives, led by the U.S. Episcopal Church, who support marriage or blessings for same-sex unions and the ordination of openly gay clergy...

Unlike Pope Francis, who holds ultimate authority over Catholic teaching around the world, the Archbishop of Canterbury has no formal power over the autonomous churches of the Anglican Communion. He relies on dialogue and compromise, which so far have proved inadequate to Anglicanism’s seismic rift...

Archbishop Welby in Kenya, 2013 (WSJ photo)

The bishops of Nigeria, Uganda and Rwanda—who represent an estimated 44 million of the world’s 100 million Anglicans, according to the World Christian Database—have said that they won’t attend this year’s conference in England unless Archbishop Welby excludes provinces that allow marriage or blessings of same-sex unions or the ordination of openly gay clergy.

They want him to invite as full members conservative churches that have split off in reaction to liberalizing moves in North America, Brazil, New Zealand and the U.K. Archbishop Welby has declined to disinvite the former or invite the latter except in some cases as observers.

Your humble Episcopalian, a supporter of secular same-sex marriage, sees both sides in the discussion about whether Anglicans should bless these unions. I don't want to get into the theological arguments but will note the irony of a small band of mainly white, highly educated Progressive elites who want to force millions of non-whites to adopt beliefs that are anathema to them. From 2016:

Let's step back from our narrow Eurocentric perspective. The Episcopal Church comprises less than 3% of the Anglican communion. The continent where Anglicanism is growing the fastest---Africa---is home to substantial populations that regard homosexuality not only as evil but as a sin punishable by death.

What would their reaction be to an Anglican church that performed same-sex weddings as a sacrament, that is, the equal in importance to Baptism and Holy Communion, in their community?

To put other Anglicans’ lives at risk to proclaim a value that is recognized by a minority of the world’s population is the height of arrogance. (Interestingly, the Episcopal Church decries this “Imperialist” behavior when Western society promulgates capitalism or traditional Christianity or democracy in the Third World.)

Desmond Tutu (1931-2021)

Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela (Forbes)

Whether or not "systemic racism" exists in America today, it unquestionably existed in the deep South for the majority of the 20th century. But the racism in America paled before South Africa's apartheid, a society built entirely around racial distinctions:

The implementation of apartheid, often called “separate development” since the 1960s, was made possible through the Population Registration Act of 1950, which classified all South Africans as either Bantu (all Black Africans), Coloured (those of mixed race), or white. A fourth category—Asian (Indian and Pakistani)—was later added....In practice, this act and two others in 1954 and 1955, which became known collectively as the Land Acts, completed a process that had begun with similar Land Acts adopted in 1913 and 1936: the end result was to set aside more than 80 percent of South Africa’s land for the white minority. To help enforce the segregation of the races and prevent Blacks from encroaching on white areas, the government strengthened the existing “pass” laws, which required nonwhites to carry documents authorizing their presence in restricted areas.

The South African government ruthlessly suppressed any challenge to its authority by the blacks who comprised two-thirds of the population. Into this parlous atmosphere stepped Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who died on December 26th at the age of 90:

With his friend and fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner, Nelson Mandela, he is credited with leading the charge against a white-minority government that was guided by a policy of racial segregation, known as apartheid. Still, after the African National Congress came to power in the 1994 democratic elections, he criticized the party for graft and greed...

As a bishop in the apartheid era, with police brutality roiling the country, Mr. Tutu went from township funeral to township funeral preaching for peace. He served as general secretary of the South African Council of Churches from 1978 to 1985, and his status in the religious community offered him protection from the apartheid government.

Sometimes Mr. Tutu’s sermons left people laughing; other times in silence. Once, he dove into a frenzied mob to save a suspected police informer from being burned to death. The crowd had thrown a gasoline-soaked tire around the man’s neck and was about to throw him into a burning car before Mr. Tutu pushed through to stop the killing.

Preaching at Grace Cathedral in 2011 (SFGate)

Latter-day critics of Archbishop Tutu fault him for the corruption and disastrously managed economy that arose in South Africa after the black population took control in the 1990's. IMHO, he was too astute a student of history not to have recognized the danger of overthrowing an evil government (cf Saddam's Iraq), but the potential benefits outweighed the risk.

He did speak out against abuses by the African government post-apartheid, and did not seek money or power for himself once the revolutionaries won. He was a man who put his life on the line for his principles and never stopped doing so. R.I.P.

A Woman Sits Alone

The Queen has 16 "regnal titles". In Great Britain her regnal title is:

Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.

On Saturday she was a 94-year-old widow, sitting alone in St. George's chapel, mourning the loss of her husband of 73 years.

Among the nearly 8 billion people in the world, Queen Elizabeth II is without equal in rank, wealth, and privilege. Those who have ideological blinders find it impossible to look beyond the symbol. But the vast majority, I hope and believe, see the person, remember their own sorrows, and share the heartbreak.

Commercial Aviation: It's Worse Than You Think

The Kinsley Gaffe--defined as politicians saying a truth that they had not intended to reveal (for example, what they really thought about some of their supporters)--is a political term, but it can apply equally to business leaders. For example, here's Boeing CEO David Calhoun: [bold added]

Now he smiles rarely (Chicago Trib)

Boeing’s report came as Chief Executive David Calhoun painted a dire near-term outlook for the airline industry, saying growth wouldn’t likely return to 2019 levels for three to five years.

Mr. Calhoun told NBC’s “Today” show that passenger traffic won’t be up to 25% of pre-pandemic levels by September, possibly approaching 50% by the end of the year.

He predicted the collapse of air-travel demand would “most likely” force a major U.S. carrier to go out of business.

Mr. Calhoun and Boeing have been trying to walk back his statement that United, American, or Delta will go out of business, but that's what many analysts within the industry are already saying.

From an aviation webinar: how many companies will survive until 2023?

In "normal" aviation downturns, there are always some bright spots in the industry. For example carriers may postpone new deliveries but keep operating older airplanes intended for the scrap heap, and the MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) sector of commercial aviation does well.

This time demand has fallen so drastically that old and new airplanes are being put in storage, which means that airplanes requiring multi-million dollar overhauls per FAA regulations are themselves parked and a new one pulled out of inventory. There's much lower demand for MRO in the next two years.

To an industry that operates on thin margins and high fixed costs and debt, conditions are the worst that anyone can recall (9/11 was a blip compared to COVID-19). The number of players who have cash and credit resources to survive until 2023 is minuscule.

I'm glad to be retired.

Signaling Virtue from Nob Hill

This WSJ writer says what I've been thinking about the Episcopal Church: [bold]

Anglicans worship in Nigeria (nairaland photo)

the vast majority of Christians suffering today aren’t white wealthy Westerners. Most are from the relatively poor global South: Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Latin America. To their already unsupportable lot of grinding poverty, they must add the risk of being assaulted by governments, religious vigilantes, gangs and others....

I would respectfully suggest to the bishops of the Anglican persuasion—and quite a few of their Catholic brethren too—that however serious and acute you might think the threat of climate change or workplace discrimination, the larger and more immediate threat to Christians in many parts of the world is that they might not get through their next church service without someone dispatching them to eternity to shouts of “Allahu akbar.”

Two years ago the Bishop of California took umbrage at the fact that the Anglican Communion sided with the 57 million African Anglicans who oppose same-sex marriage versus the 2-million-member Episcopal Church, which supports it.

The fact that association with the Episcopal Church might endanger our brothers and sisters in Africa, which has more than 400 million Muslims, is of little importance to those who would rather signal their virtue from Nob Hill.

Your humble blogger, who has long supported the legalization of gay marriage, wishes that his church leaders would stifle their self-righteous proclamations, go about their business and give thanks that we live in these blessed United States.

Was It a Typo?

(Dreamstime)

In a story about the number of Anglican worshippers by country:

Unsurprisingly, the country with the largest population of followers is the foundering state, the United Kingdom. The Church of England has an incredible following of 26,000,000 people. In the second position, the Church of Nigeria has about 18,000,000 believers...

The writer meant founding ("the activity or process of beginning an institution"), not foundering ("To fail utterly; collapse: a marriage that soon foundered").

Given the sorry condition of Britain's ship of state (Brexit, immigration), however, foundering may be the correct usage.

Lennon-ist, not Leninist

St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle (Rutland Herald)

The beauty of Anglicanism was on full display Saturday during the wedding of Harry and Meghan. Certainly there are larger, more magnificent cathedrals where the ceremony could have been held, but St. George's Chapel was just the right size for the number of attendees (or it could be that the guest list was pared to accommodate seating).

The Most Reverend Michael Curry (Reuters)

I'd like to put in my two cents about the sermon by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry.

Both admirers and detractors pointed to the novelty of having an African-American preacher speak to the royal family. How wonderful/how horrible that he brought up Martin Luther King and slavery at a wedding ceremony! They behaved as partisans who do not delve beneath surface appearances and the surface meaning of words. They rendered a quick verdict depending on whether black Americans are in or out of their tribe.

In my humble opinion Michael Curry's sermon rose above politics. He spoke about the power of love, a phrase that was repeated nine times.

“Jesus began the most revolutionary movement in all of human history. A movement grounded in the unconditional love of God and for the world. And a movement mandating people to live and love, and in so doing, to change not only their lives, but the very life of the world itself. I’m talking about power, real power to change the world.”

He did not give social-justice proponents the red meat they want, i.e., there is no need to seek to overthrow hierarchies or resist repression if we focus on love, which is revolutionary enough. Nor did he let the powerful off the hook:

Imagine governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce when love is the way. Imagine this tired old world when love is the way … unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive. Then no child would go to bed hungry in this world ever again. When love is the way we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook.

By speaking about love, by being Lennon-ist not Leninist, Michael Curry's sermon rose above politics.

Note: another aspect that may have been disconcerting to English listeners was the use of elements of black preaching styles by Bishop Curry. He didn't use full-throated call-and-response or convicting the audience or vision casting (one of the best examples is Martin Luther King's I Have A Dream); even toned down, new cadences reverberated shockingly throughout St. George's Chapel.

Simply reading the text of Bishop Curry's sermon doesn't capture the experience of listening and watching (video below).

Legacy of the Enlightenment

Just because it was European and mostly male doesn't mean it was wrong.

Historians say that the Age of Reason, aka The Enlightenment, ended in the early 19th century.

Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker asserts that the Enlightenment is still important and crucial to human advancement. "The Enlightenment Is Working", he says, and numerous indicators back his claim that the world is much better off than it ever has been due to Enlightenment principles.

Consider the U.S. just three decades ago. Our annual homicide rate was 8.5 per 100,000. Eleven percent of us fell below the poverty line (as measured by consumption). And we spewed 20 million tons of sulfur dioxide and 34.5 million tons of particulate matter into the atmosphere.

Fast forward to the most recent numbers available today. The homicide rate is 5.3 (a blip up from 4.4 in 2014). Three percent of us fall below the consumption poverty line. And we emit four million tons of sulfur dioxide and 20.6 million tons of particulates, despite generating more wealth and driving more miles.

Globally, the 30-year scorecard also favors the present. In 1988, 23 wars raged, killing people at a rate of 3.4 per 100,000; today it’s 12 wars killing 1.2 per 100,000. The number of nuclear weapons has fallen from 60,780 to 10,325. In 1988, the world had just 45 democracies, embracing two billion people; today it has 103, embracing 4.1 billion. That year saw 46 oil spills; 2016, just five. And 37% of the population lived in extreme poverty, barely able to feed themselves, compared with 9.6% today. True, 2016 was a bad year for terrorism in Western Europe, with 238 deaths. But 1988 was even worse, with 440.

These days what people are feeling and which group they belong to seem to be more important, but I have faith (!) that humankind isn't going to return to pre-Enlightenment ways. Anyway, the robots will make sure we don't.

Bonus Sunday footnote - Sources of Authority in Anglicanism:

The threefold sources of authority in Anglicanism are scripture, tradition, and reason. These three sources uphold and critique each other in a dynamic way. Scripture is the normative source for God's revelation and the source for all Christian teaching and reflection. Tradition passes down from generation to generation the church's ongoing experience of God's presence and activity. Reason is understood to include the human capacity to discern the truth in both rational and intuitive ways. It is not limited to logic as such. It takes into account and includes experience. Each of the three sources of authority must be perceived and interpreted in light of the other two.

Little Lost Church

Unlike outsiders who believe that the Episcopal Church is near collapse--partly in my view due to wish fulfillment--I don't think its condition is that dire, but there's no doubt that the Church has severe problems.

The drop in attendance is unquestioned, but the decline appears to have leveled off:

Among the old mainstream denominations reporting to the National Council of Churches, the Episcopal Church suffered the worst loss of membership from 1992-2002 — plunging from 3.4 million members to 2.3 million for a 32 percent loss. In the NCC’s 2012 yearbook, the Episcopal Church admitted another 2.71 percent annual membership loss.

For the past quarter-century, the Church's leaders have embraced coastal values (same-sex marriage, gender fluidity, climate-change environmentalism, social-justice redistributionism) without doing much outreach to the more conservative lay population and a few clergy dissenters.

Recalcitrant Dioceses have tried to break away while retaining their Anglicanism, but the Episcopal Church has responded with lawsuits that assert its legal claim to the properties (generally the Church has won in court). However, suing fellow Anglicans who have paid for the maintenance and usually the purchase of the properties that they have worshipped in for generations is not a good look.

As for the coastal Dioceses themselves, high property values raise the temptation to sell off real estate in order to cope with cash shortages. But that course of action meets with resistance from parishes (financially independent churches, unlike missions) that thought they owned the property because they paid for it. Generally title does not reside at the local level.

 St. James, Newport Beach (OC Register)

Bishop J. Jon Bruno of Los Angeles tried to sell a Newport Beach property to a developer, but was stopped by the National Church. Bishop Bruno has been threatened with removal of his collar:

an attorney for the national Church has recommended he be defrocked.

Bruno’s misconduct allegations were over his move to sell the prime piece of real estate on Via Lido back in June 2015 for $15 million to a developer who wanted to build luxury condominiums there. Though that sale fell through, the congregation was evicted and remains locked out, forced to hold services in a community room at the Newport Beach Civic Center.

The church's dwindling resources are increasingly tied up in the courts and politics that are only tangentially related to the Christian mission. The Episcopal Church is not collapsing, but it has definitely lost its way.

Hexit Before Brexit

Henry VIII (biography.com)

England has separated from Europe before.

“In 1534, the Act of Supremacy declares the king to be the head of the Church of England, completing the break with Rome.”
------ Kenneth C. Davis. “America's Hidden History.” HarperCollins.

Henry VIII founded the Anglican Church when Pope Clement VII would not annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon. In one of the most famous divorces in history Henry divorced Catherine and married Anne Boleyn.

In 1517 Martin Luther had birthed the Reformation by posting the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Castle church. A few years later, but before the events of 1534, Henry defended the Roman Catholic Church against Luther's heresies in one of history's ironies. (The Pope rewarded England's monarch with the title "Defender of the Faith").

The fracturing of Western Christianity has lasted nearly 500 years. Henry's exit ("Hexit"?) was far more consequential than Brexit is ever likely to be.