In many ways the decline of the United Church flies in the face of common sense. How can their numbers be dropping when they seem to be the only major Christian denomination in lockstep with the attitudes and ideals of Canadians?...
This decade the United Church has remained synchronized to society's evolution. Among religious groups it has been the loudest voice in support of same-sex marriage.
We know from the world of business and economics that a product will be successful if it meets the needs of consumers. Why isn't the new and improved United Church achieving market penetration?
Or maybe the problem is people want a church to be about more than giving them what they want. Pope Benedict made that point when he addressed the bishops at World Youth Day Sunday. He called for the bishops to be sure they led
...a Church open to the future, and therefore one full of promise for coming generations. Young people, in fact, are not looking for a Church which panders to youth but one which is truly young in spirit; a Church completely open to Christ, the new Man.
Many Protestant churches have followed the United Church's model of letting the culture set their agenda. They have worked to be churches that meet people where they are. They have tried to be relevant in the terms of modern society. And those churches have all seen steep membership drops.
Which is not to say the Roman Catholic church has not faced its own membership challenges. In the west -- particularly western Europe -- the Roman Catholic participation decline has been as steep as that of the Protestants.
And yet, to see the multitudes who gather for World Youth Day is to see this is a church with a future, and an energy to meet that future. That energy may largely come from congregations in the two-thirds world, what the Anglicans call the Global South, but at least that energy is there.
Perhaps the United Church of Canada would find that same energy if it had the kind of ties to global congregations the Roman Catholic church enjoys. Their own global network is the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, an organization of Presbyterian and Reformed communions, 218 churches in 107 countries with a membership of about 75 million. But somehow, I rather suspect a WARC World Youth Day would not have nearly the level of energy on display at the gathering in Cologne, Germany, last Sunday.
