The Saint Euphrosynos Cafe

Below is an excerpt from the Feb. 20, 2004 edition of British Church Newspaper.

‘More Muslim Worshippers Than Anglicans?’

Attendance at Britain’s mosques has outstripped the number of regular worshippers in the Church of England for the first time, with figures showing that 930,000 Muslims attend a place of worship at least once a week, compared to 916,000 Anglicans. The Church lost 100,000 worshippers between 2000 and 2002.

Could it be that people are instinctively seeking traditional religions that are not watered down?

If this is so, then why are the Traditional True Genuine Orthodox not growing?

Several factors at play here. Massive immigration from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Somalia bumps the numbers up. Outreach by some groups and marriage by members of the host community to Moslems boosts numbers. Islam is not wet, has an integrated belief/lifestyle system. It's value system is clear and unequivocal. Converting brings with a sense of belonging to something.

As for Anglicanism, too much of a pick and mix religion with little apparent substance. Ever changing and little sense of substantial community.

Orthodoxy? Tiny and for much of the country thinly spread. Compromised by all too apparent contradictory witness for those who enquire. Possibly ecumenical activity suggest you can take 'bits' such as icons, the Jesus prayer and Chotki without formally making any move. A sort of having your cake and eat it.

Numerically speaking, Islam in Europe grows thanks to immigration and a relatively higher natality within muslim populations. But in terms of conversions, evangelism is the fastest growing faith. Orthodoxy is not growing because there is not willingness to grow and have a missionary behaviour due to phyletism (we are a Greek church for Greeks, a Russian church for Russians etc) and/or ecumenism (we're a branch of Christianity), mixed marriages etc. Even in true orthodoxy, you can find phyletist parishes; this was the case of many old ROCOR parishes.

StephenS wrote:

Several factors at play here. Massive immigration from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Somalia bumps the numbers up. Outreach by some groups and marriage by members of the host community to Moslems boosts numbers. Islam is not wet, has an integrated belief/lifestyle system. It's value system is clear and unequivocal. Converting brings with a sense of belonging to something.

As for Anglicanism, too much of a pick and mix religion with little apparent substance. Ever changing and little sense of substantial community.

Orthodoxy? Tiny and for much of the country thinly spread. Compromised by all too apparent contradictory witness for those who enquire. Possibly ecumenical activity suggest you can take 'bits' such as icons, the Jesus prayer and Chotki without formally making any move. A sort of having your cake and eat it.

Here in the USA, we have sizable Muslim populations too. And these Muslims are buying all the Protestant and Catholic churches that are being dumped onto the Real Estate market. I think I read a while ago, that some of these communities of Muslims in the USA are so large that they are now demanding Sharia law and Sharia court, and I think they were able to get their wish recently.

At the university where I earned my degrees, the Muslim Student Association is quite active. They have events quite frequently where they offer food (purchased by the Student Association fees - our student money) and then go around to each student separating them from their friends. Next they try to convert them to Islam through argumentation and expensive slick advertisements that are very anti-Christian. These expensive full-color pamphlets come from a printing press in New York. Not only are these pamphlets attractive, but they are also very well written to attract college students to Islam. The Muslims on our campus have thousands of these pamphlets that they place all over the campus, yet Christians are not allowed to place their pamphlets on campus.

Maria,

You see the same here plus people on street corners with a table reaching out to passers by. The demands for Sharia law and courts are seen here too. ROCOR here was one of the more missionary friendly local churches.

The rebellious enticed-by-the-other-side-effect

The extreme liberalism of the UK, which, is also growing in the United States, has seen Christianity as its enemy for quite a while because of its close connection with conservatism. Plus, many conservatives hate Islam--hence "Islamaphobia". So, the liberals want to rebel against the conservatives and join the religion that they hate, sort for the shock factor involved. It's like a girl dating the bad boy.

Jean-Serge wrote:

evangelism is the fastest growing faith.

I'm not entirely sure of that.

Evangelical Protestantism--contrary to popular belief--has been dying gradually in the United States and the West because of its anti-scientific views such as YEC and due to its heavy involvement in right-winged politics that is driving many folks away.

It is growing in 3rd world parts of the planet such as Africa and Asia, however, much of that is built upon a prosperity gospel doctrine that I imagine will die out within a 100 years after people abandon it.