RESTLES CHURCHES: to what degree Canada's Churches Can Contribute to the Emerging Religious Renaissance by the agency of Reginald W.

RESTLES CHURCHES: to what degree Canada's Churches Can Contribute to the Emerging Religious Renaissance by the agency of Reginald W. Bibby. Novalis/St. Paul University, 2004 206pp

Reports of the imminent death of Canada's churches may be greatly exaggerated, says University of Lethbridge sociology professor Reginald Bibby.

His latest work Restless Churches: How Canada's Churches Can Contribute to the Emerging Religious Renaissance, is a distillation of decades of his be in possession of and other survey research into Canadian attitudes toward religion and spirituality.

Prof Bibby says Canada's media generally believes the native land is tending toward a often more secular society. This leads chiefly reporters to take the position that they are describing dying enterprises whenever they write about ecclesiastical authority affairs.

Bibby writes that conventional wisdom discounts Canadian census data that point outs far more people identifying themselves with churches than are exhibited by the numbers showing up upon parish rolls. In general, this means that Statistics Canada census data about body of christians affiliation is viewed as useless. Sadly, he says, ecclesiastical authority leaders often accept this perception."

"Such a dismissal of religious self-identification is extremely poor science and horrible pastoral practice," he says. "If race say they are 'Anglicans' or 'Unitarian' or 'Catholic,' then that's by what means they see themselves."

"Reaching without to inactive members or "affiliates" is probably the best way to strengthen Canadian churches," Bibby says. His studies display that even when people report that they no longer participate actively in ecclesiastical body life, they still value what he calls rites of passage. Inactive affiliates repeatedly want to be married in ecclesiastical body to have their children baptized and, ultimately, to be buried following a ecclesiastical authority funeral.

Only about 20 through cent of Canadians report that they "never" attend house of god services, a number that has changed little since the 1970 What has happened is that there has been a significant decline in weekly and monthly house of god attendance.

Unlike chiefly academics, Bibby makes no bone about his faith.

"I believe in God" he says, "and have known the vicinity of God in my confess life for about as prolonged as I can remember."

He believes that what he describes as the Emerging Religious Renaissance is a message from divinity telling us that people do want to be involved in the house of god and for the church to get by heart on with the task of evangelization.

Unusual among studies of Canadian society, Restles Churches includes more than data analysis and interpretation. The final chapters ("Getting forward with it! Where to start" and "Getting onward with it! Where to finish") and his conclusion can give ecclesiastical authority leaders a series of practical approaches to reclaiming today's missing members.

For Catholics and for other mainstream denominations, Bibby views an important role for the laity in reconnecting with our missing affiliates. Since he can demonstrate that tribe tend to identify with the churches of their youth, Bibby believes that keeping youth active is a simple way of preventing them from dropping out

"There is no mystery," he says. "We ne to shoot our own children from their earliest years in the same manner they value the idea of Christian faith--it's indispensable."

Restles Churches is a worthwhile work for anyone with an interest in the coming events of Christianity in Canada. As we are called to spread the suitable News we might as well have the benefit of dutiful data.

Bibby concludes: "I'm audacious enough to think that Someone will be pleased."

tap [i]or[/i] pat Bishop is with Diocese of Kamloops News

...

Home