Kindgo
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For a long time now Christianity in England has been in a downward spiral. Only about 3 percent of the population regularly attends church services. In many cites there are mammoth churches that could seat over 1000 people, but only a few souls show up each Sunday.
If poverty is a noble virtue, the Church of England could already be half way to heaven. For the second time in recent memory, England's established church is reported to be teetering on the brink of financial ruin.
Already struggling to cope with a steeply mounting bill for pensions and other overheads, the church - one of Britain's biggest investors - is losing money hand over fist on the stock market.
The church last hit the headlines in the early 1990s, when they wrote off $1 billion as a result of property deals gone sour.
The Commissioners that manage the Church of England’s finances keeps about half their $5.6 billion cash pile in British shares, which performed dismally last year. During 2001, the Commissioners saw some $600 million wiped off the value of their investments, mainly thanks to falling stock markets. This year, things have gotten even worse.
These losses have come at an awkward time. Income is tailing off just as the demands on its funding are picking up speed. The most pressing of these is the clergy pension bill, which last year came close to $140 million - a doubling over the past decade, while overall income remained more or less steady.
Caught between the two fires of falling income and rising expenditures, the church is falling back on the old expedient - selling the family silver.
Last year, it decided to sell works of art in the series Jacob and his Twelve Sons, by the 17th Century Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbaran. The sale, which has sparked controversy, is expected to raise $28 million, mainly for church projects in and around County Durham, where the pictures currently hang.
According to media reports, the church is also looking at ways of scaling back on administrative palaces, and is even planning to abolish some dioceses. Conservatives have thrown up their hands at the sale of the Zurbarans and other treasures, arguing instead that the Commissioners should close down thinly-attended churches.
If the Church of England is already, for the most part, spiritually dead; it probably doesn’t matter if it’s also suffering financial death. Apostasy is not something unique to England. The rest of Europe is in no better shape. I can easily see how the continent is becoming well prepared for the rise of history’s greatest deceiver – Antichrist.
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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