Christianity has experienced a precipitous decline in the UK. Some people have celebrated this and the ensuing rise of “secularism” and “reason.”
Nature abhors a vacuum, and where Christ, who is the true light, is no more, then as the light has been extinguished, darkness must enter in. Secularism and agnosticism are not the only ideologies which have arisen to fill the void that is man’s search for meaning, but the absolute anti-Christ teachings of paganism and outright worship of demons is becoming common.
The Church of England has many problems, and no doubt has directly contributed to the decline of England owing to her history as a nationalized church meant to usurp the Catholic Church. However, the attacks against clergy in the CoE are increasingly being done as attacks meant to target Christianity itself. Priests have been robbed, had their churches defaced, and even been attacked by satanists in their churches because of what their presence represents, which is the public presence of Christianity in society:
Christian clergy in the United Kingdom are experiencing an increase in violence and verbal attacks with the rise of secularism and other changing societal factors, experts have assessed ahead of a nationwide survey.
The Sunday Telegraph pointed out that four Church of England priests have been murdered since 1997, ahead of a national survey of around 7,000 Church of England clergy to be conducted by the Royal Holloway, University of London, later in June.
The last survey of its kind in 2000 found that as many as 12 percent of all clergy had been assaulted in the previous two years.
Professor Jonathan Gabe at Royal Holloway’s School of Law said that “the declining status of clergy” could be making it easier for clergy to be attacked, along with the “increasing secularization” in British society.
Rev. David MacGeogh, the vicar of Glastonbury, shared that he receives verbal abuse on a monthly basis. He revealed that five years ago he found a witchcraft symbol sprayed onto his church’s door. During one service, he had to lock himself in a room and call the police after a man claiming to be Jesus Christ chased after him in the church.
“People come in before and during the service and rant and rave, saying we are the works of Satan,” MacGeogh added, noting that there is “no support system” for many clergy.
Mental health, the role of sex abuse scandals in the church, and the rise of female clergy are also some of the various factors that will be examined in the survey.
Rev. Dr. Anne Morris, vicar of Knuzden in the diocese of Blackburn, said that a male parishioner followed her for a week and attempted to enter the vicarage without permission.
“I was in by myself and I was absolutely terrified,” she said, adding that her family’s house has been burgled several times.
The CofE has said that it takes the “welfare and safety of our clergy very seriously indeed” and that it urges all unacceptable behavior to be reported to police.
Several reports, including one from The Times in February, have examined the decline in membership in the CofE, painting a picture of empty churches or one-person congregations across some rural parishes.
The Rev. Canon Sandra Millar, head of Life Events at the Church of England, told The Christian Post in an interview back in March that one of the main ways the CofE is looking to combat that decline is by highlighting the importance of faith in the big moments of people’s lives, such as baptisms, marriages, and death.
Millar noted that such occasions are when people “think big thoughts and they have big feelings about them. So they are open to thinking of life in new ways.”
“This includes people who may have never been in a church before going to a friend’s wedding, and then they see something. They are not going in that moment from no faith to complete faith,” but they may be open to having a different look, she added. (source)
These things also happen in the USA, and are happening in greater numbers following the like decline of Christianity, for what happens in Europe eventually comes to the USA. The USA is not at the point at which the UK has descended to, but likely could reach such depths because of the same forces of secularism, darwinism, and the elevation of the natural with a disdain for that which is supernatural. The rise of the LGBT is the greatest indicator of this because it is a grave sin that has been unconditionally embraced by a majority of people and which is inherently opposed to Christianity itself.
Just as once upon a time Christians had to go underground when they were persecuted in the days before Constantine at the start of the Church, so would it only be fitting that in the last days of the Church, before the return of Christ not as a baby but as a man, that the Church would be rejected and forced to return to hiding amidst persecution, clinging to the real hope that Christ will not allow the gates of hell to prevail, but will come to save His Church, for God never fails to realize that which He promises.
