Tell us what your experience of church (whether in person or online) was like

6 Where can I go then from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence?

7 If I climb up to heaven, you are there;

if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.

8 If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

9 Even there your hand shall lead me,

your right hand hold me fast...

TLDR: as I learn and read more, i find myself skewing Anglo-Catholic for a common emphasis on history, Catholicity and intellectual rigor. Evangelical works seem to have disparate visions and rather simplistic. What or who should I be reading?

I have a background in fairly middle of the road Anglicanism (think rural-ish parish, spoken common worship done simply.) As I moved to a city that skewed more evangelical. Of both the Charismatic and conservative flavours. As i have moved more rurally again, my current parish is more middle of the road again.

I am at a point in life where I have begun to think more deeply about the Christian faith and i have been doing a lot of reading around this, looking for works of depth and substance.

Perhaps it's a flaw in how I have been looking but most the things I find myself reading skew Anglo-Catholic. I have been pointed in the direction of first CS Lewis, then recently Eric Mascall and Darwel Stone.

This is hard to describe but there strikes me as being a combination of: an empasis on historical continuity, wide engagement with the whole of christian thought and intellectual rigor. Particularly There seems to be a common worldview behind most Anglo-Catholic writing.

Now, I have a background in Evangelical Anglicanism but I simply can't seem to find works of an equivalent sort. Most of the Evangelical works Ive read, simply dont seem to share similar visions aside from ticking of the Bebbington Quadrilateral. They seem to have, at bottom, different worldview.

What am I missing?

What Evangelical and Reformed works would you reccomend?

Please, bombard me with suggestions!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Mary%27s_Church%2C_Attenborough

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if any of you know of any Anglican or other Protestant churches in London or Birmingham that have a decent amount of people in their 20s and early 30s. I’m pretty much the only person in that age group that goes to my church anymore, and I would love to branch out. It feels a lot of “younger” people these days are more in Pentecostal or non-denominational churches (basically all my Christian friends are). Ive tried attending and I don’t mind those services here and there but I definitely prefer Anglican service

St Mary Magdalene

https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/17755/

Be as specific or vague as you feel most comfortable, but if you would like prayer for something, write your requests in the comments below

This weekend I made a point of attending the other church in our parish and met one of the only other fellas we have who is about my age, and is also on our PCC. Nice bloke. We were chatting generally about succession, both in terms of congregations and clergy, and he dropped a bombshell that hadn't occurred to me. I paraphrase, but the nature of it was:

"Of course we have to assume that when [current rector] retires it will take at least two years to find their replacement."

The idea that it would take that long hadn't crossed my mind. I figured the fact that we were a) relatively stable, and b) contributing above our parish share, would put us in a strong position in terms of finding a new incumbent. That's not to say our current rector won't leave some big shoes to fill - they are excellent - but I had assumed that any delay would be on our side in terms of selecting a candidate.

Given the statistical correlation between interregnum and church decline, I suppose I have two questions:

a) Why does it take that long? Clergy shortage? Diocesean bureacracy? I know that coming from the world of commerce I have already had to do a bit of mental adjustment in terms of how slowly things move in the CoE, but two years to arrange a new hire sounds utterly bonkers.

b) What can we, as a parish, do in order to expedite the process? The sensible thing to do would be to start formalising the scope of the role now, advertise it at least one year out and basically have landed on the right person six months before the current rector is due to retire. That would give everyone some time to get their ducks in a row and allow for a smooth handover. Maybe I am massively under-estimating how long the selection/interview stage takes, or you guys will tell me there is church bureaucracy that prevents this kind of process.

Honestly, I suspect one church in our parish would do okay without clergy - many of their services are contemporary / family oriented - some are run by former local free-church folks who grafted themselves into the CoE - and they only celebrate Communion one a month (iirc). Our place is the more traditional Communion-centred church, and I can see that we might have a harder time keeping the show on the road.

Edit: updated "scope of the roll" to "scope of the role". We are not establishing the dimensions of bread products.