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In his new book Steps to the Future, Britain's church attendance specialist, Peter Brierley, says that if trends continue, only one-half of one percent of Britain's population will be attending Sunday services of any Christian denomination in 2040. A spokesman for the Church of England called Brierley's conclusions foolish, though he acknowledged the denomination faces challenges in attracting and keeping worshipers.

New Jersey rabbis are worried that "Jewish Christians, Hebrew Christians or Jews for Jesus" (the article does not use the term "messianic Jews") are gaining more converts. They're warning their congregants and communities about the organization, though an American Jewish Congress leader notes that "those most vulnerable to conversion are Jews who do not attend synagogue." The Chicago Tribune article reads somewhat matter-of-factly, but it's clear that the Tribune's matter of fact is that such conversions are a very bad thing.

Sarah Namusoke Kiying, Uganda's Minister of State for Internal Affairs, is defending police-run 'churches' at police training schools, which have come under attack since the recent murders of several hundred cult members in that country. Critics say that such religious action by police makes them soft on cults. But Namusoke says the spiritual fellowship is fine.

As noted in an earlier ChristianityToday.com Weblog, Congress has barred the Census Bureau from asking Americans about their religion. "As a result, America's religious landscape remains surprisingly ill-defined," says Teresa Watanabe, religion writer for the Los Angeles Times. "Some of the most fundamental presumptions are based on educated guesswork, suspect science or leaps of faith." Most notably, statistics on how many Muslims there are in the U.S. vary by millions. The religious research undertaken by social scientists and funded by private foundations are doing okay, Watanabe says, but nothing beats a census.

Though the Anglican Primates met several weeks ago, an article on the meeting's effect on the Singapore consecrations of two American missionary bishops is worth reading. In summary, one of the bishops is "pleased that recent high-level Anglican and Episcopal meetings did not declare his consecration invalid. But neither did they approve it."

See our past Weblogs: April 17 April 13 | 12 | 11 | 10 April 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 March 31 | 30 | 29 | 28 | 27 March 24 | 22 | 20 March 17 | 16 | 15 | 14 | 13 March 10 | 9 | 8 | 7

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April (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44