The drop in the Christian share of the population has been driven mainly by declines among mainline Protestants and Catholics. Each of those large religious traditions has shrunk by approximately three percentage points since 2007. The evangelical Protestant share of the U.S. population also has dipped, but at a slower rate, falling by about one percentage point since 2007.

 

David Campbell, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, was recently asked to offer his thoughts on what these new findings mean. When asked why mainline Protestant denominations have declined dramatically, while evangelical Protestants have shown only small declines he responded with these thoughts.

 

"Evangelicalism can hold on to its adherents because it is as much a subculture as a religion. While evangelicals are typically defined by more than the church they attend on Sunday, they are also bound by mutually reinforcing expressions of culture - the schools their children attend, the movies they watch, the websites they visit, the music they listen to. The deeper someone's immersion into such a subculture, the more their religion is an integral part of their identity, and thus hard to leave. Furthermore, evangelicalism - both as a religion and a subculture - is highly innovative, entrepreneurial, and adaptable. Evangelical congregations are often engaged in "creative destruction" by regularly introducing such things as new forms of church organization and types of worship.

 

In contrast, mainline Protestantism is much less likely to be all-encompassing, largely because over most of American history, the national culture had a mainline Protestant accent. Thus, there was no need for mainline Protestants to develop the sort of subculture found among evangelicals. Similarly, while there are some notable exceptions, mainline congregations are generally steeped in more tradition than their evangelical counterparts, making it more difficult to innovate."

 

To read Campbell's entire Q&A piece go to

www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/27/qa-a-look-at-whats-driving-the-changes-seen-in-our-religious-landscape-study/

 

As one of the largest Protestant denominations in Canada, I think that The United Church of Canada would do well to consider Campbell's analysis of mainline Protestantism.  Although we are only 90 years old as a denomination, throughout many of those years we presumed or assumed that the values we espoused as a church were the same as the culture around us.  We didn't need to work too hard to create a unique identity or as in Campbell's words a 'subculture'.  Those times have now changed.  Canada is even more diverse in terms of religion, ethnicity and culture than the USA.  And the decline in the Protestant Christian population has been even greater.  

 

Over the years, while The United Church of Canada has celebrated its uniquely Canadian status, it may have inadvertently overlooked the unique and countercultural message of Jesus.  Jesus, in his life and in his ministry did not equate God's message of love with the message of the state.  In the challenges that we now face as a declining denomination, perhaps now is the ideal time and place to focus more intentionally and to root our life as a church more deeply in the unique message of Jesus.

 

In the conclusion to her recent book, A Church with the Soul of a Nation - Making and Remaking the United Church, church historian Phyllis D. Airhart offers these reflections:

 

'Making the United Church in 1925 was possible because its founders refused to be tied to a fixed view of the church or the world.  Its remaking grew out of a similar conviction:  the church is not called to escape time and place, but to engage them more faithfully...In a culture that has lost much of its Christian memory, re-Christianizing those affiliated with it may require as bold a venture as church union once seemed, with even more uncertainty about the outcome.  Will its commitment to inclusion leave it with enough distinctiveness to thrive in a culture of diversity?  Will the connections of its conciliar system be strong enough to hold its congregations together?  Will there be enough people on a spiritual quest for meaning, guidance and consolation who want to belong to an organized community of faith?  Will sufficient memory of its past survive to sustain its renewal in either a post-Christian or post-secular future?  Time will tell.'

 

The questions that Airhart asks will be on the hearts and minds of many UCC folk this summer as the 42^nd General Council of the UCC meets in Corner Brook, Newfoundland (August 8-15).  This will be a pivotal meeting of the UCC's highest decision-making body (court).  I encourage you to be part of the invitation to join a 40-day Prayer Pilgrimage beginning June 30 as we pray each day for those who will journey as commissioners (delegates) to GC42 and for all of us who together make up the church.  Please visit the General Council website (http://www.gc42.ca/) beginning June 30^th for daily prayers. And continue to visit the site during the meetings of GC42 for daily updates on the proceedings.  May we live out the faith that we profess...

 

We are called to be the Church:

    to celebrate God's presence,

    to live with respect in Creation,

    to love and serve others,

    to seek justice and resist evil,

    to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen,

       our judge and our hope. 

(excerpt from A New Creed)