In 1957, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaking of a post-war nation made a startling and profound stament when he said that, "Some of our people have never had it so good!"
Moving on from the post-war austerity and the queues fror just about everything. People prayed hard during the war and now it was over there was little need to keep the faith. Not only that, but some were angry with God and they were about to find a new God in the consumerism and the sexual freedom that was to come (thanks in no small part to the contraceptive pill) in the 'Swinging Sixties'. Yes - the seeds os a secular society were being taken out of the packet.
It would be wrong to condemn the 60's as the time when the faith of other went from Christ to weird and wonderful religions and the emerging 'New Age' that was the dawning of the age of Aquarius. The faith was, it seems, for many a rather nominal thing and there were other things to do and they took place on a Sunday. Boring sermons in staid churches or have a day out with the family - for many, there was no choice and soon, decline was the fear.
Reading the census information we can see that in the period 1961 - 1971 baptisms fell by 65,000 and those coming for confirmation fell by 80,000. The seeds were being sown (or rather they weren't) for decline in the eighties and nineties (when the babies who were baptised would once have been making their mark in the church and taking their places as adults).
A secular society was being born, for regardless of whether the religious start of the community was experienced or merely habitually endured, it had been a guiding factor - and this was to be no more. Secular society - 'religions cause wars' - was the way forward. Shake off the religious killjoys and live man! Hope, cynicism, hedonistic abandon and nihilism crashed together and the Beatles were 'Bigger than Jesus' (and still are for many out there)!
Society was setting the conditions for the decline of a church going public - it was no longer frowned upon to be found anywhere else but church on a Sunday. People were finding they were free to choose and what they were choosing wasn't what was on offer. But the church kept selling the same product, oblivious to the reality that the product had changed and evolved into the almost turgid stability that was before them.
And then we had an answer in the ASB. The hip and trendy, still used (illegally according to church authorities) today attempt to be relevant. To little, too late and in the wrong way just as the rainbow guitar straps and 'kumbaya' were to be.
Could it be true that we lost the evening service slot (for all but the stalewart members) in the seventies and it's only now that the faithful remnant are dying off that we are realising it?
Hmmmm.
3 comments:
Vic. I think you are right about the church simply offering the same old same old way past the time when it should have been looking to change.
I personally would put the beginning of the decline much further back in history - at least to the First World War, when the "returning heroes" came back to a society whose upper echelons thought they could carry on business as usual. With the exception of the likes of Woodbine WIlly, the clergy, by and large, were revealed as supporters of a social order that was indefensible.
I wonder too, what the sociological effects have of two generations of men who were absent from home for the largest part of 12 years, and who returned, some with literally unspeakable experiences.
I also agree that the ASB (following Series 2 and 3) was too little, too late. It put us in the worst of positions - the traditionalists can justly claim that it has done little to improve church attendances (though I am convinced our decline would have been steeper without it). And for many others it was still too much of a straitjacket. It and Common Worship are trying to compensate for 400 years of liturgical and linguistic stagnation in the Church.
BTW, although many in the Church seem to regard the 60s as a disastrous decade, there are some pre-60s societal attitudes that were highly judgemental and self-righteous (e.g. towards unmarried mothers) and I would hate to see us return to those.
Just one more thing - Sunday Evening services were originally developed in response to particular social conditions. The wealthy came to Mattins and their servants attended Evensong. What saved Evening Prayer through the 60s and 70s in many churches was the presence of young people who did their homework on Sunday mornings and met for youth fellowship after the evening service. Now it would be difficult to find a time less suitable than 6.0 p.m. on a Sunday for families and young people. I blame the Forsyte Saga!:)
The two world wars have a great part in the way our national faith and our own personal liberties have gone.
I recall reading one of the Grace Davie books during one of my earlier study forays and the feeling that we were experiencing no what had been sown in the early twentieth century.
The fact is that Church and ruling classes were also synonymous didn't help things much either and, as you say, the sneering and condemnatory attitudes of the post (second world) war Church wasn't a help here either.
Thanks for observation and comments,
V
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