Priest Apologises for Publishing the Names of People Who Left the Church

A parish priest has apologised for publishing the names of people who decided to leave the Church.

Nicolaas Janssens revealed in a newspaper published by his parish who quit their membership last year. An expert on the protection of personal data and citizen rights told the Kurier today (Thurs) that those who found themselves on the list had good chances for success in a possible lawsuit. She stressed that there “is no public interest” in the names of the people who left the Catholic Church in 2011.

Janssens, who heads the parish of Sitzendorf an der Schmida in the province of Lower Austria, admitted today that he “did not act sensitively”. The clergyman said: “I did not mean to offend anybody.”

The parish priest told the Kurier he had already written to every person he exposed in the local newspaper to apologise. Janssens added that he also planned to publish an apology in the next edition of the clerical paper. He said his initial intention was to “provide comprehensive statistics” on how many people left and joined his parish in the past year.

It is understood that leading clergymen have no plans to sanction Janssens for his decision to name apostates in a recent edition of the local parish’s newspaper. The episode could nevertheless lead to a further intensification of the public debate about the Austrian Church’s standing in society.

Liberal members of the Church criticise its leaders for having overly conservative views. They demand an end to ignorance of the various significant changes in society of the 21st century to avoid the Church’s demise. Some observers believe that the chances for a new strong reform movement of Catholics were never as high as these days due to leading clergymen’s decision-making and widespread reluctance towards the large number of cases of sexual and physical abuse at boarding schools run by the Church and other clerical institutions.

The Catholic Church said earlier this month that 58,603 people cancelled their memberships in 2011. This is a decrease of 32 per cent compared to the previous year when the Austrian Church had lost more members than ever before since the war.

Experts think that the Austrian Roman Catholic Church would not manage to avoid the number of cancelled memberships remain rather high in the coming years, also due to mounting disinterest in the Church’s activities and ideals among young people. At the same time, other denominations such as Austria’s Muslim community are getting increasingly popular.

The interior ministry said earlier this week that the share Muslims had in the Austrian society could rise to 16 per cent until 2051. The domestic Islamic denomination will have 1.6 million members in that year, according to research by the ministry’s integration issues department. Only 0.3 per cent of Austrians were Muslims in 1971. More than six per cent – or 515,000 people – are members of the denomination at the moment, according to official figures.

Austria’s Catholic Church counted 5.4 million members last year. A spokesman for the Conference of Bishops said the Church apparently managed to win back the trust of many people since it suffered a weaker decrease of membership figures in 2011 than in 2010. He added that it would be “utterly inappropriate” to assume everything was fine again at the institution.

Source

 

The Future of Anglican Church Buildings?

Via Anglican Samizdat, The Garden Shed Church Movement:

An Anglican priest in the UK wasn’t happy with the liberal drift of the Church of England, so he has converted his garden shed into a church.

His new church is part of the Orthodox Church, but the idea could be adopted by displaced Anglicans who have lost their buildings in Canada. We’ve exhausted  the fads of the Emerging Church, the Missional Church, the loony fringe Prophetic Social Justice Making Church, now we have finally arrived at the Garden Shed Church.

From here:

St Fursey’s is so small the holy processions carried out during each service only take worshippers ten steps along and two steps across.

There is no room to sit and after services the congregation step through a door into the priest’s living room for a cup of coffee.

But the Antiochian Orthodox church – very similar to the Greek Orthodox but English speaking – is an official place of worship after it was blessed by a bishop.

[….]

Father Weston served as an Anglican priest with the Church of England for 20 years before he became disillusioned with its ideals at the age of 50.

He says he was upset with the direction the Anglican Church was heading and admitted the ordination of women to the priesthood was ‘the straw that broke the camel’s back’.

Stephen switched to the Orthodox Church and short of an English-speaking venue, decided to build his own in the village of Sutton, Norfolk, in 1998.

I wouldn’t mind a chapel looking like this in my garden!

 

Archbishop Desmond Tutu: Women Must Take Over

After the uprisings in the Arab world, Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu said on Wednesday it was now time for women to have their revolution and banish men to the margins.

Speaking at a gathering of the world’s political and financial elite in Davos, the vast majority of them men, Tutu said women had long been locked out of policy-making – and the world had paid the price.

“Let us re-align forces, let us ensure that women have a significant part in the decision-making process… we have been excluding women,” said the former archbishop of Cape Town.

Telling the event’s compere Klaus Schwab that he might need a security escort from the podium, Tutu said he was about to upset much of his audience.

“What we need is a revolution led by women. I think women ought to be saying to us men: ‘You have made a mess, just get out and let us in’,” he added…

Source

Liberal Anglicanism at its best.

 

Airline Ends Long Tradition of Giving Passengers Prayer Cards

With in-flight meals because an increasing number of passengers were offended by them.

Alaska Airline spokeswoman Bobbie Egan said the decision was made out of respect for all passengers, and follows feedback from customers that they preferred not to mix religion with transportation.

‘The decision reflects respect for the diverse religious beliefs and cultural attitudes of Alaska Airlines’ customers and employees,’ the company said in announcing the change.

‘Some customers were comforted by the cards and some didn’t feel religion was appropriate on the plane and preferred not to receive one,’ she said.

The cards began as a marketing ploy 30 years ago to differentiate the regional airline from its competitors. The company admits the idea was borrowed from another airline.

The cards offer a short excerpt of a psalm from the Old Testament printed on a beautiful photograph. One current example includes this excerpt printed over a beach scene: ‘Give thanks to the Lord for He is good. His love endures forever.’

A card with a mountain scene states: ‘I will be glad to rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name O most high.’

Since 2006, when the airline stopped offering meals to customers in the main cabin, the cards have only appeared on meal trays in first class.

For a long time, Alaska Airlines got more positive comments than negatives ones. But lately, opinion has shifted.

Egan said the decision was made out of respect for all of their customers.

‘After carefully considering all sides, it was agreed that eliminating the cards was the right thing to do,’ she said.

‘Right thing to do…’ There is a little more on the above here.

So no more comfort by prayers for safe travel because the truth of Scripture ‘offends’ in the philosophical context of our post-modern pluralistic world? And so it is:

Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,  “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and, “A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” They stumble because they disobey the message… (1 Peter 2:7-8).

 

An Atheist Church? Coming Soon

Nonbelievers to get a place of ‘worship’:

Atheists have long criticised devout followers of faith. But now it seems Atheism is stealing from that very religious tradition by erecting a temple of worship.

Author Alain de Botton announced plans to build an Atheist temple in the U.K., reports DeZeen magazine.

A collaboration with Tom Greenall Architects, the structure will be built in the heart of London.

Dedicated to the idea of perspective, the black tower will scale 46 meters (150 ft), with each centimeter honoring earth’s age of 4.6 billion years, notes Wired.

But a place of worship isn’t the only attribute from organized religion that Atheists can benefit from, says de Botton. In his newly released book “Religion For Atheists,” the author points to design, art and community to inspire and attract a following.

Though de Botton has yet to announce a final date for opening the temple, he hopes to create a network of such buildings across the U.K., according to ArtsInfo.