Aging in Place over Eight-Plus Decades

The Church ◽

Good Number ◽

Religious buildings start by hosting a religious congregation who built or modified the structure. This chapter considers the later fate of these buildings: What happens to religious buildings over the decades, and how do the congregations that worship in those older structures view the building? Across four Protestant denominations in the Chicago region, the authors examine how many churches present in 1936 are still standing and how the buildings are used. For the congregations still worshipping in the same structure over eight decades later, they look at how the building appears on their website. A good number of the church buildings are still standing, though who uses them can vary across denominations. The website images show how some congregations make use of their historic structure. Together, these findings suggest that religious buildings have ongoing building energy even if they were constructed long ago.

Led by the Spirit and the Church: Finland's Licensed Lutheran Lay Preachers, c.1870–1923

Studies in Church History ◽

10.1017/stc.2021.14 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 57 ◽

pp. 277-299

Author(s):

Matleena Sopanen

Keyword(s):

Modern Society ◽

Institutional Control ◽

Lutheran Church ◽

Church Life ◽

Church Law ◽

The Right ◽

The Church ◽

Growing Population ◽

This article examines the interplay between religious agency and institutional control. The Church Law of 1869 gave members of the Lutheran Church of Finland the right to apply to chapters for permission to preach. Men who passed the examinations became licensed lay preachers, who could take part in teaching Christianity and give sermons in church buildings. Applicants had varying backgrounds, skills and motivations. In order to avoid any disruption in church life, they had to be screened carefully and kept under clerical supervision. However, licensed lay preachers could also be of great help to the church. In a rapidly changing modern society with a growing population and a recurring lack of pastors, the church could not afford to disregard lay aid. The article shows how the Lutheran Church both encouraged and constrained the agency of the licensed lay preachers.

God is Doing a New Thing in the ELCA: Trends from the FACT Data

Theology Today ◽

10.1177/00405736211030225 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 78 (3) ◽

pp. 256-266

Author(s):

Deborah L. Coe ◽

Brad Petersen

Keyword(s):

Well Being ◽

The United States ◽

Faith Communities ◽

Congregational Studies ◽

Lutheran Church ◽

The Past ◽

Evangelical Lutheran Church ◽

Evangelical Lutheran ◽

For decades, mainline Protestant denominations in the United States have experienced steady membership declines. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is no different, and our research team has been exploring this topic for years. Faith Communities Today (FACT) is an interfaith project consisting of a series of surveys conducted by the Cooperative Congregational Studies Partnership, of which the ELCA is a long-standing member. In this article, we examine data collected from the three decennial FACT surveys to discern where, despite declining membership, God is, to quote the prophet Isaiah, “doing a new thing.” We find that over the past twenty years, the typical ELCA congregation has had a gradually increasing: sense of vitality, belief that it is financially healthy, desire to become more diverse, willingness to call women to serve as pastors, openness to change, and clarity of mission and purpose. Because there are multiple possible explanations for these positive trends, we recommend approaching such trend lines cautiously, viewing them through a critical-thinking lens. Even though there is an increased perception of congregational well-being, overall finances and the number of people involved in the church continue to decline. There is still much work to be done.

The Protestant Episcopal Church, Black Nationalists, and Expansion of the West African Missionary Field, 1851–1871

Church History ◽

10.2307/3165901 ◽

1988 ◽

Vol 57 (1) ◽

pp. 31-45 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

J. R. Oldfield

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

New York ◽

The United States ◽

West African ◽

Second Century ◽

The West ◽

Episcopal Church ◽

American Missionaries ◽

One of the most boldly conceived assaults on benighted Africa during the nineteenth century was that undertaken by mainline Protestant denominations in the United States. With the brash confidence characteristic of the age, hundreds of American missionaries were dispatched from New York and Baltimore to convert the heathen tribes of Africa and wrest a continent from ruin. If the experience of the Protestant Episcopal church is at all typical, however, these efforts not infrequently aroused suspicion and open hostility. In fact, Episcopal penetration of Liberia in the second half of the second century was remarkable for a long and bitter contest with black nationalists who were intent on using the church as a vehicle for their own personal and racial ambitions.

The Ethics of the Empty Church: Anglicanism’s Need for a Theology of Architecture

Journal of Anglican Studies ◽

10.1017/s1740355315000108 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 13 (2) ◽

pp. 172-188 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

William Whyte

Keyword(s):

Spiritual Development ◽

Church Of England ◽

Historical Survey ◽

Church Building ◽

International Importance ◽

University Of Manchester ◽

The Church ◽

AbstractIn this polemical paper, produced for the Churches, Communities, and Society conference at the Lincoln Theological Institute, University of Manchester, I argue that the Church of England has failed to develop a coherent or convincing theology of architecture. Such a failure raises practical problems for an institution responsible for the care of 16,000 buildings, a quarter of which are of national or international importance. But it has also, I contend, produced an impoverished understanding of architecture’s role as an instrument of mission and a tool for spiritual development. Following a historical survey of attitudes towards church buildings, this paper explores and criticizes the Church of England’s current engagement with its architecture. It raises questions about what has been done and what has been said about churches. It argues that the Church of England lacks a theology of church building and church closing, and calls for work to develop just such a thing.

Contemporary terrorism against religious entities and buildings

PRZEGLĄD POLICYJNY ◽

10.5604/01.3001.0015.4696 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 143 (3) ◽

pp. 154-168

Author(s):

Paweł Lubiewski

Keyword(s):

Terrorist Attacks ◽

Islamic State ◽

Current Strategy ◽

Religious Buildings ◽

Terrorist Groups ◽

The Church ◽

Main Change

In the era of a clear intensifi cation of terrorist attacks, as well as of the threat posed by them, changes in the current strategy of terrorist groups or persons identifying themselves with their ideology are noticeable. The main change is to focus the attacks on causing the greatest possible fear by increasing the size not so much of the damage, but of the human victims. Unfortunately, such a tactic is very effective. So far, the greatest attention of the so-called Western societies has been focused mainly on very spectacular attacks on public, commonly accessible places, where a dramatic spectacle of death was created in front of hundreds of people. However, the incident in 2016 carried out by attackers who identifi ed themselves with socalled the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria took place during the celebration of the Mass, where the clergyman conducting the celebration was killed and people attending the Mass were seriously injured, including the nuns, makes us look at the problem from a different perspective. What makes us refl ect on the above is that there were not many people in the church, but it was also not a random attack target. This event inspired the author to take a deeper look at the scale of threats that modern terrorism generates to celebrants or other clergy, as well as religious buildings.

Sermons and the Performance of Historiographical Authority in the Construction of the Roman Catholic Built Landscape, 1880–1890

Figures of Authority in Nineteenth-Century Ireland ◽

10.3828/liverpool/9781789622409.003.0007 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 118-136

Author(s):

Niamh NicGhabhann

Keyword(s):

Sense Of Community ◽

Catholic Church ◽

Roman Catholic ◽

Roman Catholic Church ◽

Building Projects ◽

Church Building ◽

The Many ◽

New Buildings ◽

The Church ◽

During the nineteenth century, infrastructures of devotion and religious worship in Ireland changed dramatically. By 1900, the landscape was transformed by the presence of highly decorated, prominent church buildings. The many building projects of the Roman Catholic church were highly dependent on donations and fundraising. This essay explores the extent to which historical narratives, images, and ideas were used in order to motivate donations, and to develop a sense of community engagement with these new buildings as both symbols of past persecution overcome, and future spiritual glory. It explores sermons and speeches associated with new church building projects as sites for the performance of historiographical authority, and traces the emergence of key narratives of identity and memory, which were powerfully expressed through the spaces and architectural forms of the church buildings.

Music as Propaganda for the Church of England after the Toleration Act

Printed Musical Propaganda in Early Modern England ◽

10.3828/liverpool/9781949979237.003.0005 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 185-192

Author(s):

Joseph Arthur Mann

Keyword(s):

Religious Freedom ◽

Church Of England ◽

Religious Practice ◽

Marketplace Of Ideas ◽

Average Reader ◽

English Society ◽

First Time ◽

Fundamental Shift ◽

The passage of the Toleration Act meant religious freedom for non-Anglican Protestants but signaled a fundamental shift in the position of the Church of England in English society. Prior, the Church of England benefited from a government-backed monopoly on legal religious practice in England. The loss of these legal inducements meant that the Church of England had to compete equally, for the first time, in a marketplace of religious ideas. Chapter four exposes how the Church of England responded to this change with pro-music pamphlets advertising the joyful nature of the Anglican service in contrast to the austere practices of other Protestant denominations. It argues that while nonconformists wrote massive treatises arguing fine theological points about music in divine worship, Anglicans produced pamphlets that were addressed to the average reader in terms they could understand. It also connects these pro-music pamphlets to other accessible works written by Anglican propagandists that promote the Church of England in this new marketplace of ideas. Overall, the chapter reveals the previously-unknown propaganda functions of these Anglican music pamphlets and reveals that they were part of a larger, equally unknown, pro-Anglican propaganda campaign that directly responded to the results of the Toleration Act.

‘A Serious House on Serious Earth’: Towards an Understanding of the Church of England’s Inheritance of Buildings

Journal of Anglican Studies ◽

10.1017/s1740355318000037 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 128-146

Author(s):

Benjamin Carter

Keyword(s):

Church Of England ◽

Symbolic Power ◽

Functional Understanding ◽

The Church ◽

AbstractThe Church of England is blessed with an extraordinary inheritance of church buildings. However, this inheritance, particularly in rural contexts, is increasingly being viewed as a financial millstone and encumbrance to mission. This article takes issue with the largely ‘functional’ understanding of church buildings which is common place in the Church of England. It will argue that there needs to be a rediscovery of the symbolic and sacramental power of buildings. By reasserting the sacramental and symbolic power of church buildings we can come again to recognize how all church buildings – and not just those blessed with a great history or soaring architecture – exist in part to articulate the ongoing presence and activity of God in creation.

“Iglesia me Llamo”: Church Asylum and the Law in Spain and Colonial Spanish America

Comparative Studies in Society and History ◽

10.1017/s0010417507000552 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 49 (2) ◽

pp. 446-472 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Victor M. Uribe-Uran

Keyword(s):

Spanish America ◽

Local Churches ◽

American Colonies ◽

The Law ◽

The Church ◽

“Iglesia me llamo” (“church is my name”) was the only phrase uttered over and over by numerous criminals during judicial interrogations that took place at various times throughout the Iberian kingdoms that ultimately became Spain, and their American colonies. This expression meant that even after committing heinous crimes, those outlaws received shelter at local churches and thereby felt entitled not to disclose any information to justice officials about their conduct. Such criminals were confident that it would not be easy to remove them from the church for punishment. Indeed, groups of wrongdoers turned churchyards, churches, their cloisters, and their adjoining cemeteries into permanent residences. They were alleged to move freely in and out of church buildings under cover of night and to bring friends, lovers, and liquor in for enjoyment. Their presence terrorized neighbors and passersby, and inconvenienced priests and parishioners alike.

A tradition in crisis: understanding and repairing division over homosexuality in the Church of Scotland

Scottish Journal of Theology ◽

10.1017/s003693061600003x ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 69 (2) ◽

pp. 155-170

Author(s):

Liam J. Fraser

Keyword(s):

Academic Research ◽

Christian Ethics ◽

Diagnostic Analysis ◽

Committed Relationships ◽

Church Of Scotland ◽

Presbyterian Church ◽

The Status ◽

Reformed Churches ◽

AbstractLike many Western churches, the Church of Scotland has been divided in recent years over the ordination of gay clergy in committed relationships, and, more generally, over the status of homosexuality for Christian ethics. Yet there has been no academic research undertaken which situates the debate within the wider context of Scottish theology. This failure has resulted in theological and ecclesial impasse, which this paper seeks to remedy through a diagnostic analysis of division over homosexuality, drawing upon the analytic tools developed by R. G. Collingwood. While this article has as its focus the Church of Scotland, its method and conclusions will be relevant to other Protestant denominations, especially Reformed churches such as the Presbyterian Church (USA).