THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGE IN THE UK

At a time when the church throughout the world is growing, the reverse is true in the UK. Global Christianity has seen two mega changes in the past two decades: the dominance of what some call the ‘Third World’ in terms of numbers; and the fact that evangelicals are now the fastest growing religious group apart from Islam. It is estimated that more than three-fifths of the world’s Christians will be living in the Third World by 2010, whilst 39% of Christians in both the First and Third Worlds will be evangelicals, up from 30% in 1980.

However, although 72% of the UK population said they were Christian in the 2001 Census, church attendance will have virtually halved, dropping from 11% of the population in 1980 to 6%. One of the key factors is the loss of young people – more than half a million children under the age of fifteen stopped attending church in the 1990s, an enormous drain, equivalent to losing 1,000 a week. Ten years later, that means we are desperately short of folk in their teens and twenties. It may also mean that fewer British students in this age group take advantage of GST’s excellent long distance theological training.

Research has shown that young people find traditional church ‘boring’, so many non-traditional forms of church for young people are emerging. Some of these are really different – like the popular ‘café style’ services where you sit round a table eating and drinking while listening to the sermon, or churches like Hillsongs meeting in a London theatre where you dance energetically and have a brief talk while you rest! Whether these experiments will be sufficient to turn the tide, however, remains to be seen. As I write, the fourth English Church Census is under way, results due September 2006, and that will help leaders to know what’s happening and take strategic decisions for the days ahead.

British society is also changing. We are getting older on average – moving from 2,000 people 100 years old in 1980 to 13,000 by 2010 to 95,000 by 2066, according to the Government Actuary’s Department. Other changes include the increasing number of people who live together (cohabit) rather than get married, moving from 5% in 1986 to 18% by 2010. Some of these are Christians – an estimated 2% of all churchgoers were cohabiting in 2001. However, many churchgoers, especially older people, consider this life-style incompatible with Biblical teaching.

Likewise for another key change in British society – the increasing dominance of lone-parent families, an overwhelming majority of whom are single mothers. By 2010, an incredible 33% of all British families will be single parent. How does the church engage with such and give them support and encouragement? It is mostly the largest churches that do this as they have enough single mums in their congregations for them to find friendship and help from each other.

Change is all about us, but not in our unchanging Lord, the same yesterday, today and for ever. By his Spirit, he will help us respond to the challenge of change.

Dr Peter Brierley

News in Brief

GST tutor and internal examiner, Revd Prof Roger B Grainger, has been invited to teach Pastoral Studies as part of Leeds Metropolitan University’s MA degree in Religion and Professional Practice from January 2008. Roger is also working on a collaborative new book with Revd Dr Simon Robinson, Professor of Global Ethics, on Inter-Cultural Pastoral Studies.

We congratulate Revd Andriano Chalwe on his recent appointment as Principal of Trans-Africa Theological College, Zambia. Andi is a Masters graduand of GST/NWU and is currently working on his doctoral thesis with us entitled: ‘The Missionary Activities of the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Movement in Zambia (1955-2005)’. TTC is the largest Pentecostal and Evangelical Bible College in Central Africa, admitting students from Congo DRC, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Namibia, Botswana and even as far as the USA.

It is with great pleasure that we welcome Revd Prof Roger B Grainger and Canon Prof Gerald T Hughes as full-time representatives of the governors on to the Executive board of GST. Both have served the School in a number of ways over many years and their input into the decision-making process will serve us well in the future.

As you will have seen on the Events page, the recipient of the Dr Rupert Judge Memorial Award at the last Convocation was Trisha Tindall, whose work at Bachelors level was of a consistently high standard. In keeping with the spirit of her generous sponsorship of a current BA (Hons) student, Trisha donated her £100 prize money to Levy Sinyangwe's church in Zambia’s Copperbelt region. We wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to Trisha and her family for their undying commitment to the purposes of God. Our thanks also go to Andi Chalwe, who represented GST in presenting the cheque and preaching the sermon at a special celebration service.

Friends of the School are once again reminded of the relationship we have with St Deiniol's Residential Library, Hawarden, Nr Chester. Over the years many of our students have taken advantage of the “excellent food and comfortable bedrooms in delightful surroundings”. The library itself is home to over a quarter of a million books, pamphlets and periodicals, with a specialist Theology section. All the dissertations and theses of previous GST graduands are stored in the Stephen Gladstone Memorial Hall. Discount rates are available for students and clergy. Please contact the Registrar for details.

As both a security measure and by way of a plea to be sensitive to those who may not share your denominational allegiance, could I ask all students to refrain from including GST personnel in their circular e-mail messages. It would be a shame to find that genuine queries relating to GST business are not being dealt with because individuals have been added to a private ‘blocked sender’ list.

Students are again reminded that it is a requirement of the University that submissions for final examination must be preceded by a notice of intention six months prior to their proposed date of submission. Dates for students wishing to submit in 2005/06 are 30/09/05 and 31/03/06.

We are keen to print any news of students and staff, past and present. Please send any news items to Peg Evans c/o Central Office.