THE LAITY & THE DECLINE OF THE CLERGY.
The laity are asked seriously to consider the decline in the number of the clergy as revealed by the new "Crockford" the editor of which states that if the supply of candidates for ordination is not largely increased during the next ten years, "the effective maintenance of the parochial system will have become impossible in all but a f ew favoured localities. Anything which can fairly be called the Church of England will have ceased to exist, and its place will have been taken by a sporadic activities of a denomination." The; '' Morning Post *' comments on this statement as follows: —
"The figures cited are sufficiently ominous. The present rate of candidates stands at about 350 a year. The rate of death and retirement stands at about 550 a year and as the average age of the clergy is nearer 60 than 50, the number of vacancies "will rapidly increase during the next decade. 'The Church Assembly/ remarks the editor of Crockford's, 'may pursue the ideals of efficiency with unabated satisfaction to itself. But all the while the backbone of the Church is being slowly broken by the fact that the men to do the work are not' forthcoming. J The writer declines either to assign.a cause or to propose a remedy. We may; however, suggest that: a main Teason for the decline in the number of candidates for Holy Orders is purely financial. Excepting a few instances, the Church is unable to provide a sufficient income for her ministers.
"No great organisation can continue to exist without money; and the requisite endowment of the Church of England, if it is to be obtained at all, must come from the laity. But the laity, during the last twenty years or so, have shown little disposition to repair the shattered finances of the Church.
"If now the gravity of the position is adequately impressed upon them, disaster may yet be averted. 3Tor in our view it would be an evil day for England were the Church to fall into decay; or, to be more precise, if the country failed to stay the rapid process of >. decline. , r . It is for the laity to take the requisite action." s
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Hutt News, Volume 1, Issue 33, 24 January 1929, Page 9
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373THE LAITY & THE DECLINE OF THE CLERGY. Hutt News, Volume 1, Issue 33, 24 January 1929, Page 9
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