An astonishing new study claims the Church of England is leaning towards a “daft” decision to drop the word “church” in favour of more “relevant and modern-sounding” terms.
The report from the Centre of Church Planting Theology and Research suggests when creating new places of worship the Anglican church is more likely to discuss them as “communities” and “congregations”.
“Planting” is the traditional term used for establishing a new church and this new study looked at 11 dioceses considering adding a new place of worship to their roster.
According to the Telegraph, the report’s author, Rev Dr. Will Foulger, vicar of St Nicholas in Durham, found that six of the 11 dioceses used the language of “worship” in their main explanation of new church projects, two used “congregation,” and seven used “community.”
But Dr Giles Fraser, vicar of St Anne’s, in Kew, London, told the publication the report reflected a “misplaced desire” to be “modern-sounding”.
Doubling down on his assessment, Dr Fraser wrote in UnHerd that if “the Church has given up on church. Not since Prince became Squiggle has there been such a daft revision.”
However, according to Dr Foulger, the findings of the new report may suggest language change is “forcing us to redefine what we think a church is in the Church of England”.
A spokesman for the Church of England claimed a reason for the lack of the use of the word church when considering new projects was that “new worshipping communities” did not necessarily need a building to exist.
He added that according to the Bible, a church is “a community of people who, together, live in relationship with God through Jesus Christ”.
