The Rev John Webster (Letters, January 3) asserts that the Church still lives and in many places flourishes.
Rev Webster overlooks the fact that during the second half of the 20th Century, thousands of churches and chapels closed or were compelled to merge with erstwhile rivals.
The Sunday School movement went into a state of terminal decline. Prayer marathons and gimmicks such as the Decade of Evangelism failed to halt the haemorrhage of Church membership and attendance.
As for "retaining its core belief", the Anglican Church is in a state of disarray, with disputing factions claiming to be true defenders of the faith.
-W J McIlroy, Hove
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