Friday, December 18, 2009
As religions go, Anglicanism is becoming difficult to take seriously.
Perhaps not entirely coincidentally...
Christians outraged by poster showing Mary and Joseph after sex
A risque church billboard showing the Virgin Mary and Joseph in bed apparently after disappointing sex has caused outrage among Christians in New Zealand ... [after being] erected outside the Anglican church of St Matthew's in the City, in central Auckland...
The large poster depicts a dejected-looking Joseph lying next to Mary, whose eyes are turned heavenwards, under the words: "Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow."
Both figures, painted in classical fresco style, appear to be naked...
Archdeacon Glynn Cardy said the billboard was intended to lampoon the literal interpretation of the Christmas conception story "and that somehow this male God impregnated Mary"...
He said the church had asked an advertising agency to come up with ideas for the poster and the one they had chosen was not the most radical.
"One of the options we turned down had a sperm coming down with the words 'Joy to the World'," he said... [Telegraph]
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Membership in the Church of England ... has been declining steadily since around 1890. In the years 1968 to 1999, Anglican church attendances [in the U.K.] almost halved, from 3.5 per cent of the population to just 1.9 per cent. One study published in 2008 suggested that if current trends continue, Sunday attendances could fall to ... just 87,800 in 2050.[wiki]To paraphrase what was said about that dead parrot: "this is an ex-religion".
Meanwhile, the Catholic Church thrives as the world's largest.
Henry VIII, what hast thou wrought?
