Is the Church of England parting ways with the word ‘church?’
It was reported that the Church of England was trying to rid of the word “church” and rebrand itself. While the Church of England told Premier Christian News that these reports are nothing more than “nonsense,” research by the Centre for Church Planting Theology and Research and Cranmer Hall found that the word church doesn’t come up much with their plants over the past decade.
According to Premier Christian News, this report mentions about 900 “new things” that the denomination has initiated in the past decade. Absolutely none of the 11 dioceses described their building with the term “church.”
A spokesperson for the Church of England told the outlet that some of these “new things” included youth groups and outreaches done through sports.
“Some people have claimed this means the Church of England has plans to drop the word ‘church’ or is rebranding itself. It does not,” the spokesperson said.
In the flipbook of the study, there’s a section on language that states, “Each diocese is using a ‘main descriptor’ for their new things, and there was diversity across the 11 as to the terms used. Not one diocese used the term ‘church’ in their main descriptor. ‘Church plant’ is not used by any of the 11 dioceses. Only one diocese used ‘fresh expressions’ of ‘pioneering’ in its descriptor.”
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It discusses further church language by stating, “…the term ‘church’ is not used in favor of other terms (community, congregation, etc.) is worthy of theological reflection. We explore whether the question, ‘what is church?’ is worth asking.”
Other findings of the study showed that of the dioceses, “six used language of ‘worship’ in their main descriptor, two used ‘congregation,’ seven used ‘community’ in their main descriptor.”
As more people continue to fall away from the church altogether, it’s no shock that an entire denomination would consider steering clear of the word church itself or even question what it means. Now is the moment when we need to press into the prayer and stay close to our church communities.
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Abby Trivett is content development editor for Charisma Media.
