Suicide: The Decline and Fall of the Anglican Church of Canada.

Marney Patterson, Suicide: The Decline and Fall of the Anglican Church of Canada, Cambridge Publishing House, Cambridge, ON, 1999, 257pp, $19.95

Clergyman Marney Patterson has had a unique view of the Anglican community. He was pastor in both rural and big city parishes and travelled widely on mission tours throughout the world. He has had an inside experience of many common church situations and personal struggles. Now retired, he is reflecting on some bleak realities.

Despite the foreboding title, the book is not melodramatic. It weaves statistics with commentary, personal stories in conversational language with exhortation, all with lively faith and warmth.

Dr. Patterson's book is sadly marred by too many typographical errors and seems to have been taken to press prematurely before sufficient editing. Four errors are on the dust cover alone. This accentuates the alarm and emergency.

What are the problems? The book begins with some bleak realities which, the author concludes, spell out the "present massive decline and impending demise" of the church. In the last 30 years the Anglican Church in Canada has lost over 267,000 members of its approximately one million membership in 1969. In a recent three-year period alone, 523 churches have closed. In the fall of 1999, however, the Anglican Journal questioned these statistics and published different, less alarming ones.

It is not surprising that the main concern is with areas of sexuality. One chapter deals with the sexual immorality of the clergy and lays blame on insufficient seminary training in interpersonal relationships as well as on the moral weakness of the clergy. A more challenging chapter reveals the "Potiphar" problem, women who are out to seduce the clergy.

Patterson states that sexual immorality in the congregation is "probably the greatest contributing factor to the decline of our church." To underline how times have changed, he tells of a traumatic situation in his first parish. Two prominent lay leaders were living together outside marriage. He met with dismissive and violent anger in his initial visit to speak with them.

He wrote the bishop who responded by phone a few days later, "I'm not giving you my counsel--I'm giving you an order. Dismiss both of them before the sun sets, or you are out of the ministry." Patterson complied. He relates how both of these persons, apparently having separated a year or so later, each expressed gratitude for the tough-love of the clergy.

Suicide contains an insightful section on AIDS, with stories from the Anglican Church in Africa and some chilling statistics. Uganda and Zimbabwe, for instance, are in an AIDS disaster area and may well cease to exist. A total of 43 per cent of the patients at a major hospital in Kampala were AIDS victims at his 1990 visit. There are thousands of orphans, many with AIDS. Clear connections are made between AIDS and homosexual acts.

Some alarming statistics are also given for Canada. Patterson bites the bullet and advocates a radical stance regarding prevention: "We have deliberately chosen to ignore the moral side of AIDS. We refuse to declare to our people that AIDS is, in the majority of cases, a moral failure." He laments that "Many leaders of our church no longer believe in the Biblical message...on sexuality," or on preaching abstinence.

He berates Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop in South Africa, for his recent TV ad that concludes "Please wear a condom" as an insult to Christ. "Preach chastity," Patterson thunders in response.

Dr. Patterson ends with a significant section dealing with graphic medical and physiological data to deter anyone from taking a benign view of homosexual acts. With respect to Anglicans he concludes;

"In the last recorded decade (1985-95), when the subject of the ordination of homosexuals has increasingly appeared on the agenda of the House of Bishops, 124,552 Anglicans have left the church."

Some questions will arise for the reader who has a similar moral viewpoint as that of the author. In the chapter entitled "Where Have All The Children Gone?", he bemoans the fact that fewer and fewer children are seen at church, a decline of thirty-one percent attendance at Sunday School in the last ten years. He asks about the lack of child evangelism, the lack of Sunday School teachers, lack of adequate facilities and budget. But he fails to consider the widespread use of contraception, abortion, or the connection between these and the increase in sexual immorality.

He maintains complete silence on the question of women "priests" and female bishops, and makes no suggestion that these, too, have contributed to a loss of church members. He does not mention the lack of doctrinal unity. He himself does not believe in baptismal regeneration.

The September issue of the Anglican Journal reports from focus groups in eighteen dioceses; "They want church leaders to spend less time on subjects like homosexuality, and even politics, and more time on spreading Jesus' message and giving a moral lead." No doubt the debates and problems will continue for some time yet.

Ann Wilson is a theology student and a peripatetic freelance writer.