Why 12 Year-Old Ladz Leave The Church.

By Uncle Monty
***

All too many 12 year-old British, American, and

European ladz today have been plucked from their

magical years of childhood to face the new realities of

being forced to grow-up faster than ever in the modern,

the materialistic, the selfish, the secular, and the global

world in which they and us now live. Many parents

say that childhood is now over by age 11,

reports ICM research.
***
No wonder then so many Digital Age children show no em-
pathy toward others or care not two hoots about anything
except for themselves. The loss of childhood is the loss of
boyhood for such ladz that can also bring about a false
configuration and a skewed sense of manliness and man-
hood. True too, they are oftentimes sad clones of their
own "misdimensional" and dysfunctional parents or
guardians. They are a societal product, for good or

bad, of the present society in which they are reared

and nurtured beyond their domestic situation and local
pathology. The lack of communication skills, low edu-
cational goals, anti-social behaviour, fragmented
relationships, negative attitude, and refusal to abide
by collective rules, are evident and widespread among
many of the so-called "tweenagers" of ages 10 to 13.
Such helps to explains why many 12 year-old ladz
decide to leave the church no matter what
their folkz do or say.
***

Many of today’s children - who are little more than
grotesque, miniature adults in some cases - are all alive
and well on the surface, but beneath that they are so
spiritually, so emotionally, and so psychically empty and
dead. Like many of their unchurched parents, such ladz
also soon learn to reject the church and all thingz remotely
religious. While those other parents who are somewhat or
fully churched, have a dickens of a time each Sunday to
entice their 12 year-olds or older ladz to go to church with
them. It's not koooooooooooool to be seen in church or to
be seen as "good." That's not "bad" and being bad means
being good in the slang of today's mindless youths ... Dare

I also say that I think their insatiable appetite for online

and video games and consoles are like hallucogenic drugs

to many teenages that controls and shapes their warped

view of life that is surely in direct conflict with the panoply

and life of the church. Yes, I hear derision loud and clear

to that view of mine. But that's what I think is an unsaid

and unrecognised factor in why some youngsters are

so alienated against religion and the clergy, too.

***

So when The Church Times (7 Mar. ’08. No. 7564) carried a
two and half page spread entitled “The lost boys: the Church’s
great teenage exodus,” by Rebecca Paveley, I was immed-
iately interested to read and absorb what she had written
on the subject.

***

Rebecca Paveley doing her artwork ....

So herein, I present some of the highlights

of Rebecca's piece:
1st: Ladz (and girlz) become bored with Church.

2nd: "Role models and good Christian friendship

are critical to keeping young" ladz and girlz

"involved and interested in church."

3rd: Loss of older teenagers to the church

has a knock-on effect on the younger ones.

4th: Keeping ladz thru sport can be a real

"ice-breaker," but not a cure all for keeping

them actively involved in church.
5th: Ironically, because sporting events are

played more and more on Sunday mornings

such has also impacted on ladz attending

those events instead of church.

And, 6th: Without further shifts in the style

and substance of ministry to teenagers,

the exodus of ladz of all ages from the

church will continue.

***
My own opinion of why alot of ladz don't even

attend church, let alone make an exit if they do so

as they get older from the church, is based on all

the modern thingz that attract ladz or tweenagers or

older teenagers from church attendance. It's because

England itself has become more and more a "pleasure-

oriented society" over the past two or three decades that

now sees folkz spending so much money on all thingz

that give them material and personal satisfaction and

comfort no matter how ephemeral and expensive such

pleasures may turn out to be. Thus their own world of

property buying, owning the latest model cars, buying

digital gadgets galore, seeking far flung travel adventure,

soaking up constant shopping sprees, holding easy

credit, and living beyond their means, all rub off on

those young ladz and girlz to figure how they, too, can

get hold of such pleasures. They pray, like so many

adults, for thingz, but not for their salvation or forgive-

ness of sins. The every day influences of avarice and

over-indulgence is endemic among the exploding populace

of the UK, Europe and the US of A. We are no longer

citizens per se, but rather we've become consumers only.

We live to eat and eat to live. And that's the passageway

of why so many 12 year-old ladz leave the church among

other reasons why. One can hardly blame them with

such glaring examples shoved down their throats

and paraded before their young eyes at every new

morning of their formative lives ...

***

But then there are other extraordinary 12 year-old

ladz that do service for the church and are not the

ladz (or girlz) who are leaving the church has stated in

Rebecca Paveley's "The lost boys: the Church's great

teenage exodus." You’ve seen their angelic faces at

Westminster Abbey. You’ve heard their heavenly

voices singing at Mattins and Evening Song. You’ve

watched them at procession in their bright crimson

gowns and their pure white Anglican Choir collars

and surplices. And, you’ve admired their presence

at church. These, then, are no ordinary ladz. They

are part of The English Church tradition that goes

back for centuries and is the bedrock of Christianity

and Churchianity in England. Such ladz are called

Choristers or choir boyz. Or in Latin: Chorista.

They gather and sing throughtout the land at

British Cathedrals, Collegiate Churches, and Chapels

Royal and not just at Christmastide or Passiontide or

Ascensiontide, but at all the religious "tides" of the

year. If they were the ladz leaving the church, then

The Church of England would be in greater fear of

collapse than I ever thought or imagined was possible.

Thank God for such ladz is all I can say. And,

God Bless their little cotton socks and their

divine harmonies of hymns and psalms.

***

While in the meantime, of the

24 million born-Anglicans in Great Britain, only

about a million attend Sunday morning service or are

active in the life of the parish to which they belong.

Now that's what I call sad and rather pathetic to say

the least. Surely we can do better than that as

Anglicans in our own country? Let's try boyz and

girlz, momz and dadz, brotherz and sisterz,

auntz and unclez, nephewz and cousinz, and

friendz and neighbourz, to uphold more of the

traditions of our local and national church to en-

sure its rightful place in our British way of life.
***

Some final thoughts on what's going on in The

Anglican Church of England from what I see

of it on a pretty regular basis. I suspect that

the 12 year-olds to which Rebecca Raveley cites

are mostly white or Anglo-Saxon boyz who are

leaving the church. With the influx of immigrants,

especially those African Anglicans, joining local

parishes in England there would seem to me to be

the emergence of immigrant youths replacing many

of the local church boyz and girlz at an ever rapid rate.

When I attended St. Matthew's, which was the last

church that Diana, Princess of Wales, opened before

her tragic death, I noticed the congregation was

growing more African by the week and less and less

white youngsters and their parents appearing at the

weekly congregation. Indeed, once parents perman-

ently leave the church then their youngsters follow

suit. I suspect, too, that one reason why white

boyz and girlz are leaving the church is because

they have become, or are becoming, outnumbered

by immigrant youths at their local parish. The

Africanization of many London Anglican parishes

is stark and overwhelming and does not sit well

with many local whites who have worshipped for

years at their once all-white church. While com-

mentators have remarked on the religious

Islamization of Europe, I have yet to read any

material on the Africanization of the Church of

England and what this means in future regarding

the church and what it may become down the road.

***

While black Anglican clergy on the ground

is pretty thin in England right now, what I sus-

pect will happen as the older local white clergy

resign or retire or die off, that new black clergy

will emerge to lead the local black flock. Certianly,

with our first black Archbishop of York now in place

since 2oo5 - he is Dr. John Sentamu, the Ugandan-

born cleric - if he should become the next 105th

Archbishop of Canterbury after Dr. Rowan

Williams ends his present archbishopric, then

as the first black Archbishop of Canterbury

he may well oversee an explosion, and greater

seminarian training, of black clergy in the future

Church of England. Some local London and Black

Country parishes of the West Midlands will soon

become, if they're not already, majority black

parishes in any event. What the youngsters will

do at such black parishes will remain to be seen,

but they'll probably be more loyal to their parent's

wishes to stay with them in church as opposed to

many of the white British boyz and girlz who want

to flee in order to enjoy their freedom not to

attend church for whatever their reasons. So

herein lies perhaps some of the answers why 12

year-old (white) ladz (and girlz) leave the church.

It isn't a pretty picture when you think about it.

+Eve of Passion Sunday, 2oo8.

***

And, This Just In ... From New York

Ecumenical News International (ENI) reports:

Blair accepts Yale position to teach on faith, globalisation.

Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, has accepted

a one-year position at Yale University in which he will

participate in a course examining issues related to religious

faith and globalisation. He will serve as the Howland

Distinguished Fellow during the 2008-09 academic

year, the university announced on 7 March. Blair will

work with the faculties of the Yale Divinity School

and the Yale School of Management.

March 10th, 2oo8.