The Bishop of Reading has expressed his frustration with the Church of England's middle class image, contrasting it with the message of Jesus and insisting that the Church should be a place “where people can be just as they are”.
Much church self-promotion misses the point, says Jonathan Bartley. the church to which church-leavers return must be different from the one they left. In other words, the solution is moving forward, not going back.
Commenting on Back to Church Sunday, Jonathan Bartley, of think-tank Ekklesia, applauded the efforts to persuade people to come back to the pews but said a root and branch reform was needed.