Father Taylor Albright
Secular Challenges Faced by Churches Today
Rollie Sterrett introduced Father Taylor Albright. Taylor comes from Southwick, Mass, where he has served as a priest at Southwick Community Episcopal Church since 2003. He was a part of a team to establish a church that reached out not to Episcopalians in the area but to people who had given up on church altogether. Before being ordained, Father Albright worked with transitioning those with serious mental illness from state institutions into community-based services. Taylor has served as the Chaplain of the Southwick Fire Department and part of the Massachusetts Corps of Fire Chaplains and is currently the Chaplin for the Simsbury Police Department. He currently serves at Trinity Episcopal Church in Tariffville, Connecticut, when he succeeded Father Tom in 2018.
Taylor shared his perspective on church growth as an Episcopalian priest who didn’t grow up in the church and found his faith later in life.
He talked with the club about the relationship between church growth and club growth and how they are related and reflective of one another.
It is common knowledge that church membership is on the decline. While church health was initially framed around church members and their happiness within the church and sustainability, the effects are found to be much more significant. Church health is detrimental to our surrounding communities – just like the health of our club.
The episcopal decline started after WWII. Since 2000, the church went from 856,000 to 423,000 in 20 years, with the most rapid decline in the last five years. Overall, church attendance declined by 40% in CT with less than 1/3 of churches having a full-time priest.
Over the years, the church has tried many tactics to address this including organizational development which did not work because churches are not businesses. Economics does not drive prosperity or human flourishing. Bringing in members for sustainability does not work. What has happened is a shift in our culture from a “we to me” perspective.
Taylor discussed the book Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam. Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from family, friends, neighbors, and our democratic structures– and how we may reconnect.
Putnam warns that our stock of social capital – the very fabric of our connections with each other, has plummeted, impoverishing our lives and communities.
Putnam draws on evidence including nearly 500,000 interviews over 25 years to show that we sign fewer petitions, belong to fewer organizations that meet, know our neighbors less, meet with friends less frequently, and even socialize with our families less often.
Before the decline of the church in 1960, our culture was sustained and born from groups that meet together, whether fellowships, meetings, clubs, etc. Communities flourish when we “love your neighbor as yourself” because it doesn’t matter what your transcendent faith is. Research says that getting together to achieve a common cause has social benefits – just like the Rotary motto service above self.
The club agreed to continue this fascinating conversation with Taylor and looks forward to a future meeting for part two.