Pubs and Churches

 

Looking through the newsfeeds earlier this week I was struck by one reporting that two pubs will close in England and Wales this week, as they have done now for many months.  Apparently 230 pubs shut up shop in the last quarter, compared to 153 the previous.

So, it appears that life is changing, not just in churches but in High Street shopping patterns, diminishing audiences at classical music concerts and now in the relentless closure of the country’s pubs.

Maybe it’s our shifting concept of community that is behind many of these trends. 

Last Saturday, on the train to Baker Street, I couldn’t help but notice that in our crowded carriage 80% of passengers were looking at their ‘handheld devices’!  Even the boyfriend and girlfriend opposite us stopped interacting with each other by Chorleywood and spent the rest of the journey communing exclusively with their respective phones! There was a slight glimmer of interaction at Harrow on the Hill, but it petered out by Finchley Road!!

Of course, ‘virtual’ community is still real community, and for many of us has been a wonderful blessing.  Yet, I suspect, by and large it’s the lack of necessity for us to physically meet, which has led to a drop in numbers attending pubs, football matches, concerts and, of course, churches.

It's probably one of our biggest challenges now; how to both value and build community.