By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Journalist A new report, prepared for the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia, says the Anglican Church in Canada may be only one generation away from extinction. Calling Canada a “post-Christian society,” the report finds that Anglicanism, which once claimed 40 percent of Vancouver Island’s population, has dwindled to just 1.2 percent. If the decline continues at the present rate of 13,000 members per year, only one Anglican would be left in Canada by 2061. “The status quo is not an option,” the report says. With a preponderance of Anglicans being 60 or older, the church is “one generation away from extinction,” it says. “The unchurched are not coming to us. Lapsed Anglicans are not coming back in sufficient numbers.” The report found that attendance at all Canadian Christian churches is declining with the exception of the Roman Catholic Church whose small increases are being attributed to immigration. The worldwide Anglican Church has been steadily bleeding members over internal divisions concerning the acceptance of women priests and homosexuality. The same issues plague the American branch of the Anglican Church, the Episcopalian Church, which was already losing members when the ordination of homosexual bishop Gene Robinson in 2003 set off a mass exodus from the church. The future looks especially bleak because church research shows that Episcopalians have the lowest birthrate among U.S. Christians and nearly 60 percent of the people in the pew are over the age of 50. However, there is hope for those Anglicans who wish to remain true to the Gospel. In October 2009, Pope Benedict XVI permitted special procedures to be put in place to accept whole congregations of disaffected Anglicans into full communion with the Catholic Church. © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com