All language subtitles for Channel4.Christianity.A.History.8of8.The.Future.of.Christianity.XviD.MP3

Let us pray.

Christianity is now
almost 2,000 years old.

It has been transformed
from a small Jewish sect

in the Middle East to the
biggest and most influential

religion in the
history of mankind.

But today, in Western Europe,
it faces the greatest challenge

in its history.

Modernity and the arrival
of secular society.

The Catholic Church has opposed
with all its energy everything

modern.

With traditional
churches being closed,

ever decreasing
numbers of believers,

and a world obsessed by
money and material goods,

can Christianity really survive?

Rumors of the
death of the church

have been greatly exaggerated.

In the developing
world in America,

Christianity is thriving.

Oh my goodness.

That's big.

And it is still a
powerful political force.

President Bush is open about
the role of faith in his life.

In this film, as a practicing
Catholic and barrister,

I want to look at how
Christianity in the West

has faced up to the momentous
social changes of the last 100

years.

Of why the traditional churches
are perceived to be in decline.

And consider the
challenges of the future

for the world's
biggest religion.

I was born in 1954 and
brought up in Liverpool,

one of the most Catholic
cities in England.

I was raised by my mom in the
home of her mother-in-law,

my grandmother,
who was a Catholic.

Her house is in a working
class and very Catholic area

of Liverpool.

I haven't been back
for over 20 years.

It's very strange coming
back into this house.

This was my grandma's best
room, the front parlor.

I don't think her
Catholicism was overt.

She certainly didn't
spend her whole life

talking about doctrine.

In fact, some things
about the Catholic Church,

she felt were very wrong.

I always remember
how annoyed and angry

she'd been when my auntie
Audrey got married,

she married a non-Catholic,
and how they were forced

to marry at the side altar
because he wasn't a Catholic

and wouldn't convert.

And she thought that was a
load of nonsense, really.

Oh, this is my bedroom.

I was really
privileged because I

was the one who
got my own bedroom.

This was my domain from
about the age of 8 to 18.

My grandmother was
the driving force

for me be being a Christian.

And it would sadden her to see
how everywhere you look today,

churches are being closed,
Christians often being

marginalized, and
faith is something

few people like
to discuss openly.

What has happened
to Christianity?

Why do so few people
now go to church?

Has the 2000-year-old
faith that I

learned from my grandmother
really lost its way?

I believe the problems began
for Western Christianity

many years before I was born,
at the start of the century

of some of the worst
acts of violence

in the history of mankind.

[GUNSHOTS]

At times it has seemed as
if that most fundamental

of Christian beliefs, the golden
rule of love thy neighbor,

was forgotten.

Europe is today
full of the graves

of those killed in conflicts
caused by Christian fighting

Christian.

The last 100 years has
seen human suffering

on an unprecedented scale.

War, genocide, and
political oppression.

And Christianity, or at
least Western Christendom,

has been at the heart of it.

In 1914, the nations
of Christian Europe

started the most
brutal and bloody war

the world has seen to date.

With sermons, prayers,
and blessings,

the traditional
churches of Europe

helped send millions
to their deaths.

20 years later, most of
Europe's Christian nations

united to fight the
evil of fascism.

Ever since the Roman Empire was
converted over the 1,600 years

ago, Christianity in
much of Western Europe

has been closely
connected with the state.

A national religion,
handed down from on high.

And no where was
this more obvious

than in mobilizing
the nation for war.

One of the few major
Christian ceremonies

still observed publicly
in Britain today

is Remembrance Day,
the British date

commemorating its war dead.

But elsewhere, a weakness in
Europe's close relationship

between church and state was
exposed by a heinous episode.

The Holocaust was possibly
history's most Godless act.

The almost complete
extermination of Europe's

Jews by Hitler's Nazis.

This place is called
the Valley of Death.

The corpses were first
just dropped down here,

and then the SS built a
ramp with a lorry on it,

and they put the corpses in and
put them down to the crematory.

And then they were burned.

They burned about 70
to 90 corpses a day.

Although the Holocaust
was no Christian crime,

many of its perpetrators
were baptized Christians.

And Germany's churches did
little to lessen the slaughter.

But some Christians
did resist, either

in saving Jews from
the death camps,

or standing up to the Nazis.

One of the bravest was a German
pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Renate Bethge is
Bonhoeffer's niece.

She tries to keep the
memory of her uncle alive.

Most Christians, of
course, didn't stand up

against the Nazis.

In fact, some of them actually
were involved in what happened.

And of course you could
say that anti-semitism

itself came from the idea that
the Jews were the people who

had persecuted Christ.

What made Dietrich
see differently?

Our family had a lot
of Jewish friends.

And they were quite
good people, so we

didn't see anything
wrong with the Jews.

But it's one thing
to say, well we

didn't see anything wrong
ourselves, personally.

It's another thing to actually
disagree with the state.

Of course you were
frightened, but not everybody

dared to utter this
kind of thing and to--

Well to stand up.

Yeah.

No, they didn't.

[SPEAKING GERMAN]

Right from the start, Bonhoeffer
saw it as his Christian duty

to speak out against Hitler and
his anti-Jewish racial move.

He abhorred the traditional
German church's unholy alliance

with the Nazi state.

This was a problem
for the whole family,

because they were all
Christian, but they

thought Hitler was
like the devil.

So, to kill him would
save other people.

Bonhoeffer later joined a
plot to assassinate Hitler.

When it failed, he was
arrested and imprisoned.

Bonhoeffer was brought
from Buchenwald

in the evening of
the 8th of April,

and he was brought to the
detention building over there.

In a cell like this,
Bonhoeffer spent the night

before he was murdered.

In the morning hour, they
had to undress themselves.

And then be naked, taken
away the last human dignity,

and the group around
Bonhoeffer, they all were hung,

one after each other.

Did you in fact say
goodbye to him or?

Yeah.

Yeah, we said good-bye,
but of course one

didn't know what would happen.

For me, Bonhoeffer's brave
stand against the Nazi state,

when the German churches
were largely silent,

illustrates the Christian duty
to speak up for the oppressed

and not simply to
accept the status quo.

In resistance against
dictatorship and terror,

gave their lives for freedom,
justice, and human dignity,

Father Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
and his co-resistors, murdered

in the morning hours of
the 9th of April, 1945.

But despite all the horrors
of the 20th century,

Christianity worldwide
didn't suffer

in terms of overall numbers.

In fact it grew to include over
1/3 of the world's population.

It was another factor
altogether that

caused a crisis in Christianity
all over Western Europe,

that it has never
recovered from.

The massive social and
political change of the 1960s.

It was not the horrors
of two world wars that

caused a crisis for
Christianity in Western Europe,

but the massive social
and political change that

happened in the 1960s.

It was a time when everything
was brought into question.

The old order was under attack.

And that included
Christianity, and in

particular the
role of the church.

It was also a time
when I was a teenager.

At the age of 11 I was sent to a
Catholic girls' grammar school,

a convent run by nuns.

The school is still in Crosby.

It's still Catholic.

But the nuns have gone,
and now it admits boys.

I want to find out how
much Catholic Liverpool has

changed since I
was a schoolgirl.

Hi, nice to meet you.

Stephanie.

Hello Stephanie, nice
to meet you, too.

Are you on the sixth floor?

Yes, I am.

So, are you going to take
me around, Stephanie?

So, this is the chapel.

So what do you use
chapel for now?

It's used a lot, the chapel,
actually, for assemblies.

And then they also
have a mass each week,

that is voluntary if you
would like to attend that.

And do many people attend?

Yeah, people do attend.

I think, especially,
it's nice if maybe you've

had something
happen in your life.

I was hoping to get married.

When I was
Stephanie's age, I was

a member of the Young
Christian Students,

and we used to do a lot of
campaigning on social issues.

It's what got me into
Christianity in a big way.

I'm glad to see the school
still retains that ethos.

So is the school very much
into campaigning about issues?

I think it's into-- I don't
think it tries to force on you,

but it's into making you
aware of what is going on,

of things that you could do.

Well, when I was
here, we all seemed

to do lots of campaigning.

Yeah.

I remember we did
this great thing,

which was a 24-hour fast,
for people who were starving

in the world, which was a
great excuse for the girls

in Seafield and the boys of
St. Mary's to get together

and spending the night--

Yeah, because it was
an all-girls school.

This was an all-girls school.

So what does it
mean to you to be

a Catholic in the 21st century?

For me, I don't
necessarily think

it means going to
church all the time.

I don't think you
need to do that.

It's, I think, it's
just how you carry out,

you know, and care
for other people.

And also I think you pick
up your models and things

like that, from
religion, so you know

what is right and
wrong for religion.

We can't change the
world, obviously.

We're not--

Why not?

Well, we'll try.

You've got to try, absolutely.

If at 17, you don't
want to give it a try.

I still want to change
the world and I'm 54.

God, I am.

I'm 54.

And you're going
to give a good go.

I am.

We'll try together.

Figures for regular church
attendance in Liverpool

had declined steeply
since my youth.

And if you look at
the whole country,

it's a disastrous picture.

In 1964, 74% of people said
they belong to a religion,

or attended church services.

Today the opposite is true.

And it's the same all
over Western Europe.

That leaves a huge headache
for the church authorities.

Hundreds of redundant
churches, many of them

historic buildings.

How is it that we have
this position in Liverpool

now that all these
churches have gone?

The city has been depopulating
steadily, certainly

since the Second World War.

The north end of
Liverpool in particular

has gone through a
phenomenal rapid change.

Where there used to
be 250,000 people,

there are now about 2,000.

If we refer to the
[INAUDIBLE] here,

if I look at that whole
picture now of the north

end of the city, there
are about three buildings

standing still now.

While the social change
since the '60s is just,

less priests is also the sense
of the whole community going.

In 20 years, I know nine
churches that went up town.

In my youth, St.
Mary of the Angels

was one of the city's
Catholic landmarks.

But today it's no
longer a working church.

It was closed eight
years ago, and is now

being used by the Liverpool
Philharmonic Orchestra

as a rehearsal room.

Some people are very upset that
some of these very beautiful

churches have not been
preserved as churches.

I mean, how do you make
decisions like that?

Well in that particular
case, within half a mile,

you've got five
other churches that

are particularly beautiful.

The decision was never to
destroy it or knock it down.

All we knew is that we
couldn't use it anymore

as a viable church.

The bigger problem for
the church authorities

is that every time
a church is closed,

its surviving congregation
maybe alienated,

exacerbating even more
the drop in numbers.

It's a vicious cycle of decline.

We see the buildings closing.

What we've also seen is actually
the congregations shrinking.

Now what do we do about that?

Why is it, in fact?

I don't know.

I would say what's
happened in practice

is that the breakdown of the
family has been quite severe.

I've got massive amounts
of single parents.

So I think we've got a big
responsibility as priests,

making people feel wanted.

The problem is that
many people don't

feel wanted by the church.

And in the Catholic Church,
that often means women.

The Scarat family live in
the same area of Liverpool

in which I grew up, and
went to the same schools.

Like me, they were
brought up as Catholics.

But today, while Angela
still attends church,

Noreen has largely
stopped going.

I think the church has had a
bad press because they preached

certain things against abortion,
and their views from it,

which are predominantly
male, that are coming up,

saying all these things.

And I used to get very
angry when the letter would

come from the archbishop
saying, there's never

going to be a mother or give
birth in his life, you know,

telling these women.

And I got angry with
the church at one point.

To me, because I'm
a feminist, how

could I have done
all things I've

done if in fact I hadn't
used contraception?

Because actually, every time
I didn't use contraception

I seemed to have a baby.

Yeah, I just can't believe
that the church hasn't moved on

with that.

Because you look at the
third world countries,

that people have got AIDS and
they're still having children

because the church say you
can't use contraceptives.

And then they pass it
on to the children.

It's just, it's just not right.

But do you think maybe that
has affected the way that women

look at the church,
and therefore they

feel they're not really
engaging with women's concerns,

and therefore they feel
alienated from the church?

Especially, abortion as well.

Hopefully, none of us would
ever have to go through that

or have a disabled child.

And that is your choice
and for the church

to turn around and say you
shouldn't be even contemplating

that.

That's one thing I could
never get my head around.

And I don't think
that the church should

have any power to that, really.

They should be supportive.

They're going to lose
everybody eventually,

and I think they've got to
get more modern, really.

One of the
fundamental weaknesses

of modern Christianity
is its ambivalence

to women, and particularly
for Catholicism.

Until the traditional
churches fully

resolve their relationship
with the female half

of the population, how can
they expect Christianity

to have a future in
the modern world?

I first met Gerry Proctor
when we both joined the Young

Christian Students--
the YCS-- in 1968.

He later became a priest.

When we were growing up
in the 1960s and '70s,

we were both full of
hope that our church

could change with the times.

I don't think since I've
ever felt as energized

and fascinated by the
Catholic Church as I did then.

But it was all very much a part
of that whole '60s explosion,

wasn't it?

Yeah.

Society was changing
because of Vatican too,

the church was changing, too.

It was.

We thought.

In 1962, Pope John XXIII set
up the Second Vatican Council,

with the intention
to open the windows

and let in the fresh air
of change, as he put it.

For three years the
Catholic leadership

debated how best to
modernize the church.

But 40 years later the
decline of the Catholic Church

in Western Europe has now
reached critical proportions.

And what about the future
of the church then?

What's the key to its survival?

I think the key to its
survival is the gospel, simply

the gospel.

And the person of Jesus.

But the model of church
we have implemented

for well over 1,000 years
is not working any longer

in our present culture.

The Catholic Church has
opposed, with all its energy,

everything modern for
the last 400 years.

We've been constantly
opposing every development

of society since
the Reformation.

Only with the Second
Vatican Counsel

did we have a glimpse
of a different stance

towards the world.

But I'm afraid now in
the Catholic Church

those windows that were
opened by John XXIII

are being firmly closed.

The drawbridge is
being pulled back up

and we're being encouraged
to go back into the castle

and survive within the ghetto.

But that's not the
church of Jesus.

It's not just the
Catholic Church

that appears to be
in terminal decline.

It's the same for almost
all of Western Europe's

traditional churches.

It seems to me that
Christians in Western Europe

have a choice.

Either we can retreat
into ourselves,

preserving the purity of our
faith as an exclusive club,

or we can turn this apparent
crisis into an opportunity.

And do what other Christians
have done across the world

and take the timeless
values of the gospel

and reconnect them
with our culture today.

But there is one
country in the West

where Christianity
is not in crisis.

A place where it has helped lead
the transformation of society

and is now flourishing.

America.

America is the largest
Christian country in the world.

Today more than 3/4
of the population

profess to be Christian, and
more than 40% of Americans

claim to attend
church regularly.

In Britain, it's less than 7%.

All the traditional
Western denominations

have a major presence
in the United States.

Roman Catholics, Baptists,
Methodists, Lutherans,

Presbyterians, Anglicans, the
Pentecostal movement, and also

a huge variety of other
nondenominational churches.

When we look across
Europe today, particularly

Western Europe, Christianity
seems a pretty marginal force.

Very few people attend church
regularly, or read the Bible,

or even profess a belief in God.

Religion has little
relevance in their lives.

But here, in America, the
complete opposite is true.

Christianity is
still a potent force

at the center of
a large majority

of people's daily lives.

Why is that the case?

Why is Christianity
flourishing in America?

And can its success
here provide a template

for the future of
Christianity in Europe.

The United Methodist Temple
is in the center of Chicago,

and is the city's oldest
established congregation,

predating the city itself.

It has three chapels,
including one

at the very pinnacle
of the skyscraper.

Although Methodist,
the Chicago Temple

has broken free of the
restrictions of denomination

and serves the
whole of the city.

The church does not
exist for itself.

The church exists for others.

We were very explicit
about welcoming people,

because we think that
the call of Jesus Christ

is to all people.

So who are we, then, to begin
to distinguish between who's in

and who's out?

Rose Martinelli is a leading
member of the Chicago Temple's

congregation, and a lesbian.

Tell me, Rose.

What does this
church mean to you?

For me here at
Chicago Temple, it's

just been this
place of acceptance.

Oftentimes I'd go
to churches where

I had to really
separate my life.

I'd either be a Christian
or I'd be a lesbian,

but I couldn't be both.

I went to a number
of churches when

I lived in Philadelphia that
wanted to cure, or heal me.

And there was a
few other churches

where I could be
gay, or lesbian,

but where there the current
commitment to Christ's word

and to service and to being
called to something greater

than yourself was lacking.

Christianity has always been
at the forefront of life

in America.

But unlike in Britain, church
and state are separate.

America's Constitution
specifically

forbids any one
established religion.

Christianity is free of any
ties to the establishment.

This has had a dramatic impact,
with Christianity remaining

an independent and
powerful political force.

When the United
States was founded,

the very First Amendment,
the first thing

in the First Amendment
of the Constitution

in the Bill of Rights
is freedom of religion.

And freedom from the
government ever establishing

a government religion.

Throughout his
presidency, George W. Bush

faced widespread
criticism abroad.

His avowed religious convictions
and the supposed influence God

had on his political decisions.

It's a very fine tightrope,
this division between religion

and public life.

And it can lead to assumptions
and unfair criticisms being

made about the
motivation and reasons

why politicians take the
decisions that they do.

And people, then,
taking it from that

that somehow you're saying
that everything I do

is justified by God.

That's right.

You know, because President
Bush, for instance, was

open about the role
of faith in his life

and how important faith is
to him, then people went,

took it the step
farther to think that,

or to make up, really, that he
thought God told him things.

Which, of course, he doesn't.

He doesn't think
he's Moses, does he?

That is part of the
tightrope of it.

People used to suggest
that Toni and George

we would actually pray together
and that never happened--

Never happened,
absolutely of course not.

I mean that is part of the
problem of anyone mentioning

what their religion
is, and why I

can see that
[INAUDIBLE] would not

want the prime minister to
say God bless our country.

Because there is criticism.

In the 1960S America
underwent the same massive

social, political,
and economic changes

as the rest of the West.

And in some ways, it was even
more violent and cataclysmic,

with the civil rights movement
and the Vietnam War, both

bringing massive
transformational changes

in society.

Yet this period had widely
different long-term effects

on the church and Christian
belief in the two continents.

Whilst in Europe the
1960s provoked a crisis

in the church, here in America
it became an opportunity.

A liberation from the old
ways and a reinvigoration

of Christianity.

Red and yellow.

Brown, black, and white.

We all precious.

The Reverend Jesse Jackson
was at the forefront

of the civil rights movement,
working alongside Doctor Martin

Luther King.

He is also an ordained
Baptist minister

and his own church in Chicago.

Tell me, do you think
that the '60s civil rights

movement would have
achieved its goals,

or even come about,
had it not been

for the religious faith of
yourself and others like you,

in particular, of
course, Dr. King.

It was our faith
that changed the law.

The law did not
change our faith.

The American that we see today
was born of the sacrifice

that we made defining
the Christian faith.

One could argue that our
religion makes us political,

that politics don't
make us religious.

Is that religious
force that makes

us be willing to do
justice, and love mercy.

And the fight for those whose
backs are against a wall.

Here in America, the
church, or Christianity,

is seen not so much
as disconnected

from society as it
is in Europe, but as

a dynamic force within it.

Churches, both black
and white, were

at the forefront of the
civil rights movement,

helping to transform
America from a society that

was founded and dominated by
whites, to the multiracial one

that it is today.

The Constitution was
an immoral document.

It defined African
people, God's children

as 3/5 of the human
beings, we have

to change the Constitution.

That was the turning
point in our country.

And though it was
a legal change,

it was driven by the church
defining humanity as one.

In many ways, the
inauguration of Barack Obama

earlier this year,
was as much a victory

for American Christianity as
the civil rights movement.

President Barrack Obama runs
the last lap of 54-year race.

This was a marathon
race, and in that race,

many runners were killed,
and martyred, much suffering

and pain, but the end of
that race, Barrack Obama

is now America's first
African American president.

Today there's a
new America that's

more multiracial,
more multicultural

because we changed the laws.

For me the strength of
Christianity in America

is that it has
obtained its ability

to reinvent itself very
quickly, time after time,

to suit each new
generation's needs.

In the 1970s, while the
traditional churches in Europe

began a steady
period of decline,

churches here were breaking
free from the constraints

of ancient worship,
creating whole new ways

to do Christianity.

Some of the most successful
are the megachurches.

The first was Willow
Creek Community Church.

Hi Sherie.

Welcome.

My name is Jim Mellado.

How are you?

I'm very well.

This is an amazing place.

Well, it's not too old.

We opened it up in
2004, and it's--

It's big.

Oh, well, we've enjoyed it.

Lots of folks come here.

Jim Mellado is the president of
the Willow Creek Association,

whose mission is to spread
the Willow Creek success

story around the world.

Willow Creek started in 1975
when a group of young people,

fed up with their
traditional church,

decided to set up on their
own, in a rented movie

theater in a suburb of Chicago.

This is our food court.

Again, to share a meal together.

In fact, you think of Acts
2, in the early church,

they broke bread and they shared
and they went house to house.

And so we want to do
everything to foster

that church unit, that 8 to
12 people where they can have

true community, share meals
together, share life together.

So you come, go to the service,
then you come get your meal,

and then kind of sit
and do community.

Good morning, everybody.

I want to welcome you.

My name is Nancy.

Come on in and take your seats.

Gracious Heavenly Father.

From the start,
women have played

a major role in the church.

Nancy Beach was one of
the founding members,

and is now a vice president
of the church and a teaching

pastor.

--and see.

We praise the Lord.

From the very
beginning, Willow Creek

has believed that God did not
distribute the gifts according

to gender, that women
can lead and teach and do

all of the gifts,
just as men can.

So I haven't had a ceiling over
me, which I'm very grateful

for.

At Willow Creek, there are no
crosses, no Christian symbols,

nothing that looks like
a traditional church.

And today, its average
weekly attendance

is over 23,000 people, and
it's growing every year.

It's like a rock concert.

The main auditorium
seats over 7,200 people

and is the largest theater in
the whole of the United States.

All right, let's
sing this together.

[SINGING]

While in Britain we
are closing churches,

Willow Creek is
now so successful

that it is developing new sites
every year all over Chicago.

Well welcome the Willow
Creek McHenry County.

My name's Steve Gillen.

And I lead our regional
ministry here at Willow.

And this is one
of our four sites.

This one at McHenry County
in the town of Crystal Lake,

is in a warehouse and every
weekend about 2,000 people

gather for our services.

Right over here is an
extension of our cafe.

We want to make
sure everyone has--

Compared to Europe, they
are now just so many ways

that you can be a
Christian in America,

that it would be hard
not to find something

to suit everyone.

I would hope and
pray that you would

say I'm in for this series,
I'm in for building contentment

muscles in my life.

I'm in--

Willow Creek is still
led by its founder

and charismatic senior
pastor, Bill Hybels.

The culmination of each
week's service is his sermon.

Somehow--

The entire service
and his message

are filmed and packaged
for distribution

worldwide by the Church's
own audio/visual team.

Ashawn's going to
sing the first verse--

Looking around this place, this
is not a traditional church.

How do you do church
at Willow Creek?

We've never tried to be
a traditional church.

We've tried to look at the
model in the New Testament,

which is a radical thing.

So we started in a movie
theater and most of the people

who came our way had no
Christian background.

And what they liked
about the movie theater

was that it was
neutral territory.

If they came as
husband and wife,

they didn't really have
to have a big fight,

are you Baptist, are you
Catholic, are you Presbyterian.

Because there were coming to an
interdenominational church that

was based right out of
the scriptures as best

we could understand them.

[SINGING]

Unlike Europe's
traditional churches,

Willow Creek is not restricted
by ancient traditions,

historic buildings, or
divided denominations.

The real secret in addition
to that big congregational

assembly, is that
all of these churches

are honeycombed with very small
groups of 10, 15, 20 people.

In fact, in some ways,
I think the real secret

is the way they come combine
the large with the small.

And they realize the
boundary between the church

and the world.

[SINGING]

Willow Creek's work is not
limited to its own members.

It also operates one of the
biggest public care centers

in Chicago, handing out food
and advice to the needy.

And it is run with
the efficiency

of a modern business.

Now, David, why
are you here today?

Times are tough with
the job situation.

I haven't gotten a paycheck
now in over two months.

I haven't received any
money, and I'm just,

I'm asking for help.

[SINGING]

Heavenly Father, thank
you for this opportunity

once again to serve.

What do you expect from someone
who comes into this community

to join the community?

I did a message last year
called faith with guts,

and it was just kind of
the repeating phrase.

So you say you have
faith, where's your guts?

Where's your guts
to stand up for it?

Where's your guts to
overturn systemic injustice?

Where's your guts to stop racism
in your place of employment?

Where's your guts?

Christianity is
supposed to be something

that calls the best out of us.

So you don't want your
people to be too comfortable.

No.

[SINGING]

There are now somewhere
between 5 and 600 megachurches

in America, and they're
growing in number every year.

So a significant
portion of people

who are in church
on a given Sunday

are going to be in megachurches.

It's not a peripheral
development.

Some of the megachurches' ideas
have already spread to Europe.

But the traditional
European churches

would do well to study their
success story in detail.

What Willow Creek
has done is radically

rethink the way church can
be done in the modern world,

and may provide a template for
the future of Christianity.

What they've done
really, is to take

the kind of mall layout-- the
architecture, if you will,

of the mall-- and use
that for a church.

You hardly know when
you're inside or outside

of a megachurch.

And you can come
dressed informally.

The ministers almost
never wear neckties.

They surely never
wear vestments.

And talks about how
Christianity applies to the life

that you're living
in the world today.

There's very little talk
about eternal punishment

or preparing for the next world.

That hardly ever comes up.

It's how you live today.

So I really believe
that the megachurches,

they're, in some ways,
the wave of the future.

When I see the current
vibrant state of Christianity

in America, and the
leading role that it

has played throughout history
in transforming this society,

and I try to compare
what's happening here

with the story in
Europe, I firmly

believe that this
crisis of Christianity

is not a crisis of faith,
but of organization.

The traditional churches
of Western Europe

were built for another age.

And they don't fully
work in the 21st century.

If Christianity is to regain
its place in Western Europe,

then it has to
grapple with change,

or its voice will be ignored.

Christianity in
Western Europe is

perceived to have lost
its way, and to have

abandon the dynamism that
over the last 2,000 years

transformed it from
a small Jewish sect,

into the world's
largest religion.

But for me, this is not chiefly
a crisis of faith itself,

but of how we practice it.

The political, social,
and economic upheaval

since the 1960s
have seen the church

in Western Europe pushed to
the margins of people's lives,

with church attendance in
decline and increasingly aging

congregations.

Yet at the same
time, many people

are still looking for
meaning in their lives,

beyond mere materialism.

All desires known.

[SINGING]

And across the globe, in the
US and in the developing world,

the churches are booming.

So what is to be done?

Christianity in Western
Europe is inevitably

shaped by 2,000
years of history,

so that today it is
perceived to be too closely

connected with the
old established order,

and the old ways of thinking.

In Britain, the Church of
England and the Catholic Church

are in crisis.

Church attendance is in
seemingly terminal decline.

Is it all too late?

It's interesting, as the
last census some years ago,

71% of the people
in England said

they thought they
were Christians.

In other words, the residue
of faith of Christianity

is still there.

You take God out of
society totally-- this

is what some of the
secularists and atheists

want to do-- that
it seems to me you

have a society that's, in
my view, very dangerous.

I think what is needed
is a radical overhaul.

Christianity has to look
again at its organizational

structure, to rethink
how it does church.

For me, it has to break
out of the old straitjacket

of a religious system dominated
by ancient static buildings

built for another age.

Christianity is not a physical
building, but a body of people.

Beautiful as these
buildings are,

my faith is not
about architecture,

it's about community.

Maybe the problem is largely
one of the historic churches.

Take the Church of England
with its land and its power,

or the Catholic Church,
generally speaking,

were rooted in our laws and
our history and, in a way,

it's almost the industrialized
world has passed us by,

and if the Church
of England has got

to become the church of
the people once more,

touching the lives
of ordinary people.

Last year I was asked
to give a speech

at a conference at
the Vatican in Rome,

on human rights,
women, and the church.

The church's message
can be distorted

in the eyes of others, by
the cultural attitudes which

linger in the church, longer
sometimes than they linger in

wider society.

And I believe this
is particularly

true in our attitudes to women.

Traditionally, it was
women who passed religion

on to their children and
who kept the church going

through the good
times and the bad.

But when it comes to the
public face of Christianity,

women are virtually invisible.

I see a genuine complementarity
between the gifts

of women and men in the terms
of the mission of the church.

But despite that,
if you actually

look at the formal structures
of the Catholic Church,

you don't see a
woman's face when

you see people speaking
for the Catholic Church.

Can we change that?

I don't think that would
develop towards priesthood

or episcopacy because
of the tradition

of the church in that role.

But I do see the roles
of the gifts women being,

not just appreciated,
but used more fully.

I firmly believe that
Christianity in Western Europe

can be saved, but there are
a number of urgent steps

that need to be taken.

Down the centuries,
women have formed

the backbone of
faith communities.

But their public
role has reflected

the culture of the time.

Today, whilst women
remain marginalized,

Christianity cannot flourish.

Women and men must
be equal partners

in 21st-century Christianity.

And that opening
up of the church

must apply to all sections
of our modern society.

There are groups of
people in our society

that it would be
very difficult for me

as a priest to mix with,
without being severely

criticized and
considered suspect.

I mean, working with prostitutes
is extremely difficult.

Being connected with
the gay community

would be immensely damaging
or difficult to do.

But for Jesus, there was
nobody he wouldn't talk to.

Christianity in Europe
has to regain its role

as a transformer of
society, as the champion

the poor and the oppressed.

After all, one of the
first human rights charters

is found in the gospel,
the Sermon on the Mount.

I suppose when religion
becomes privatized and cease

to be a source for
transforming and cease

to challenge the immorality or
inconsistent with the state,

it ceases to be alive.

Those churches are dead and
their memberships tend to die.

To many in the outside
world Christianity still

looks divided by
ancient enmities.

And in a world of
disbelief, Christians

should work together around the
core faith that they all share,

rather than worrying
about the doctrinal

beliefs that separate them.

I think it's hard
for any denomination

to say we only have the
entire truth about God.

The good thing about
the United Kingdom,

generally, is that the
relationships are very good.

But, we're still defeated.

We haven't reached
that full unity

which we know God
wants us to have.

And finally, Christianity
has to reach out

to other faiths with
humility and partnership,

in a way which respects
difference rather than trying

to eliminate it.

Christianity should be building
bridges between cultures,

but not creating barriers.

Many people in the
20th century started

to write off the church and
Christianity as a force.

Here we are in the beginning
of the 21st century,

we've got a church that's
lasted 2,000 years, one

form or another.

Is this the end for the church?

No.

Rumors of the
death of the church

have been greatly exaggerated.

You cannot kill the
spirit of the church.

You can kill some
people, but you

can't kill the activity
of God in human life.

In America, the
lesson to be learned

from the success of
churches like Willow Creek

is the simple Christian
belief in the word of God,

and the urgent desire
to put it into practice.

The whole Willow thing has
been a supernatural experience,

with a phrase we use all
the time around Willow.

Just two words,
it says only God.

And it's true.

I firmly believe that
Christianity is not

on its last legs.

That the faith I learned
from my grandmother

is still as strong as ever.

If the traditional
churches of the West

can only resolve their problems
and reach out to and work

with people of faith
across the world,

then Christianity can not
only survive, but prosper.

[MUSIC PLAYING]