:00:11. > :00:15.has turned up in a morgue. Now it is time for our world. As they have
:00:15. > :00:20.almost 600 years Roman Catholics in Germany carried the body of Christ
:00:20. > :00:30.through the streets of their cities. The Church Road Villas Brent
:00:30. > :00:36.blessed by priests as the real body of Jesus. -- bread. The power of
:00:36. > :00:41.Christianity is waning. The paradors and a redemption is waning.
:00:41. > :00:48.The 2000 your church which guards its sacred mystery is threatened.
:00:48. > :00:55.The whole idea of outsourcing relationship with God to the church
:00:55. > :01:05.is ridiculous. Of course I am sad. I think it is a disaster for
:01:05. > :01:06.
:01:06. > :01:11.society. The word of God is not here. The ranks of the faithful are
:01:11. > :01:14.thinning. More than 180,000 German Catholics left the church last year.
:01:14. > :01:20.It is estimated in the last 50 years the Protestant Church has
:01:20. > :01:23.lost half its membership. The same stories being told across Europe as
:01:24. > :01:28.Christendom gives way to questioning, doubt and frank
:01:28. > :01:38.disbelief. What will be the face of this ancient face and its once-
:01:38. > :02:15.
:02:15. > :02:20.On Sundays, this father takes to the wrote. -- Road. Once he had one
:02:20. > :02:30.parish in Mannheim, now there are six. The German church is short of
:02:30. > :02:31.
:02:31. > :02:37.priests. The last race was forced to adopt one parish after another,
:02:37. > :02:43.left in despair. His father now has 20,000 Catholics in his care and
:02:43. > :02:49.feels isolated from them. Few young people would commit their lives to
:02:49. > :02:55.this job. I had the problem to to my girlfriends that I wanted to
:02:55. > :03:04.become a priest. Two years ago she started to talk to me again. That
:03:04. > :03:13.is OK now. If you come here as a young man in the parish, they think
:03:13. > :03:21.that they should become a priest. No, you do not. Don't do this. 20
:03:21. > :03:25.of 30 years ago people really wanted to join. Congregations are
:03:25. > :03:34.dwindling and they are getting older. The Church has been slowed
:03:34. > :03:38.to adapt its message to a changing society. I think it will be a
:03:38. > :03:48.disaster for society if the words of God are not heard. We need in
:03:48. > :03:58.our society a sense of orientation. People run around and it's not know
:03:58. > :04:02.
:04:02. > :04:12.what is right so wrong. As a town fete, a local clergy take on the
:04:12. > :04:17.
:04:17. > :04:26.village team. After a dirty game, the clergy a defeat said 3-1. --
:04:26. > :04:34.de de And the far reaching change can bring back support for
:04:34. > :04:44.Catholicism. Powerful voices in the Ge Geh I calling for radical
:04:44. > :04:44.
:04:44. > :04:54.reform, which was seen as unthinkable. This man was among 144
:04:54. > :04:54.
:04:54. > :05:04.an open letter to the church. It took the Church. It's said that it
:05:04. > :05:09.must ordain women and allow priests to marry. A problem is that the
:05:09. > :05:14.Church has not found a way or a real answer to the question. How
:05:14. > :05:21.can you leave your faith in a modern society which is very rich
:05:21. > :05:26.and concentrated on the results of science? It has a high expectation
:05:26. > :05:32.of personal freedom and liberal norms of sexual behaviour. In this
:05:32. > :05:39.environment, we have no answer how to live in a convincing manner as a
:05:39. > :05:45.Catholic woman or man. To think it will not survive if the changes are
:05:45. > :05:51.not made? Yes, it is a real danger. Many people lose the church. It
:05:51. > :05:55.does not interest them any longer. This is a real danger. If the
:05:55. > :06:05.Church does not see how great the danger is, I have beefier that in
:06:05. > :06:06.
:06:06. > :06:16.20 or 30 years in Germany you were not see many parishes which I up
:06:16. > :06:21.
:06:21. > :06:26.centres of by its allies Christianity. -- white sliced.
:06:26. > :06:35.While the Pope celebrated Mass before 60,000 people in Berlin,
:06:35. > :06:41.10,000 others protested outside. The Church has expressed its sorrow
:06:41. > :06:46.and regret about sexual abuse, but the scandal is costing it Dili.
:06:46. > :06:51.Every year Germans automatically pay 8% of income tax to churches.
:06:51. > :06:55.More and more of them are using their right to opt out. The Church
:06:55. > :07:03.says that those who do not pay should no longer share in the
:07:03. > :07:09.ritual of Holy Communion, be signed up for membership. It has
:07:09. > :07:19.excommunicate said in a sense one million Germans. To think that is a
:07:19. > :07:25.
:07:25. > :07:30.hard decision? For the people, it gives the impression that it does.
:07:30. > :07:40.You must be in the dialogue with it people, but at the end when he says
:07:40. > :07:54.
:07:54. > :08:01.I want, disease consequence and not harsh. -- this is consequence.
:08:01. > :08:07.in Germany, Protestant Scandinavia to has societies once found in
:08:07. > :08:17.Christianity, had now or for sake and the face. The Church still
:08:17. > :08:18.
:08:18. > :08:24.loans large in Finland. Spins are swapping religion for recreation.
:08:24. > :08:29.The Church still confirms more than eight in 10 teenagers as member.
:08:29. > :08:38.Winsor confirmation camps are a rite of passage here. Few knew
:08:38. > :08:48.remained members for long. Things are resigning from their membership
:08:48. > :08:52.as a rate of 1,000 per week. Church's intolerance and too
:08:52. > :09:01.conservative. It does not take into account the concerns of people
:09:01. > :09:08.these days. It is true and we have to listen to these. Finns also pay
:09:08. > :09:13.a church tax of 2% of their income. Even this huge income cannot by
:09:13. > :09:20.congregations. Beautiful churches and soaring music are not enough.
:09:20. > :09:25.The Church's traditional services no longer capture the public
:09:25. > :09:35.imagination. They seek the rituals as irrelevant to their everyday
:09:35. > :09:36.
:09:37. > :09:43.lives. To increasingly liberal society, the Church seems
:09:43. > :09:47.alienating, with its stance against homosexuality. 40,000 people resign
:09:47. > :09:56.their membership last year in the space of a few days after retell a
:09:56. > :10:06.poll last year. This man has made opting out a matter of a few
:10:06. > :10:08.
:10:08. > :10:13.keystrokes online. We're simply demanding that the state does not
:10:13. > :10:20.force people to join a church. The more people leave the church, the
:10:20. > :10:24.more successful we are because we think that when the resignation of
:10:24. > :10:34.rate is lower it enough for the church, then we can have a
:10:34. > :10:35.
:10:35. > :10:44.political support to change A group of people in their early
:10:44. > :10:47.twenties meet for pasta and prayer. To them, church services are dull.
:10:47. > :10:51.They have lost trust in institutions and no longer want to
:10:51. > :10:54.be told what or how to believe. The whole idea of outsourcing your
:10:54. > :11:00.relationship with God to the church, the institutionalised church, I
:11:00. > :11:03.find it ridiculous. Breaking that mentality of coming to the church
:11:03. > :11:06.and receiving and making people feel part of that, including them
:11:07. > :11:16.in the service and making them discuss things with each other is
:11:17. > :11:32.
:11:32. > :11:39.This camp is about the faith of children. An estimated 40% of
:11:39. > :11:42.Finnish people have their own concept of God. It is a vaguely
:11:42. > :11:49.defined higher power with little resemblance to the god of the
:11:49. > :11:51.Lutheran church. This man, a Lutheran theologian, has watched as
:11:51. > :11:59.churches across northern Europe have seen the same faltering belief
:11:59. > :12:02.in God and weakening cultural links with Christianity. Churches all
:12:02. > :12:12.over Europe are at the historical crossroads. The situation is quite
:12:12. > :12:13.
:12:13. > :12:22.unstable. We see that some churches take one option and may take the
:12:22. > :12:32.other option. None of them so far have succeeded in turning the tide
:12:32. > :12:35.
:12:35. > :12:38.With German clergy excommunicating those who do not pay church taxes
:12:38. > :12:40.and the Finns finding God increasingly irrelevant, what does
:12:40. > :12:48.the future hold in store for Europe's most progressive
:12:48. > :12:58.societies? Holland might have some of the answers as to how the Church
:12:58. > :13:01.
:13:01. > :13:07.Christian leaders here are flowing with the shifting tide and, for
:13:07. > :13:10.some, that means abandoning beliefs once considered essential. Faced
:13:10. > :13:13.with a Dutch public which is no longer prepared to believe in
:13:13. > :13:15.traditional church teaching about God or the after life, progressive
:13:16. > :13:18.clergy are reinventing Christianity, addressing questions about life and
:13:18. > :13:25.death rather than pre-ordained answers and explaining God in terms
:13:25. > :13:28.of powerful human experiences, such as love. They say only with a
:13:28. > :13:38.radical new understanding can Christianity compete in this very
:13:38. > :13:43.
:13:43. > :13:53.This minister is among the most radical of all. His service
:13:53. > :13:54.
:13:54. > :13:57.contains hymns, readings and the Lord's Prayer. He says Jesus
:13:57. > :14:02.probably never existed and does not believe in God as a supernatural
:14:02. > :14:06.being, but only as part of human experience. When it happens, it
:14:06. > :14:14.happens down to earth between you and me, between people. What is
:14:14. > :14:17.God? It is a word for experience, for human experience. But it is a
:14:17. > :14:21.central feature of Christianity, that Jesus did exist, that he was
:14:21. > :14:29.the son of God. That is a central tenet. You're saying that is not
:14:29. > :14:32.true? Yes. It is a misunderstanding. More surprisingly, he does not
:14:32. > :14:38.belong to an obscure sect on the religious fringe but to the
:14:38. > :14:41.mainstream Dutch Protestant Church. A recent study by the University of
:14:41. > :14:49.Amsterdam suggests one in six clergy of the Dutch Protestant
:14:49. > :14:59.Church were described as either agnostic or atheist. That makes you
:14:59. > :15:00.
:15:01. > :15:10.no longer a Christian, surely? you ask me, are you a Christian? I
:15:11. > :15:14.
:15:14. > :15:18.say, I am a Reverend in the Christian church. The Christian
:15:18. > :15:21.cult is too narrow for me. I am Christian because I am in the
:15:21. > :15:24.European tradition and culture. After he published a book about a
:15:24. > :15:30.non-existent God, an attempt was made to expel him. It failed
:15:30. > :15:33.because his views were already widespread among its members.
:15:33. > :15:37.uses the Bible in a metaphorical way and I think it's very important
:15:37. > :15:44.that we can use it in that way because I can understand it then
:15:44. > :15:54.and I can live it out in daily life. Here, you can believe what you want
:15:54. > :15:56.
:15:56. > :16:02.to believe yourself. What you really feel and think that is true.
:16:02. > :16:05.Such revision is anathema in Holland's Bible Belt. In this town,
:16:05. > :16:08.about a quarter of the population attends church on Sundays. The town
:16:08. > :16:12.even has a law against swearing. Christians belonging to the Dutch
:16:12. > :16:15.Reformed Church are beginning to reach out to the secular public but
:16:15. > :16:23.not if that means changing their understanding of the traditional
:16:23. > :16:29.faith. When we get people into the church by throwing Jesus Christ out
:16:29. > :16:32.of the Church, we lose the core of Christianity. Then we are not
:16:32. > :16:35.reforming the institutions, the attitudes but the core of our
:16:35. > :16:45.message, and namely Jesus Christ and we should never, never end up
:16:45. > :16:50.
:16:50. > :16:56.But for many liberal Christians, even experiences such as love are
:16:57. > :17:01.at the core of Christianity. At an open evening in Amsterdam, a speed
:17:01. > :17:04.dating session invites the curious to discuss love with strangers.
:17:04. > :17:13.Dutch churches are countering the loss of orthodox belief and its
:17:13. > :17:18.replacement with a far vaguer concept. In our society, we call it
:17:18. > :17:25.something-ism. Something between heaven and earth. But to call it
:17:25. > :17:33.God, for the majority of the Dutch population, is a bridge too far.
:17:33. > :17:37.Christian churches are in a certain situation. They can offer their
:17:37. > :17:44.ideas and practices to a large part of the population which is
:17:44. > :17:48.interested in some kind of spirituality, some kind of religion.
:17:48. > :17:58.But the churches have to offer and can offer more to these people than
:17:58. > :18:15.
:18:15. > :18:17.This is one Church's experiment in something-ism. It was set up to
:18:17. > :18:20.reach young people. Replacing Church buildings with halls. Here,
:18:20. > :18:23.they contemplate the concept of eternity by spacing individual
:18:23. > :18:25.grains of rice across the floor. The Church's leader believes
:18:25. > :18:30.traditional Christianity is defined too literally and now people have
:18:30. > :18:37.lost their belief in certainty and it is time to take God out of the
:18:37. > :18:47.box. It has to be alert to what is going on in society and rethink
:18:47. > :18:49.
:18:49. > :18:53.what Christianity means. But, in a way, that means changing to serve
:18:53. > :19:01.the community it is in. It is serving but also rethinking what it
:19:01. > :19:05.means. You cannot preach heaven in the same way 2,000 years ago as
:19:05. > :19:10.today. It means something different and we have to think again what it
:19:10. > :19:16.is. We can use the same words but say totally different things.
:19:16. > :19:22.you do believe Jesus was the son of God and was resurrected? That is a
:19:22. > :19:27.difficult question. Not necessarily. I'm not sure what it means. People
:19:27. > :19:37.have strict ideas about what it means. Some ideas I might agree
:19:37. > :20:01.
:20:01. > :20:05.For me, it is who I am living my life with and I think I would be
:20:05. > :20:09.fascinated in following him for the rest of my life. Even if he is not
:20:09. > :20:13.the Son of God? We have to question his divinity. What does that mean?
:20:13. > :20:18.That is not a question we asked in my youth. But we have to think
:20:18. > :20:22.again what it means and if we can explain this to people who have no
:20:23. > :20:26.idea, yes. Across Europe, Christianity is waning as part of
:20:26. > :20:29.culture as a younger generation no longer defer to institutions like
:20:29. > :20:33.the church. People are increasingly unwilling to pay taxes towards it
:20:33. > :20:43.or sit in queues to be taught a message they feel has no relevance
:20:43. > :20:43.
:20:43. > :20:46.If the Church is to survive in countries like Germany and Finland
:20:46. > :20:55.and Holland, it must find a balance between tailoring its core values
:20:55. > :21:05.and adapting to changing culture. Meanwhile, groups like these are
:21:05. > :21:05.