There are more Christians today than the population of the whole world in Jesus' time. Despite concerns about the decline of Anglicanism, its growth has been impressive. In 1600, there were 47 Anglican dioceses, by 1800 this had increased to 60. By 1900 there were 223 diocese - today there are 593 across the world.

In an article that looks at what the future may hold for Christianity, the Revd Sam Todd quotes some surprising and encouraging statistics. While there were 558 million Christians in 1900, today there are over 2 billion. Although it may sometimes feel otherwise, the Church has grown in Europe and North America during the last one hundred years, but not as spectacularly as in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

At the start of the 20th century about half of all Christians were Europeans. At the end of the century Europeans represent less than a quarter of world wide Church membership. Christians as yet make up a small proportion of the Asian population, but Asian Christians make up 10% of the world's Christians. And Christianity is growing faster in China than anywhere else in the world.

For Anglicans, there is a continuing trend away from a relatively rich, white, ageing, church, to one that is dynamic, black, poor, and young. As Todd says, "The most obvious trend in Christianity, which will certainly continue through the 21st century, is the southward shift of our centre of gravity."

Sam Todd quotes the words of Macaulay: "The Church is still sending forth to the farthest ends of the earth missionaries as zealous as those who landed in Kent with Augustine, and still confronting hostile kings with the same spirit with which she confronted Attila. She saw the commencement of all the governments that now exist in the world; and we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the end of them all. She was great and respected before the Saxon set forth in Britain, before the Frank had passed the Rhine, when Grecian eloquence still flourished in Antioch. And she may still exist in undiminished vigour when some traveller shall, in the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on the broken arch of London Bridge to sketch the ruins of St Paul's."

Article from: Texas Episcopalian