Will the third world save the first world?

The “first world” is on a world of hurt. A mass migration is taking place from the poorest, most violent parts of Africa into Europe, and … to a lesser extent America. And the migrants are bringing their culture: violent, misogynistic, and religiously antagonistic to the West which – in turn – was shaped by Christianity. This is true even as only the thin veneer of Western culture remains.

The Church of England – the Anglicans – are abandoning their religion and tradition faster than a stripped dons her clothes.

In January of this year we read:

Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, was thought to be maintaining a fragile hold over the fractious gathering of 38 primates.

The 38 leaders are cloistered in the medieval crypt of Canterbury Cathedral this week after being summoned by Welby, in an attempt to move the Anglican communion beyond its paralysis over the issue of sexuality. Welby wants the communion, which has 85 million members worldwide, to focus on important issues such as religious violence and climate change.

Climate change! Jesus weeps.

Meanwhile the Anglican Church in America – the Episcopal Church of America – is busy installing homosexual bishops, perhaps believing that gays will flock to Christ because an avowed homosexual wears those really neat robes.

The Church of England anticipated that archbishops from six African countries – Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, South Sudan, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo – would walk out in protest during the week-long talks.

They and other members of Gafcon want Welby to impose sanctions on the Episcopal Church of America, which heightened the simmering conflict over homosexuality when it consecrated a gay priest, Gene Robinson, as bishop of New Hampshire in 2003.

A walkout could lead to a formal rather than de facto schism, with conservative churches around the world realigning under the authority of Gafcon. However, if the six leaders wish to formally detach their provinces from the Anglican communion, each needs to embark on a lengthy process authorized by their churches.

Here are the numbers: there are 26 million Anglicans in Europe. 2.5 million in North America and 50 million in Africa. In the UK fewer than 1 million attend church on any given Sunday. In the West the Anglican Church is mostly a fading cultural artifact and a habit of the elderly rather than a living faith.

There is a possibility, if taking the long view, that when the West dies the Christian faith will find itself resurrected in the place of its birth.