Tu es Petrus

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (St. Matthew 16:18)

For all of my Christian life, the Church has been in decline. Or so it has seemed, to all the evidence of my senses. In the branch of which I am now part (the Episcopal Church), there were about 3.6 million baptized members in 1965. As of 2010, there were 2.1 million. In recent years, this decline has increasingly pinched the denomination's finances, staff, and programming at all levels, from parishes to the national church.

The music of the Episcopal Church has declined in quality. There are fewer choristers, fewer churches that even have a choir, fewer organs and organists, less support for such things from clergy and vestries. Many congregations no longer even use a printed Hymnal or Book of Common Prayer, with predictable results.

“Upon this rock I will build my church...”

I try not to worry about such things. There are places in the world where Christianity is strong. It may simply be that the forms in which I know Christianity may be dying, but not the thing itself. This will be hard, and may not be inevitable.

“... and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

When I despair of the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican tradition, the current Successor of Peter has repeatedly encouraged me through his writings and his steadfast witness to the faith. The Roman Catholic Church is one of the places where Christianity remains strong and is growing: membership in 2011 was around 1.2 billion, an increase of 11% from 2001, with much of the growth in Africa and Asia.

In honor of Benedict XVI and of this day's Feast of the Confession of St. Peter, here is a motet by Anton Bruckner:

Ecce sacerdos magnus (a performance from Montreal)

Ecce sacerdos magnus, qui in diebus suis placuit Deo...
(Behold, a great priest who in his days pleased God...)