2000+ people left the Finnish EL Church in 24 hrs

[JimC]

Oh oh, there will be a reduced budget now for the pastor's entertainment allocation. Just coffee, not coffee and cake. He will have to visit more parishioners to get his daily cake and coffee.

And given an ever-deceasing pool of parishioners, the ones that will remain will be subjected to cake raids by an ever-increasing number of hungry and desperate pastors...

Sort of a predator/prey ecological cycle, really...

[Tero]

No, the pastors are quite territorial about their coffee and cake territories. If they see a pastor out of territory, they punch holes in the car tires with a puukko.

[Ronja]

How is the church taking all this?

According to Finland's BBC-equivalent YLE's English web service, thus: http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2010/10/chur ... 64653.html

Only worried about money, eh? Going to take the now lost money away from child and youth work? And then they wonder why people are leaving... ELCoF would certainly have stuff to sell - in 2007 ELCoF own balance showed a property value of 3 billion euros, and it's certainly not all bound in church buildings, even though ELCoF tries to emphasize that (their own web page doesn't date the property value balance of 2.8 billion euros, but it is likely more recent than 2007). Just a few months back there was unpleasant publicity, when it became known that ELCoF had bought an apartment for a vicar in a very fashionable part of Helsinki, for 900,000+ euros.

Somehow the expression "Give a fool enough rope and he will hang himself" has sprung to mind many times during these last four days.

[Ronja]

One parish elder (a layman) commented yesterday evening that he was "mortified" to see the program and understands quite well why people have had enough. However, he tried to persuade people to stay at least until the nation-wide parish elections, which will be held in November.

(sadly, that news is only in Finnish AFAIK http://www.mtv3.fi/uutiset/kotimaa.shtm ... 10/1206313)

[Psi Wavefunction]

To Finland!
Atheists and awesome metal bands - what else does one need?
Well, ok, sunlight... :twisted:

[Ronja]

If my calculations are correct, between 5 and 6 PM today (EEST) we passed the total of resignations during all of year 2009. Now it's "just" 10,000 left to pass the all time high year, 2008. Seeing as about 15,500 "extra" people have resigned since Tuesday, passing the almost 50,000 total of 2008 seems quite likely at the moment.

My head is spinning!

[Trolldor]

It's the collapse of a major religious sect. Not something you see every day.

[Thinking Aloud]

What's the actual membership of the church though ...? Wiki reckons 4,300,000.

[Ronja]

What's the actual membership of the church though ...? Wiki reckons 4,300,000.

According to their own web pages (evl.fi), 4,266,755 members on 31.12.2009. So the number of members falling under 4.2 million during this year is an actual possibility now (and I would not have believed you if you had suggested such a thing one week ago!)

[Ronja]

It's the collapse of a major religious sect. Not something you see every day.

Amen, brother! It remains to be seen how thorough the collapse will be, though.

Interestingly, a number of well respected liberal bishops, vicars, and laymen have made comments yesterday and today to the effect of "please stay and vote in the parish elections in November", and yet, judging by the "speed curve" for the resignations (details below) that has no effect at all, or even an opposite effect.

The "speed curve" = resignations per hour, as shown on this page http://www.eroakirkosta.fi/static/ek-ti ... unnit.html
(red = today thus far, dotted red = estimate for today, dark gray = yesterday, light gray = the day before yesterday)

[SPMaximus]

Here you go

Tuesday 21:00 - 24:00 - 222
Wednesday - 2633
Thursday - 2032
Friday - 3473
Saturday - 4545
Sunday - 5738

18643

[Tero]

SP. do people still watch Conan over there?

Hmm, I wonder where he went to here as well, I never stay up that late.

OK, back to the Finnish vapaa-ajattelijat.

[SPMaximus]

well, we are waiting for his new show, but about a month ago subtv, the channel that has shown late night with conan obrien and the tonight show with conan obrien for like a decade, said they have decided if they were gonna pick up his new show

his new show premieres november 8th

[Ronja]

Good morning! And thanks for the updated stats, SP.

We have 537 resigned already at 8:25 AM. That Finland's Sarah Palin, leader of the "Christian Democratic" party Päivi Räsänen was interviewed in morning-TV may have something to do with that - she was "appalled" at the "accusations" and "threats" leveled at her and her ilk by our culture minister Stefan Wallin (who pointed out that Räsänen should carry her part of the responsibility for the mass exodus from the church) and by archbishop Kari Mäkinen (who underlined that priests who do not follow the decision of the bishops' council and still refuse to pray for couples of the same gender, will face consequences). It never quite ceases to amaze me how thin-skinned xian bigots can be - they remind me of an elephant in a china shop, who stomps onto and bumps into whatever it pleases, but if someone tries to shoo it out of the door with a feather, it trumpets in panicky protest: "That HURTS! Unfair!!!"

[charlou]

Thanks for keeping us updated on this great news, Ronja!

(who pointed out that Räsänen should carry her part of the responsibility for the mass exodus from the church)

I wouldn't give her the credit for that .. clearly the people are taking responsibility for their own thinking .. and high time too.