It can be a time of silence, and silence has its own value. It can also be used for meditation and contemplation. When we walk outside, especially in the “wild,” we can be more in touch with nature—God’s creation. I seem to be more aware, in particular of my body while walking. I walk no matter the weather, unless it is very severe, as I find that facing the elements in all its moods affects my well-being.

When I lived in the U.K. I discovered hiking which was commonplace there. My most ambitious hiking was in the Swiss Alps. When I returned to NL in the 1970s, hiking was catching on here and the government was promoting the upgrading of old trails and the construction of new ones. We have a lot of hiking trails today, and over the years I have used many of them—five to ten kilometres normally. The East Coast Trail comprises 270 kilometres of coastal hiking from Topsail Beach to Cappehayden, and 66 kilometres of community walks. There are also trails in ever so many communities on the Avalon. I have walked trails in Bay Roberts, Heart’s Content, Norman’s Cove, Chance Cove, Arnold’s Cove, Sunnyside, and Chance Cove, all within a 90 minutes’ drive. The most popular trail in NL is Skerwink in Port Rexton/Trinity East.

What I have said about walking can also apply to swimming and skating , skiing and snow-shoeing. When I retired 20 plus years ago, I took up kayaking. I find this another instrument of spirituality.

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In Canada, this decline is most evident in Quebec where the the dominant Roman Catholic Church began it downward spiral in the 90s with the “Quiet Revolution.” Now about 5% are regular church goers. A similar decline is happening in Ireland, once considered the most Catholic country in the world.

According to Statistics Canada, in Atlantic Canada only 17% attend church, down from 38% in 2019 (the pandemic is also be a factor). The Anglican Church of Canada has been reduced from 1.3 million in 1961 to 282,000 in 2017. A recent analysis estimated that 9,000 church buildings will close in Canada in the next decade. We are seeing this happening here as numbers in most denominations keep decreasing.

As membership declines, there are fewer left to continue carrying on the programs and activities of the Church. The ones left are aging or engaged in other charities. The Church is no longer in the forefront, but more on the sideline, and its presence is less visible. People, including those nurtured as Christians, are now exposed to other forms of religion, and have a range of choices if they wish to follow a spiritual path. What we have been seeing since the 1960s, beginning with the Baby Boomers, is that each generation is less involved with Christianity. It used to be that churches retained numbers because the next generation replaced the previous one. It is no longer the case. At the same time registered members are less active and involved. Recruitment is challenging for so many reasons.

Christians are divided on so many issues—doctrinal, ethical, political, cultural. Outsiders see in the Church’s institutional rot, overt racism, toleration of sexual abuse, thirst for power, denial, self-defensiveness, and lack of courage. And there is general lack of trust in organizations and their leaders, and churches are often regarded as hypocritical and narrow-minded.

It is customary to blame secularism, materialism, and anti-religion trends for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religions themselves for their own situations.

Tomas Halik, a Roman Catholic priest, asserts that this time of empty church buildings exposes the Church’s hidden emptiness. Unless they can show the world a completely different face of Christianity, decline will continue.

Abraham Heschel claims that a religion declines not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, and insipid; where faith is replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit. When the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendour of the past, when faith becomes a heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion, the message becomes meaningless.

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