Thursday 4 February 2016

Duties of Church Membership

At the request of the Church Assembly in 1954 Geoffrey Fisher and Cyril Garbett, archbishops respectively of Canterbury and York, produced 

A Short Guide to the Duties of Church Membership

All baptized and confirmed members of the Church must play their full part in its life and witness. That you may fulfil this duty we call upon you:

To follow the example of Christ in home and daily life, and to bear personal witness to Him.
To be regular in private prayer day by day.
To read the Bible carefully.
To come to Church every Sunday.
To receive the Holy Communion faithfully and regularly.
To give personal service to Church, neighbours, and community.
To give money for the work of parish and diocese and for the work of the Church at home and overseas.
To uphold the standard of marriage entrusted by Christ to His Church.
To care that children are brought up to love and serve the Lord.

Geoffrey Cantuar :
Cyril Ebor :


Published by the Church Information Board and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. S.P.C.K., London.

A report to the Church of England's General Synod in 1990, Receiving and Giving: The Basis, Issues and Implications of Christian Stewardship (GS 943), recommended that an updated version of this be widely used 'as a guide, rather than a requirement, for new and existing members' of the Church. In Yours Lord: A Handbook of Christian Stewardship (A&C Black, 1992), pp. 96-97, Michael Wright offered an adaptation as a help for considering one's own personal discipline.

Christ Church Virginia Water offers a Bible verse for each of the nine statements.