In spite of impressive flurries of interest in matters spiritual here and there, the downward trend has continued unabated the last 20 years. In that time almost every branch of Christianity has felt the reality of this decline.

According to a recent study, only 35 percent of Europeans believe in a personal God and only 31 percent in a resurrection. In Western Europe only one in five of those 18 to 24 years old believes in the resurrection. Christians, especially those under 50, have shrunk to a minority.

Further, a headline in London's Sunday Times (May 11) predicted that Muslims will soon outnumber Anglicans attending church in England: "A study by a research charity shows there will be 4,000 more regular worshippers of Islam than there are Christians attending Church of England services by the year 2002." (Sources: The European, The Sunday Times.)