GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

• The UK possesses today a great diversity of Christian and non-Christian denominations (about 170)

• 72% of the British population are nominally Christian; British history has been predominantly Christian

• The Protestant Reformation led to the appearance of different Christian denominations

• There is a continuing decline in religious observance and secularization

• Formal religiosity is greater in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland than in England

• No church in Britain is tied to a political party

• There are no religious (Christian) parties in the British Parliament; there are no anti-clerical or anti-religious party either

MAJOR CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN THE UK

• Church of England

• Church of Scotland

• Free Churches

• Roman Catholic Church

CHURCH OF ENGLAND

The Church of England is in the intermediate position between the Roman Catholic Church and different Protestant churches in Europe. It traditionally favors compromise and combines Catholic and Protestant elements, e.g.

• episcopate hierarchy, i.e. there are Anglican archbishops and bishops

• a network of cathedrals

BUT

• no clerical celibacy

• no invocation of saints

• Anglicans do not believe in the purgatory

• women can be ordained clergy

The membership of the Church of England consists of most middle- and upper-classes and is mainly rural-based. The Church of England is currently the 2^nd largest church in Britain, and the third largest land owner in Britain (after the Forestry Commission and the Crown).

CHURCH OF ENGLAND as an established church

The Church of England is the established (official) church in England, which means it is linked in various ways to the monarch and the state:

• The Queen is the Supreme Head of the Established Church of England

• The Queen promises to maintain the Church and is a full member of the Church of England who has been confirmed and who takes Holy Communion.

• The Queen bears the official title of Defender of the Faith: Dei Gratia Regina, Fidei Defensor

• The Queen appoints bishops and archbishops of the Church of England (on PM's advice on the basis of lists of candidates supplied by the Church)

• archbishops, bishops and parish priests of the Church of England swear an oath of allegiance to the monarch.

`I accept Your Majesty

as the sole source of

ecclesiastical, spiritual

and temporal power'

• bishops and archbishops may not resign without the permission of the Queen

• the two archbishops and twenty-two senior bishops sit in the House of Lords - they are known as Lords Spiritual

• Parliament decides about the Church of England rituals and organizations

• the British monarch opens the General Synod every five years and gives assent to measures passed by the Synod, in the same way that assent is given to laws passed by Parliament

ANGLICAN DOCTRINE, LITURGY AND WORSHIP

The Chicago-Lambeth Quadrilateral (1888) is the official articulation of Anglican identity:

1. The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as `containing all things necessary to salvation', and as being the rule and ultimate standard of faith.

2. The Apostles' Creed, as the baptismal symbol; and the Nicene Creed, as the sufficient statement of the Christian faith.

3. The two sacraments ordained by Christ himself - Baptism and the Supper of the Lord - ministered with unfailing use of Christ's words of institution, and of the elements ordained by him.

4. The historic episcopate, locally adapted in the methods of its administration, to the varying needs of the nations and peoples called of God into the unity of his Church.

There are two sources of Anglican liturgy and worship:

1. The Book of Common Prayer, 1549 (written by Thomas Cranmer, finally revised in 1662)

2. 39 Articles, 1563

Church of England is often called a “broad church” - it accommodates a variety of beliefs and features and distrusts zealous theological certainty. Religious services vary from church to church and priests are free to decide how to run their services

There are two strands of belief (wings) of the Church of England:

1. Low Church (evangelicals) (80% of church membership)

• plain services with minimum ceremony

• literal interpretation of the Bible

• conscious opposition to the papal doctrine and Catholicism

• suspicious of the hierarchical structure of the Church

2. High Church (Anglo-Catholics) (20% of church membership)

• emphasis on church tradition

• Roman Catholic influences on practices and teaching

• more elaborate and colorful services

ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE

The Church of England consists of two Provinces:

- Canterbury - established by the end of the 6th century by St. Augustine - headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury - the Primate of All England. The Province is divided into 29 dioceses. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the active, professional head of the Church. He is involved in a number of national ceremonies, e.g. coronation.

- York - headed by the Archbishop of York - the Primate of England. The Province is divided into 14 dioceses.

Each diocese has a cathedral and is headed by a bishop. Each cathedral is taken care of by the dean and the so called chapter consisting of 5 to 6 residential canons. They all live in the cathedral close.

All dioceses are divided into parishes - about 13.000 in the country. Each parish is headed by the parish priest who is helped by curates, rectors, or vicars.

General Synod (1919 - 1970 the Church Assembly) is the national governing body of the Church of England. It is a tricameral assembly consisting of:

• the House of Bishops,

• the House of Clergy

• the House of Laity

It meets 2-3 times a year and decides about education, missions, social questions, training of the ministry, interchurch relations and care of church buildings.

ANGLICAN COMMUNION

The Anglican Communion is a loose international association of `particular or national churches' throughout the world, most of them owing their origins to the Church of England, and all in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury.

• There are about 78 million Anglicans worldwide in 39 provinces

• the Anglican Community has no central power or uniform organization

• the Lambeth Conference - is a meeting of Anglican bishops from all over the world in London every 10 years (since 1867), presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It is a forum for debate on issues such as:

• doctrine

• relations with other churches

• attitudes to political and social questions

Anglican Communion churches in the United Kingdom:

• Church of England

• Church in Wales (disestablished, i.e. separated from the state, by the Welsh Church Act in 1914)

• Scottish Episcopal Church

• Church of Ireland

Examples of Anglican Communion churches worldwide:

• Anglican Church of Australia

• Anglican Church of Canada

• Church of Nigeria

• Church of North India

• Church of South India

• Church of Pakistan

• The Anglican Church of Southern Africa

• Church of the Province of West Africa

• Church in the Province of the West Indies

• Episcopal Church in the United States

Current questions, controversies and criticism:

• disestablishment, i.e. the question whether the Church of England should be separate from the state

• ordination of women priests

• first women ordained in the Church of England in 1994

• currently about 16% of Church of England priests are women

• appointment of women bishops

• homosexuality of priests and bishops

• declining membership (only about 1.8 mln are formal members of the Church and about 1mln attend regular services)

• lacking authority

• traditional label of “the Conservative Party at prayer”

CHURCH OF SCOTLAND (the Kirk)

the established (national) church in Scotland

• established by John Knox in 1560

• deriving from the Calvinist doctrine and stressing:

• finding the truth in oneself

• hard work and self-sacrifice

• Presbyterian in nature, i.e. governed by elected ministers and elders, who are lay members of the church (NO priests or bishops)

• democratic structure - ministers are equal with each other and include women

• separate from the Church of England, with its own organization, doctrines and practices

• its independence guaranteed by the Act of Union of 1707

• The Queen promises to preserve the Church of Scotland, but is not the Head of the Church of Scotland.

ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE

Scotland is divided into 46 regional presbyteries which all consist of about 1,500 kirks (churches), each under the local control.

Each church (kirk) is governed by a Kirk Session, i.e. its minister and elders.

The governing body of the Church of Scotland is the General Assembly:

• consists of elected ministers and elders

• meets once a year

• is presided over by the Moderator, who is also elected annually

The Church of Scotland has currently about 600,000 members.

FREE CHURCHES (Nonconformist churches)

• non-established Protestant churches, which broke away from the Church of England in the past

• dissent from some Anglican theological beliefs

• refuse to accept bishops or hierarchical structures

• egalitarian beliefs - most of them have ordained women

• simplicity of services, worship and church buildings

• stress on individual prayer

• very strong in Wales (esp. the Methodists), Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England

The main Free Churches in the United Kingdom:

The Methodist Church

• the largest Free Church in Britain (350,000 adult members, a community of 1.3 million)

• est. 1784 by John Wesley, who broke away from the Church of England

• today's Methodist Church is based on a union of diverse separate Methodist sects from 1932

• there have been a number of attempts in the last few decades to re-unite the Methodist Church with the Church of England

The Baptists

• founded in the 17^th century

• the Baptists are grouped into independent Baptists union in the UK, e.g. the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland, the Baptist Union of Scotland.

The United Reformed Church

• founded in 1972 out of a merger between the Congregational Church in England and Wales and the Presbyterian Church in England

• Puritan roots

The Salvation Army

• Christian charity and social services organization founded by William Booth in 1865 in England

• present in 89 countries, with 2.5 million members worldwide

• has a quasi-military structure with its own General, High Council and territorial commanders

• stresses salvation through “a practical Christianity and social concern”

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

• founded in the 1652 by George Fox

• no ministers

• silent meetings in meeting houses

• stress pacifism and social work

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH

• currently the largest church in Britain

• about 5 million nominal members, 2 million active participants

• working class, settlers of Irish descent, some middle-class and upper-class families

ADMINISTRATIVE STRUCTURE

The Roman Catholic Church in the United Kingdom is divided into:

• 8 provinces (4 in England, 2 in Scotland, 1 in Wales, 1 in Northern Ireland), each under the supervision of an archbishop

• 37 dioceses, each under the supervision of a bishop (some dioceses in NI overlap with dioceses in the republic of Ireland)

• over 3,000 parishes

The head of the Roman Catholic Church is the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster

Terminology

	Anglican	Catholic	The Kirk	Other Nonconformist Churches
Local unit	parish	parish	congregation	congregation
Place of worship	church	church	kirk	chapel; meeting house (the Quakers)
Clergy	vicar/rector/parson; priest; curate (junior member)	priest	minister	minister; pastor
New member of clergy	deacon	novice	---------------	----------------------
Residence of clergy	vicarage; rectory	manse	---------------	----------------------

NON-CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN BRITAIN

Jewish community

• Britain has the second largest population of Jews in Europe (c. 280,000 members)

• The British Jewish community consists of:

• The Sephardim (from the Iberian Peninsula and north Africa)

• The Ashkenazim (from Germany and central Europe)

• The British Jewish community is divided into:

• the Orthodox (led by the Chief Rabbi of Britain)

• the Reform

• the Liberal

• there are about 300 synagogues in the country

• growing secularization and assimilation with the wider society

Muslims

• 1.6 million Muslims in Britain, mostly from Pakistan and Bangladesh

• about 1,000 mosques in the United Kingdom

• the London Central Mosque (the Islamic Cultural Centre, ICC) is the largest Muslim institution in western Europe

Hindus (165,000) - 143 Hindu temples - the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir London is the largest Hindu temple in Europe

Sikhs (400,000) - around 200 temples

Buddhists - Kagyu Samyé Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre is a Tibetan Buddhist complex associated in Eskdalemuir, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is the largest Buddhist temple in Europe

QUESTIONS

1. Why is the Church of England an established church in the United Kingdom? List four links between the church and the state.

2. Name three differences between the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.

3. What are the differences between the two strands of belief in the Church of England?

4. What is the Anglican Communion? Name four Anglican Communion churches in the British Isles.

5. Describe the administrative structure of the Church of Scotland.

6. Name four Free Churches in Britain and briefly describe one of them.

7. Describe the administrative structure of the Roman Catholic Church in the United Kingdom.

8. What are the major non-Christian churches in Britain.

Dr Tomasz Skirecki

Wiedza o krajach angielskiego obszaru językowego: WIELKA BRYTANIA

LECTURE 7: Religion in Britain

15

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