Religion in Great Britain

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND SCIENCE OF RUSSIAN FEDERATION

NORTH-CAUCASIAN FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

DEPARTMENT OF PHILOLOGY, JOURNALISM AND

CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

THE CHAIR OF ROMANCE AND GERMANIC LINGUISTICS AND CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

 

 

TERM PAPER

RELIGION IN GREAT BRITAIN:  CONFLICT OF BELIEFS

                                                                         

 

 

                                                             Performed by: Kseniya Tkachenko

                                                             the 3d year student

                                                             Linguistics

 

                                                             Scientific supervisor:

                                                             Yekaterina Patrusheva,

                                                             assistant professor          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stavropol, 2012

 

 

Contents

Contents……………………………………………………………………2

Introduction………………………………………………………………..3

Chapter I. Christianity as the main religion of Great Britain. Main religious  

groups

1.1. Anglicanism…………………………………………………………4

1.2. Church of Scotland…………………………………………………10

Chapter 2. Religious pluralism and society in Great Britain

2.1. Multi-faith Britain……………………………………………………13

2.2. Religion and society in modern Britain……………………………..19

Conclusion………………………………………………………………..24

Glossary…………………………………………………………………..25

References…………………………………………………………..………..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

Religion in the United Kingdom has been dominated, for over 1,400 years, by various forms of Christianity. According to some surveys, a majority of citizens still identify with Christianity, although regular church attendance has fallen dramatically since the middle of the 20th century, and immigration and demographic change have contributed to the growth of other faiths.

The Topicality of the work. Nowadays religion plays an important role in British society. Religion is closely connected with the government and economy. Consequently, it influence on different spheres of public life. This impact creates specific features in British national character. Knowledge of religion helps deeply learn mentality, culture and values of the country. All these facts determine the necessity for research of religion in Great Britain.

The object of the represented term paper is religion in Great Britain.

The subject is peculiarity of religions in Great Britain.

The purpose of the given research paper is to identify main religious denominations in Britain, to determine public attitude to religion.

The purpose identifies the main tasks of the work: 1) to describe major religions in Great Britain; 2) to identify minor religions in Britain; 3) to analyze public attitude to religion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter I. Christianity as the main religion of Great Britain. Main religious groups

According to the 2001 UK census, Christianity is the major religion, followed by Islam, Hinduism, Neo-Paganism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism in terms of number of adherents. This, and the relatively large number of individuals with nominal or no religious affiliations has led commentators to variously describe the United Kingdom as a multi-faith, secularised, or post-Christian society.

There are two established or state churches in Britain: the Church of England, or Anglican Church as it is also called, and the Church of Scotland, or 'Kirk'. In spite of the fact that these churches both are Christian they have many differences in structure.

1.1. Anglicanism

What has come to be known as the Lambeth Quadrilateral defines the essential beliefs of Anglicanism. First suggested by an American, William Reed Huntington, in 1870, the Quadrilateral states four elements essential to the Anglican conception of Christian identity—the Bible, the Nicene Creed, baptism and Holy Communion, and the episcopate (William Reed Huntington, 1870). The Lambeth Conference of 1930 further clarified the nature of Anglicanism when it described the Anglican Communion as a fellowship within the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, of those duly constituted Dioceses, Provinces or Regional Churches in communion with the See of Canterbury, which uphold and propagate the…faith and order as they are generally set forth in the Book of Common Prayer…; promote within each of their territories a national expression of Christian faith, life and worship; and are bound together not by a central legislative and executive authority, but by mutual loyalty sustained through the common counsel of the Bishops in conference.

The Anglican Communion thus holds to the faith as expounded by the Scriptures and by the early Church Fathers. It respects the authority of the state but does not submit to it, and it equally respects the freedom of the individual. The Anglican Communion does not seek to evade the challenges of the world or to live a life separate from it. Basing its doctrines on the Bible, the Anglican Communion allows a remarkable latitude of interpretation by both clergy and laity.

  The Church of England holds close to the spirit of the Thirty-nine Articles, a doctrinal statement drawn up by the clergy of Canterbury in the mid-16th century and approved by Elizabeth I in 1571. Nevertheless, subscription to the articles is not required of the laity, and adherence by the clergy is expected only in a general way. Other churches or councils of the Anglican Communion take different views of the articles, but none regards them as having, for example, the status of the historic statements of belief set forth in the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicene Creed, nor do they accord them the status given to other 16th-century doctrinal statements, such as the Augsburg Confession of the Lutheran churches or the Westminster Confession of the Reformed and Presbyterian churches.

Anglicans accept a threefold order of ministry, consisting of bishops, priests or presbyters, and deacons. Although they hold to the view of succession from the Apostles, they are not committed to any particular theory regarding the conveyance of that ministry. Anglicans attempt to balance the clerical point of view with forms of authority that include the laity. Even bishops are rarely able to function without the advice and consent of other clergy and laity.

Worship is the centre of Anglican life. Anglicans view their tradition as a broad form of public prayer, and they attempt to encompass diverse Christian styles in a traditional context. Although The Book of Common Prayer is the most apparent mark of Anglican identity, it has undergone many revisions and wears national guises. The prayer book of 1662 represents the official version in the Church of England, but a 1928 version is commonly used. In 2000 the church introduced Common Worship, a modernized collection of services and prayers, as an official alternative to the 1662 prayer book.

Outside England a few Anglicans still rely upon the English prayer book of 1662, but most have their own versions, increasingly in languages other than English. All forms hold to the essential, historic elements of the prayer book but incorporate local idioms. In recent years there has been a recovery of ancient liturgical styles and vestments as well as an increased emphasis on the Eucharist as the central act of Christian worship. Experimental rites have appeared in different parts of the Anglican world. Change in Anglican worship has meant increased variety, new roles for the laity, and a tendency toward freedom of expression while retaining the essence of the church’s traditional forms (Vexen Crabtree, 2000).

Often said to be the middle way between Roman Catholic and Protestant churches, the Anglican Communion is comprehensive in matters of doctrine and practice. While asserting the importance of the apostolic succession of bishops and The Book of Common Prayer, it nevertheless allows a considerable degree of flexibility in most doctrinal and liturgical matters. Thus, within the Communion there are several schools of thought and practice, including High Church, Anglo-Catholic, Low Church or Evangelical, and others. The various churches of the Anglican Communion, though autonomous, are bound together by a common heritage and common doctrinal and liturgical concerns, and there has always been a considerable amount of interchange of ecclesiastical personnel.

The Anglican Communion consists of autonomous national churches that are bound together by intangible links best described as ties of loyalty between the see of Canterbury and each other. Although the archbishop of Canterbury is respected throughout the Communion and his words carry great moral authority, he exercises no jurisdiction over any part of the Communion other than the diocese of Canterbury and the Church of England as a whole through the authority vested in synods and convocations. Like a family, the Anglican Communion changes its form and shape, growing larger when new provinces (areas of jurisdiction) are formed and smaller when schemes of union with non-Anglican churches are consummated.

The basic unit of the Anglican Communion is the diocese, a geographic area over which a bishop presides. Dioceses generally form part of a larger unit known as a province, but even these are far from uniform in configuration. A province may, for example, be part of an autonomous church: the Anglican Church of Australia has five provinces and that of Canada four; the Churches of England and Ireland have two each; and the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA), has nine (Grace Davie, 1997). Some provinces, however, include whole countries, such as Japan, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania. Other provinces cover a number of countries, such as the provinces of Southern Africa, West Africa, Central Africa, the West Indies, and the Southern Cone of America. On occasion, one diocese covers a whole country or even several countries, such as the diocese of Polynesia.

The mother church of the Anglican Communion, the Church of England, has maintained close connections with the state. It has representative bishops in the House of Lords and can properly be called the established church, even though, contrary to much popular opinion, it is in no sense supported financially by the state. The Church of England itself is without question the church of the English people, even though many of the country’s citizens do not so regard it (Monica Furlong, 2000).

The Anglican Communion has never had much worldwide structure—indeed, it has been characterized by its lack of structure. Even meetings of Anglican church leaders have been restricted, except in very recent times, to the Lambeth Conferences and to pan-Anglican congresses, which involve clergy and laity as well as bishops. Only three such meetings were held in the 20th century: in London in 1908, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S., in 1954, and in Toronto, Canada, in 1963. The Lambeth Conference of 1968 recommended the formation of the Anglican Consultative Council, an advisory body of about 60 members, including bishops, clergy, and laypersons; its president is the archbishop of Canterbury. The council shares information, coordinates policy, and develops unified mission strategies. Although it lacks binding authority, the council increases the Anglican tendency toward consultation in matters of faith and life. It meets at two- or three-year intervals between Lambeth Conferences. It replaced the Lambeth Consultative Body, whose members were the primates or presiding bishops of the various national churches, and the Advisory Council on Missionary Strategy, which came into being after World War II. The Lambeth Conference of 1978 recommended that the primates of all Anglican provinces meet regularly, and they have since done so in various countries of the Anglican Communion.

The importance of conversation among Anglicans is reflected in the extent of change in some branches of the Anglican Communion. In the second half of the 20th century, most churches of the Anglican world revised their versions of The Book of Common Prayer. In the United States, revision of the Episcopalian prayer book was extensive. The new prayer book of 1979 reflected years of liturgical study, trial drafts, and discussion. It offered unprecedented liturgical options, including the use of modern English liturgies and opportunities for informal worship. The controversy generated by the book abated only slowly.

Equally controversial were the admission of women to the church’s priesthood and the prospect of women bishops. Women had been ordained priests in Hong Kong in 1944 and in 1971. By the mid-1970s, women in various parts of the Anglican world called for the priesthood to be opened to them. The impact was greatest in the United States and Canada, where women eventually constituted a significant percentage of seminary students. American Episcopalians approved women as priests in 1976 after heated debate. While several other Anglican churches took a similar course, the Church of England preferred to study the issue. Opponents of the ordination of women feared the loss of the church’s Catholic heritage, while advocates saw a chance for Anglican leadership in expanding the ministries open to women in the church. After two decades of debate, the Church of England ordained its first women priests in 1994.

The Lambeth Conference of 1988 confronted the possibility that a woman would become a bishop in the United States. That possibility became a reality in 1989, when Barbara C. Harris was ordained a bishop. (She was elected as a suffragan bishop of Massachusetts but did not head a diocese.) In subsequent years, other women were consecrated as bishops. In 1990 New Zealander Penelope Jamieson became the first diocesan bishop, and in 2006 the ECUSA elected Katharine Jefferts Schori as the first woman presiding bishop of any member church of the Anglican Communion. The Church of England voted to consecrate women as bishops in 2008. The election of women as bishops or presiding bishops was welcomed by some members of the Anglican Communion and strongly opposed by others (Ronald Hutton, 1999).

The consecration in 2003 of V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as the bishop of New Hampshire, U.S., posed another challenge to Anglican solidarity. Robinson’s consecration met with strong opposition throughout the church—especially in Africa, where bishops called for the ECUSA to repent and came close to forging a schism over the matter. Like the elevation of women to the bishopric, the consecration of homosexuals to the office of bishop also created an obstacle to improved relations with the Roman Catholic Church. In 2004 the leaders of the Anglican Communion member churches agreed to a moratorium on the ordination as bishops of individuals in same-sex relationships. After the ordination of Mary Glasspool, who was in a same-sex relationship, as a suffragan bishop in the diocese of Los Angeles in 2010, the Anglican Communion imposed sanctions on the ECUSA, barring its members from participating in ecumenical dialogue and in discussions about Anglican doctrine (V. Gene Robinson, 2003).

1.2. Church of Scotland

The Church of Scotland is Presbyterian in its structure, governed by a system of local, regional and national 'courts' or councils. 'Presbyterian' government refers to the sharing of authority in the church by an equal number of 'elders' (elected from the membership of the church) and ministers. Both are ordained for their special tasks. The local council is the Kirk Session, consisting of elders and the minister. The regional council is the Presbytery, which looks after all the churches in the area. The national council is known as the General Assembly and convenes each year in Edinburgh. This meeting establishes the laws which govern the church and the priorities for the coming year.

The Assembly represents all presbyteries. In between meetings its work is carried out by several councils covering such areas as mission, education, social services, worship, doctrine and finance.

The most public position in the Church of Scotland is that of Moderator who chairs the General Assembly. It is an honorary (which means unpaid) and elected role held for a year. The Moderator makes local and international visits during the ensuing year, encouraging the church and representing the church to wider society.

The General Assembly used to be known as the 'nearest thing to a Scottish parliament'. Now that the Scottish Parliament is re-established, the Church, along with other churches, keeps in close touch with parliamentarians and contributes to the discussion on the issues of the day.

Unlike the Church of England, the Church of Scotland does not have to take orders from Parliament. Following the Church of Scotland Act of 1921, the Church was given freedom from interference in spiritual matters.

The same Act acknowledged the Church as 'a national church' with a responsibility for providing a parochial ministry to the people throughout the whole country.

The reigning monarch is not seen as head of the Church as in England. Nevertheless, he or she is given a special place in that he or she attends or is represented at each General Assembly.

The Church of Scotland is one of the Reformation churches. It believes that this means that it must continue to reform as new insights are gained about the church and how it can meet the needs of the times.

The main beliefs of the Church of Scotland are found within the Bible, in the New and Old Testaments together. Like all mainstream churches, it accepts the doctrine of the Holy Trinity; that God is experienced as Father, Son (in Jesus Christ), and Holy Spirit. It sees Jesus Christ as the only head of the church and teaches that the church is his "body". The Bible has a central place in the life and worship of the Church. It is usually read and preached from at services.

The Church of Scotland does not have a prayer book which has to be followed but does have a book of resources and models for worship. The singing of hymns is an important feature of services and most members possess their own hymn book.

As a 'national' church, the Church of Scotland sees its duty as being to relate to all citizens and institutions, providing opportunities for learning about the Christian faith, and for worship and pastoral care for all. As well as service to local communities and other social programs, it provides a comprehensive structure of institutional care. Anyone is welcome to worship in the Church of Scotland irrespective of belief, age, and nationality. Worship is led by a minister but may also be prepared and led by deacons, 'readers' and elders. Services are held every Sunday (and at other times during the week) and contain periods of preaching, prayer and singing. There are also weekday groups for prayer, study and spiritual exploration.

Along with the reading and preaching of the Word, Holy Communion is central to the worship and life of the Church. Along with Baptism, Communion is seen as a sacrament (Jeremy Paxman, 1998).

Clergy in the Church of Scotland are known as 'Ministers of Word and Sacrament'. A Church of Scotland Communion is open to any member of any branch of the world-wide church. Its own members are generally welcomed to Communion after a ceremony of public declaration of faith and admission but, increasingly, children who are baptised are taking a full part. It has been the custom that Communion is celebrated with great ceremony only infrequently, but now more Communion services are held, especially at special festivals. At one time, people sat round a table to share the bread and the wine. More commonly today, people remain in their pews (with cloths to show that they are 'part of a table') while elders serve them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 2. Religious pluralism and society in Great Britain

2.1. Multi-faith Britain 

Every year two thousand Jews in Britain head for a University in the middle of the country for Limmud. This is a cross community education experience with hundreds of different workshops on Jewish religion, life and culture which happens to take place over the Christmas holiday period. It feels wonderfully countercultural to be learning Judaism when the rest of the country is enjoying the rather secularised British Christmas. The University obligingly takes down the Christmas trees and the tinsel for us and a corner of England becomes Jerusalem for a week.

Generally though Britain is a multicultural society. The Government's National Curriculum requires children to experience religious education throughout their school career. This begins, even in places where there are hardly any Jews, with children in most elementary schools lighting Hanukkah candles, learning about Diwali, the Hindu festival and Eid, the Muslim end of Ramadan, together with putting on the school Nativity Play telling the birth narrative of Jesus. It means that the majority of British children, even if religion plays very little part in their own family life, end up knowing a little about all of the larger religious groups in the country (Bryan Wilson, 1999).

The only place where this does not necessarily happen is in the more right-wing schools of the burgeoning faith school sector. There are thousands of faith schools which are wholly supported by the British government so that they are fully within the state education sector. The vast majority of state supported faith schools are Christian, controlled by the Church or England or the Roman Catholic Church. There are also more than thirty Jewish state schools, and a small number of recently established Muslim, Sikh and Hindu schools. They are not required to teach about other religious communities though some do.