The role of the church in Britain today. The established churches in the country. Decline of church attendance, reasons.

The religion has always played an important part in the national way of life and this is still true today. There is complete religious freedom in the United Kingdom. Churches and religious societies may own property, conduct schools, and propagate their beliefs in speech and writing.

 

There are two established churches - churches legally recognized as official churches of the State: in England the Church of England (Anglican), and in Scotland the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian). Clergy of the established churches work in services which are run by the State, such as the armed forces, national hospitals and prisons, and are paid a salary by the State. Clergy of other religious communities are also appointed.

For over a thousand years, Roman Catholic Christianity had been the religion of most of Europe. But by the 16th century many people had got angry at the richly decorated churches and ceremonies of the Catholic Church. They were angry at the power of the Pope, the head of the Catholic Church, as well as bishops, many of whom lived as luxuriously as civil rulers.

Early in the 16th century, Martin Luther, a German monk, broke with the Catholic Church. His teaching emphasized direct personal responsibility to God, challenging the role of the Church as an intermediary. A few years later John Calvin, a French lawyer, also left the Catholic Church. One of his basic concepts was the idea of God as absolute sovereign, another challenge to the Church's authority.

As a result of their protesting of widely accepted teachings, Luther, Calvin and other religious reformers soon became known as Protestants. Their ideas spread rapidly through northern Europe. Soon established Protestant churches had arisen in a number of European countries.

But the process of the church reform went on painfully. There was no religious tolerance. People were expected to follow the religion of their king. Catholics and Protestants fought each other and many religious people on both sides died for their beliefs in numerous religious wars.

The Church of England is the national church. It was formed in 1534 by King Henry VIII, who broke away from the Church of Rome and declared himself Head of the Church of England. But many English people considered the Church of England too much like the Catholic Church, that it had not moved far enough away from the Church of Rome. They became known as Puritans, because they wanted "pure" and simple church. The ideas of John Calvin particularly appealed to these Puritans. They broke away from the Church of England and formed their own churches - the Free or Nonconformist Churches.

As these names suggest the nonconformists wanted to be free to choose their own form of church organization and services. All the main Free Churches - Methodist, Baptist, Evangelical, Salvation Army - are very simple, as well as their services. They do not have archbishops or bishops.

When James I became King of England in 1603, he began to persecute the Puritans. Some 300 Puritan clergymen were expelled from the Church of England. Many went to prison or left the country. The Puritans could not always agree among themselves either. Many

small Puritan groups formed in England. The Pilgrims who went to the New World belonged to one of them.

The Puritans believed that all worldly pleasures were ungodly. In the 17th century disgusted by the wickedness of the Old World, a small group of them, the Pilgrims, sailed away to found a new godly society in the pure wilderness of the New World. The Puritans who sailed from Plymouth in the "Mayflower" in 1620 were the founders of modern America. And Puritanism still remains strong on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, though it no longer has much influence on young people.

British monarchs still bear the title of Head of the Church of England, as well as the title of Defender of the Faith. The Queen of England, on the advice of the Prime Minister, appoints the two archbishops and all the bishops but the Church receives no money from the State. However, it is a great property owner and also has a lot of stocks and shares.

The Church of England has two Archbishops - the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Church's leader, and the Archbishop of York, and the twenty-four senior bishops who sit in the House of Lords. After them come the remaining eighteen bishops.

The central governing body of the Church of England is the Central Synod, which is the centre of an administrative system dealing with such matters as education, mission, inter-church relations, social questions, recruitment and training for the clergy, the care of church buildings.