The Free Churches

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 359.

The expression 'Free Churches' is commonly used to describe those Protestant churches in England and Scotland which, unlike the Church of England and the Church of Scotland, are not established. In the course of history they have developed their own convictions in church order and worship.

The Methodist Church, the largest of the Free Churches with nearly 500,000 adult full members, originated in the eigh­teenth century.

The Baptists are nearly all grouped in associations of churches, most of which belong to the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland (formed, in 1813), with a total membership of about 170,000; in addition, there are separate Baptist Unions for Scotland, Wales and Ireland and other Baptist churches.

Other Protestant denominations include: the Churches of Christ (known also in the United States as Disciples of Christ), which have been an organized community in Britain since early in the nineteenth century.

The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), with about 19,000 members in Britain and 444 places for worship, came into being in the middle of the seventeenth century under the leader­ship of George Fox and works for peace and the relief of suffer­ing in many parts of the world.

The Salvation Army, founded in Britain in 1865, has since spread to 85 other countries and has a strength of about 2-5 mil­lion. Within Britain it has some 60,000 active members operating from more than 1,000 centres of worship. Believing in a very prac­tical expression of Christian concern, the Salvation Army has 200 centres to help people in need.