Religion in Scotland.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 585.

Religion in England.

Increasingly, England is a secular country. Though nearly three-fifths of the population are baptized in an Anglican church and for form-filling purposes would say they belong to the Church of England, fewer than one in 40 of the baptized are communicant churchgoers. The Church of England still has some 16,500 churches, but it has been in financial difficulties.

The nonconformist Free Churches have nominally fewer members, but there is probably greater dedication among them, as with the Roman Catholic church. Apart perhaps from some isolated centres of Irish settlement in the North West, there is complete religious tolerance in England and no overt prejudice against Catholics.

The decline in churchgoing has been thought to be an indicator of decline in religious belief, but opinion polls substantiate the view, that belief in God and the central tenets of Christianity survives the flagging fortunes of the churches. There are also large communities of Muslims, Jews, Sikhs and Hindus.

questions ———————————————————————

1. What is the most popular church in England?

2. Is there any overt prejudice against Catholics in England?

For many centuries there was continual strife between the Celtic Scots of the Highlands and the western islands and the Anglo-Saxons of the Lowlands. Only in the 20th century has the mixture been widely seen as a basis for a rich unified Scottish culture; the people of Shetland and Orkney have tended to remain apart from both of these elements and to look to Scandinavia as the mirror of their Norse heritage. Important immigrant groups have arrived, most notably Irish labour; there have also been significant groups of Jews, Lithuanians, Italians, and, after World War II, Poles and others, as well as a more recent influx of Asians, especially from Pakistan.

Scotland is remarkably free from racial and religious strife. The Church of Scotland is the established religion and largest communion, though membership has been steadily declining. It is presbyterian in structure and evangelical in doctrine. It is controlled by a hierarchy of church courts, from the kirk session (governing the affairs of a congregation), through the presbytery (covering a group of parishes) and the synod, to the General Assembly, at which clergy and lay representatives meet annually in Edinburgh.

The Roman Catholic church is organized into two archdioceses and six dioceses. Roman Catholics have their own schools, built and staffed from public funds on the same terms as the state schools. The Scottish Episcopal Church is also significant, and there are congregations of other denominations, such as the Free Church of Scotland, Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists and Unitarians. In addition, immigrants have brought their diverse religions; Glasgow, for instance, now has several synagogues and mosques and a Buddhist centre.

questions ————————————————————————

1. What components does the people of Scotland include?

2. What is the established religion in Scotland?

3. What other denominations are there in Scotland?