Religion in Northern Ireland.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 498.

Religion in Wales. National church of Wales

The Church in Wales is a member Church of the Anglican Communion, consisting of six dioceses in Wales. The Welsh Church Act 1914 provided for the separation of the dioceses of the Church of England located in Wales known collectively as the Church in Wales from the rest of the Church, and for the simultaneous disestablishment of the Church. The Act came into operation in 1920. As in Scotland the Church of Wales is not an Established church. The Archbishop of Wales holds that post as well as being bishop of one of the six dioceses.

Ireland has a complicated and violent religious history. Having a longer continuous Christian tradition than Great Britain, it resisted protestant Reformation even after being joined to the United Kingdom. Northern Ireland, or Ulster, was drawn forever into the conflict when James I seized Catholic lands in order to give them to loyal Protestants from England and Scotland. The terrible combination of nationalism, politics and religion has had deadly consequences for the people living in Northern Ireland. Even now there is noticeable tension between mainly pro-British Protestants and pro-Irish Catholics, who often live in separate areas of cities and visit separate pubs.

The AnglicanChurch of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion, operating across both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Like other Anglican churches, it considers itself to be both Catholic and Reformed. The Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1871 by the Irish Church Disestablishment Act. The Republic of Ireland later seceded from the UK. Although the Protestant population of Northern Ireland is larger numerically than the Catholic population, the Roman Catholic Church forms the largest single denomination. The largest Protestant denominations are the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, closely linked to the Church of Scotland in terms of theology and history; the Church of Ireland and the Methodist Church.