Christianity In The United Kingdom
Religion in the United Kingdom and in the countries that preceded it, 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.
Religious affiliations of UK citizens are recorded by regular surveys, the four major ones being the UK Census, the Labour Force Survey, the British Social Attitudes survey and the European Social Survey. According to the 2001 UK census, Christianity is the major religion, followed by Islam, Hinduism, 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.
The United Kingdom was formed by the union of previously independent countries from 1707, and consequently most of the largest religious groups do not have UK-wide organisational structures. While some groups have separate structures for the individual countries of the United Kingdom, others may have a single structure covering England and Wales or Great Britain. Similarly, due to the relatively recent creation of Northern Ireland in 1921, most major religious groups in Northern Ireland are organised on an all-Ireland basis.
Read more about Christianity In The United Kingdom: History, Statistics, Jediism, Neopaganism, Main Religious Leaders, Notable Places of Worship
Famous quotes containing the words christianity, united and/or kingdom:
“I believe that men are generally still a little afraid of the dark, though the witches are all hung, and Christianity and candles have been introduced.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The white American man makes the white American woman maybe not superfluous but just a little kind of decoration. Not really important to turning around the wheels of the state. Well the black American woman has never been able to feel that way. No black American man at any time in our history in the United States has been able to feel that he didn’t need that black woman right against him, shoulder to shoulder—in that cotton field, on the auction block, in the ghetto, wherever.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 9:62.