Christianity in The United Kingdom - History

History

Pre-Roman forms of religion in Britain included various forms of ancestor worship and paganism. Little is known about the details of such religions. The priests are known as the druids.

Forms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now the United Kingdom for over 1,400 years. It was introduced by the Romans to what is now England, Wales and Southern Scotland and, after the Pagan Anglo-Saxon invasions from the fifth century, it was reintroduced by Roman Catholic and Celtic missionaries to all parts of Great Britain and Ireland. Roman Catholicism remained the dominant form of Christianity throughout the Middle Ages, but the (Anglican) Church of England became the independent established church in England and Wales from 1534 as part of the Protestant English Reformation. It retains a representation in the UK Parliament and the British monarch is its Supreme Governor. In Scotland the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, established in a separate Scottish Reformation in the sixteenth century, is recognised as the national church. It is not subject to state control, and the British monarch is an ordinary member, required to swear an oath to "maintain and preserve the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government" upon his or her accession. The adherence to Roman Catholicism continued at various levels in different parts of Britain and most strongly in Ireland and would expand in Great Britain, partly due to Irish immigration in the nineteenth century. Particularly from the mid-seventeenth century forms of Protestant nonconformity, including Congregationalists, Baptists, Quakers and later Methodists, grew outside of the established church. The (Anglican) Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920 and, as the (Anglican) Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1870 before the partition of Ireland, there is no established church in Northern Ireland. Particularly since the twentieth century, immigration and demographic change have contributed to the growth of other faiths, including Islam, Hinduism, Neo-Paganism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism. 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.