Religion
Blackpool has a number of Christian churches including eighteen Church of England and ten Roman Catholic churches. Other Christian groups in the town include Blackpool Christian Centre, Blackpool Community Church, Kings Christian Centre, Liberty Church, (Metropolitan Community Church) and New Life Community Church. The Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes in Whinney Heys Road, built in 1955–57, is now redundant and is being converted into a community centre by the Historic Chapels Trust.
There is a residential Buddhist Centre in North Shore, Keajra Kadampa Buddhist Centre, a member of the New Kadampa Tradition – International Kadampa Buddhist Union. There are two mosques: the purpose-built Blackpool Central Mosque & Islamic Community Centre is located on Revoe Street and provides prayer facilities for local Muslims, and the Blackpool Islamic Community Centre (BICC) which offers Islamic education.
There are two synagogues in Blackpool for its Jewish population. The Blackpool Reform Jewish Congregation is located on Raikes Parade with a synagogue hall and classroom facilities, a purpose-built sanctuary hall and an assembly room. Blackpool United Hebrew Congregation is located on Leamington Road with a synagogue hall and community centre.
Blackpool also has small communities of Bahá'í, Hindus, Jains, Mormons and Sikhs.
The Blackpool Faith Forum was established in 2001 in conjunction with Blackpool Council to provide interfaith dialogue between the various faith groups in the town, to raise awareness of the various faiths in the town and to promote a multifaith community. It is linked to the Interfaith Network of UK. In February 2007 a youth forum was established, Blackpool Faith Forum for Youth (BIFFY).
Blackpool also has a Loyal Orange Lodge, a Protestant fraternal organisation. Blackpool Faith Defenders LOL 2001 was established in August 2001.
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Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“The cloister and the observatory saint
Take comfort in about the same complaint.
So science and religion really meet.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“But is it not the fact that religion emanates from the nature, from the moral state of the individual? Is it not therefore true that unless the nature be completely exercised, the moral state harmonised, the religion cannot be healthy?”
—Harriet Martineau (1802–1876)
“Never has any one been less a priest than Jesus, never a greater enemy of forms, which stifle religion under the pretext of protecting it. By this we are all his disciples and his successors; by this he has laid the eternal foundation-stone of true religion; and if religion is essential to humanity, he has by this deserved the Divine rank the world has accorded him.”
—Ernest Renan (1823–1892)