Text 6 Churches in Great Britain
Pre-reading task
E xplain the meaning of the following words and word combinations. If you don’t know them look them up in the dictionary
Clergy the Sovereign dean
to take an oath of allegiance diocese worship
parish a reigning pontiff mosque.
2 . Work in groups. Read the two texts about religion in the United kingdom attentively and say
what the established Church of England is;
if the Church of Scotland has numerous followers;
what the expression ‘Free Churches’ means;
if Pope John Paul ll ever visited Britain;
what other religious communities exist now in Britain.
1.
Everyone in Britain has the right of religious freedom (in teaching, worship and observance) without interference from the community or the State.
Clergy of the established churches of England and Scotland work in services administrated by the State, such as the armed forces, national hospitals and prisons, and are paid a salary by the State.
The Church of England
The established Church of England's relationship with the State is one of mutual obligation: privileges accorded to the Church are balanced by certain duties which it must fulfil. The Sovereign must always be a member of the Church and promises to uphold it; Church of England archbishops, bishops and deans are appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister; all clergy take on oath of allegiance to the Crown.
The Church has two provinces: Canterbury, comprising 30 dioceses (including the Diocese of Europe) and York, 14 dioceses. The Archbishop of Canterbury is 'Primate of all England', and the Archbishop of York 'Primate of England'.
Attendances at services on a normal Sunday are around 1-2 million. Many people who rarely, if ever, attend services, nevertheless regard themselves as Church members (amounting perhaps to some 60 per cent of the population).
The Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland has a presbyterian form of government. Its status as the national church derives from the Treaty of Union (1707) and the Church of Scotland Act (1921) which confirmed its complete freedom in all spiritual matters. It appoints its own officers, and its decisions on questions of doctrine and discipline are not subject to parliamentary discussion or modification.
All ministers have equal status, each of 1,805 churches being governed locally by the Kirk Session, consisting of the minister and the elected elders of the Church.
The adult membership of the Church of Scotland is estimated at almost 1 mln.
The Free Churches
T
he
expression 'Free Churches' is commonly used to describe those
Protestant churches in England and Scotland which, unlike the Church
of England and the Church of Scotland, are not established. In the
course of history they have developed their own convictions in church
order and worship.
The Methodist Church, the largest of the Free Churches with nearly 500,000 adult full members, originated in the eighteenth century.
The Baptists are nearly all grouped in associations of churches, most of which belong to the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland (formed, in 1813), with a total membership of about 170,000; in addition, there are separate Baptist Unions for Scotland, Wales and Ireland and other Baptist churches.
Other Protestant denominations include: the Churches of Christ (known also in the United States as Disciples of Christ), which have been an organized community in Britain since early in the nineteenth century.
The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), with about 19,000 members in Britain and 444 places for worship, came into being in the middle of the seventeenth century under the leadership of George Fox and works for peace and the relief of suffering in many parts of the world.
The Salvation Army, founded in Britain in 1865, has since spread to 85 other countries and has a strength of about 2-5 million. Within Britain it has some 60,000 active members operating from more than 1,000 centres of worship. Believing in a very practical expression of Christian concern, the Salvation Army has 200 centres to help people in need.