Religion in britain
British Ways to Heaven
England, converted to Christianity at the beginning of the 7th century, was a Catholic country until the 16th. The Kings favoured the church which brought with her a hierarchy, a sense of organization, an experience lacking to the old pagan religion. Then for a variety of reasons some of them connected with the matrimonial instability of Henry VIII, it ceased to acknowledge the authority of the Pope and recognized the King as head of the English Catholic Church. About the same tome Scotland, then an independent kingdom, turned Calvinist under the guidance of John Knox. But whereas the Presbyterian Church, logical and authoritarian, easily kept the Scots within its fold, the Church of England, standing midway between Rome and Geneva, was unable to maintain the religious unity of the nation. On its right, the Roman Catholics wanted no change at all; on its left, the Puritans clamoured for total reformation; new schisms produced an important body of Protestant dissenters, later called Nonconformists. The struggle between Liberal Nonconformity and Conservative Anglicanism has been one of the main factors in the development of the British politics.
The Church of England
The structure of the Church of England is simple enough: the parishes are grouped into dioceses administrated by bishops; the bishops are addressed as “My Lord”, and 26 of them (in order of seniority) sit in the House of Lords; the heads of the Church under the Queen, defender of the faith, are the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.
The ministers are allowed to marry, and many persons of distinction are of clerical descent. Ministers’ wives play an important part on social occasions, and proved efficient organizers of charities and entertainments.
The doctrine is more difficult to grasp, for “the toleration of incompatibles is the genius of Anglicanism.” Anglo-Catholics, though unwilling to acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope, are closely akin to Roman Catholics, and so fond of ceremonial that an old lady, so the story goes, was driven to regret the simple worship of the Church of Rome. Low Church followers, at the opposite pole, are up in arms against all “Romish” beliefs and observances: they ban confession, ritual and the un-Protestant practice of putting candles on the altar. In between, the Broad Church represents the via media, so English in its indifference to theology! Many Broad Churchmen are religious skeptics sentimentally bound to the traditional Church and ethnical ideal of Old England. They are pleased to think somewhat vaguely, with Dean Inge, that “God must be of greatest gentlemen.” Divergent in tendency, the three brands of Anglicanism are agreed on fundamentals. The Thirty-Nine Articles, agreed upon in 1562 and ratified in 1571, set out the doctrine; the Book of Common Prayer (1549)which fixes a uniform text, and the Authorized Version of the Bible (1616), both masterpieces of noble prose, have exerted an strong influence on religion, literature and everyday speech.
High Broad or Low, the Church of England is the spiritual home of the nation. It may be only “the Church that the majority of English people stay away from. But they want it to be there to stay away from.” For, whatever it is, it is a moderate, decent religion, which habours no fanatics and offers men of good will a noble code of behaviour.
Nonconformity
English religion is wider than Anglicanism, for individualism is irresistible in England. “Chapel” is not so “nice” and attractive as “Church”, but it is as national an institution. The Nonconformists are the spiritual heirs of the old Puritans, who disapproved of the Church of England and claimed the right to worship in their own way, with the pastor of their choice. Their movement, under the general influence of Calvinism, produces three types of free Churches. Two of them were thoroughly democratic: the Congregationalists, whose distinctive doctrine was the independence of each congregation, and Baptists, who only differed from the Congregationalists in their doctrine of adult baptism. The third was the Presbyterians, uncompromising Calvinists and rigid authoritarians The Congregationalists and the Baptists are still numerous in the industrial districts of England; so are the Presbyterians in Scotland. But the Nonconformist sects have lost much of their vigour. The English Sunday, sacred to Victorian Protestantism, is openly flouted, and Bible-reading sadly neglected. Church attendance has been steadily dwindling, fewer clergymen are ordained, and many parishes are under-staffed. Politically, it is Britain’s loss that Nonconformity, once the soul of British Radicalism is no longer vigorously militant; but, in a strictly religious context, this may progressively lead to a better understanding between the various sects themselves, and perhaps facilitate steps towards Christian Unity.
Methodism
In the dark days of the industrial revolution, John Wesley, a clergyman inspires by the ardent charity which leads to sainthood, undertook to bring comfort to the pariahs of the new system. For their sake, he preached 40,000 sermons, and traveled 250,000 miles. Workers who had come to be regarded as a sub-human species were re-Christianized by Methodism. It now numbers more adherents than all other English sects combined. As a social reformer Wesley initiated the whole movement of social progress which was to be carried on by the Evangelical Revival in the 19th century: the abolition of the slave trade, prison reform, factory legislation, popular education and foreign missions.
The Salvation Army
Later on, when Methodist charity slackened, William Booth, a Methodist minister, founded the Salvation Army (1878). In the streets of London the preaching and singing of its officers to the accompaniment of the big drum and brass instruments at first excited violence and derision. Undaunted, they went on visiting slums, pubs and prisons. They took practical steps to fight pauperism and vice in order to clear the way for evangelization. The Salvation Army has finally won the sympathy and generous support of the British at home and overseas for its work of charity and mercy.
Roman Catholicism
Organised religion is rapidly losing its hold on the masses of Britons. “Morality touched with emotions” seems to be a fit description of what subsists of Christianity in the nominal following of most persuasions. Only the Church of Rome, a minority of about 5,000,000 communicants, is gaining ground. “Anti-popery” has not vanished. But the days of blind hatred and violence are over. The Roman solution to the perplexities of our times is more than ever a magnet to people searching for doctrinal certainties and moral discipline. The list of distinguished converts is long and includes John Newman, G.K. Chesterton, Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, and Sir Alec Guinness. But the position of the Roman Catholic Church remains abnormal in a country where “the King is by custom a member of the Church of England in England, of the quite different Church of Scotland in Scotland and, by law, a ‘Protestant’ everywhere.”
QUESTIONS:
When does the Church of England begin?
Explain the difference between High, Broad, and Low Church.
What are the Protestant denominations outside the Church of England? Which of them has shown the greatest vitality and met with great success among the working people?
What is the importance of Roman Catholicism in the country?
What does the national church of the English stand for?
Литература:
Артемова А.Ф., Леонович О.А., Рябов Г.П. Великобритания. Книга для чтения по страноведению: учебное пособие. – М.: АСТ: Восток – Запад, 2006.
Левашова В.А. Britain Today: Life and Institutions. М.: ИНФРА-М, 2001
Нестерова Н.М. Страноведение: Великобритания. – Ростов н/Д.: Феникс, 2005.
Сатинова В.Ф. Читаем и говорим о Британии и британцах. – 5-е изд.-Мн.: Выш.шк., 2000.
Hewitt K. Understanding Britain. – Second edition. Perspective Publications, 1996.