Religion in England
Other Christian traditions in England include Roman Catholicism, Methodism, Presbyterianism, Mormonism, and the Baptists.
After Christianity, the religions with the most adherents are Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, Buddhism, modern paganism, and the Bahá'í Faith.
The church regards itself as the continuation of the Catholic church introduced by St Augustine's late 6th-century mission to Kent as part of the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England, although this is disputed owing to procedural and doctrinal changes introduced by the 16th-century English Reformation, particularly the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion and the Book of Common Prayer.
[17][18][19] The Catholic Church was formerly forbidden from using the names of the Anglican dioceses by the 1851 Ecclesiastical Titles Act.
It is divided among five provinces headed by the archbishops of Westminster, Liverpool, Birmingham, and Southwark in England and Cardiff in Wales.
The Catholic Church considers itself a continuation of the earliest Celtic Christian communities, although its formal hierarchy needed to be refounded by the Gregorian mission to the Saxon kingdoms in the 6th and 7th centuries and again following the English Reformation.
Papal recognition of George III as the legitimate ruler of Great Britain in 1766 opened the way for the Catholic Emancipation, easing and ultimately eliminating the anti-Catholic Penal Laws and Test Acts.
[20] Considering the "actual condition of Catholicism in England," the number of Catholics, and the obstacles "removed which chiefly opposed" it, Pope Pius IX issued in 1850 the bull Universalis Ecclesiae to restore "the normal diocesan hierarchy.
"[21] More recently, the royal family has been permitted to marry Roman Catholics without fear of being disqualified from succession to the throne.
Countess of Huntingdon's Connexion is a small society of evangelical churches, founded in 1783, which today has 23 congregations in England.
The Salvation Army dates back to 1865, when it was founded in East London by William and Catherine Booth.
A Greek Orthodox community already existed at the time the UK was formed, worshipping in the Imperial Russian Embassy in London.
In 1882, St Sophia Cathedral was constructed in London, in order to cope with the growing influx of Orthodox immigrants.
By the outbreak of World War I, there were large Orthodox communities in London, Manchester and Liverpool, each focused on its own church.
Today, there are seven churches bearing the title of Cathedral in London as well as in Birmingham (the Dormition of the Mother of God and St Andrew) and Leicester.
It is an enlarged version of St Theodore's church in Constantinople and is a Grade II Listed building.
In the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales, there is among the pilgrims wending their way to Canterbury, a 'Doctour of Phisyk' whose learning included Razi, Avicenna (Ibn Sina, Arabic ابن سينا) and Averroes (Ibn Rushd, Arabic ابن رشد).
There are also large numbers of Muslims in Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford, Luton, Slough, Leicester and the mill towns of Northern England such as Huddersfield, Dewsbury, Oldham.
Until the 20th century, Judaism was the only noticeable non-Christian religion having first appeared in historical records during the Norman Conquest of 1066.
In fact, from 1290 to 1656, Judaism did not officially exist in England due to an outright expulsion in 1290 and official restrictions that were not lifted until 1656 (though historical records show that some Jews did come back to England during the early part of the 17th century prior to the lifting of the restriction).
The last wave of migration of Hindus has been taking place since the 1990s with refugees from Sri Lanka and professionals from India.
This mass immigration was caused by Idi Amin's persecution of ethnic groups in Uganda, with thousands forced to flee the region in fear of losing their lives.
[41] Heathenry is a modern revival of Germanic paganism such as that practised in the British Isles by the Anglo-Saxon and Norse peoples prior to Christianisation.
[38] The largest inclusive Heathen organisation that operates in England is Asatru UK, although lacking official membership statistics, as of February 2022 had 3177 members of its Facebook group.
[citation needed] Gallo-Roman religion formed when the Roman Empire invaded and occupied the Brythonic peoples.
Elements of the native Brythonic Celtic religion such as the druids, the Celtic priestly caste who were believed to originate in Britain,[48] were outlawed by Claudius,[49] and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey).
Later, after most of the Anglo-Saxon peoples had converted to Christianity, Vikings from Scandinavia arrived, bringing with them Norse paganism.
The varied religious, denominational, racial, and ethnic history of England has left a wide range of religious buildings—churches, cathedrals, chapels, chapels of ease, synagogues, mosques, gurdwaras, shrines, temples, and kingdom halls.
Notable places of worship include (but are not limited to): 36.7% of people in England declared no religion in 2021, compared with 24.7% in 2011 and 14.6% in 2001.
