Religion in Sussex

[1] The historic county has been a single diocese after St Wilfrid converted the kingdom of Sussex in the seventh century.

The Quaker and founding father of Pennsylvania, William Penn worshipped near Thakeham;[3] his UK home from 1677 to 1702 was at nearby Warminghurst.

[5][6][7] The UK headquarters of the Church of Scientology is situated at Saint Hill Manor, formerly the home of the group's founder, L. Ron Hubbard.

The UK's first temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the Mormons) lies 3 miles (5 km) north of East Grinstead, just over the Surrey border.

[15] Then, in the reign of Emperor Theodosius "the Great" (AD 378–395), Christianity was made the official religion of the Roman Empire.

[17] After the departure of the Roman army, the Saxons arrived in Sussex in the fifth century and brought with them their polytheistic religion.

[20] Then in AD 691 Saint Wilfrid, the exiled Bishop of York, landed at Selsey and is credited with evangilising the locals and founding the church in Sussex.

[22] The Anglo-Saxon Bishop of Selsey was deposed and replaced with William the Conqueror's personal chaplain Stigand.

[24] Like the rest of the country the Church of England's split with Rome during the reign of Henry VIII, was felt in Sussex.

[30] Day opposed the changes, and incurred the displeasure of the royal commissioners who promptly suspended him as Bishop and allowed him only preach in his cathedral church.

[33] Mary expected her clergy to be unmarried, so Bishop Scory thought it prudent to retire as he was a married man, and George Day was released and restored to the see of Chichester.

[25] Elizabeth re-established the break with Rome when she passed the 1559 Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity, the clergy were expected to take statutory oaths and those that did not were deprived of their living.

[25] In the county nearly half the cathedral and about 40% of the parish clergy had to be replaced, although some of the vacancies were due to ill health or death.

[32] There were no battles of national significance, in Sussex, during the 1642–1651 English civil war, however there were small sieges at Chichester and Arundel.

[39] Bruno Ryves, Dean of Chichester Cathedral said of the troops that they deface and mangle (the monuments) with their swords as high as they could reach.

[39] He also complained that Waller's troops.. "..brake down the Organs and dashing the pipes with their Pole-axes.." Mercurius Rusticus p. 139 Destruction of the cathedrals' music seems to have been one of the objectives as Ryves also said, of Waller's men, that.. "they force open all the locks, either of doors or desks wherein the Singing-men laid up their Common-Prayer Books, their singing-Books, their Gowns and Surplesses they rent the Books in pieces and scatter the torn leaves all over the Church, even to the covering of the Pavement.." Mercurius Rusticus p. 140 About a quarter of the incumbents were forced from their parishes and replaced with Puritans.

The church accepted the authority of the Pope until King Henry VIII broke with Rome in the 1530s to secure an annulment from his wife.

The seat of the Sussex bishopric was originally located at Selsey Abbey being transferred by the Normans to Chichester Cathedral in 1075.

[50] Over the centuries the Weald gained a reputation for being beyond state and church control, providing a haven for Lollard and early Protestant congregations.

Jewish people have been recorded as living in Sussex since the 12th century and are first mentioned in 1179/80 pipe roll for Chichester.

Within Sussex the proportion of Hindus was highest in Crawley, where the 4.6% of the population said they were Hindu, significantly higher than the English average.

During World War One the bodies of 53 Hindus and Sikhs were taken to a remote location on the South Downs where a ghat or funeral pyre was built so that they could be cremated and their ashes scattered in the English Channel in line with religious custom.

Since 2000 the local Sikh community has led an annual ceremony to the memorial at this location, called the Chattri.

The UK headquarters of the Church of Scientology is situated at Saint Hill Manor, formerly the home of the group's founder, L. Ron Hubbard.

[57] The number of Palaeolithic graves found across Europe has been small and all those in the British region show signs of having been buried in a ritual way.

[57] The Neolithic people of Sussex built causewayed enclosures, including those at Whitehawk Camp, Combe Hill and The Trundle.

[60][61] Important burials were in long mounds, known as barrows and several have been found in Sussex, they contained cremated remains in pottery vessels.

[65] Formal cemeteries and ritual centres have been found at Westhampnett and Lancing Down dating from the late Iron Age.

[69] The Celtic religion was polytheistic, and consisted of both gods and goddesses, some of which were venerated only in a small, local area, but others whose worship had a wider geographical distribution.

[70] After the departure of the Roman army, the Saxons arrived in Sussex in the fifth century and brought with them their polytheistic religion.