Tài liệu Part 13- Britain pdf

Thereligiou s conflictsof the pastand theirclose relations hipwith p li cssee chap ter 2haveleft on lya few tracesin modern tim es, andthemostimpo rtant oftheseareinstitu tionalrathe r t

[ 2 12 Internatio nal relations

an y ar ea i n th e UK, while t hat a mong i ts Protes tants is o ne of t he

lowest.Membersofthepoli ce force, tlie Royal Ulster Constabu lary

(RUC),are still almost entirelyPro testant.Mostofall, th ebasicdivi -sio nsrema in TheCatholicsidentify with thesouth.Most ofthem wou ld like tlieIrish governmen t in Dublin to haveatleasta sh arein tlie government of Ulster In '999theRepublicremoved the partof

i ts co nstitutio n wh ich i nclude d a claim to the s ix count ies T his h as

calme d Protestantfears abou t bein g swallowedup.In return for its gesture , tlieRepublicnow has arole to play inanumber of all

-Ir eland b od ies w hich h ave bee n se t u p Some Pro testants st ill have

misgi vin gs about this initiative.Itslio ul dbe notedliere tliattlie

n ames ' loyalist' an d 'uni o ni s t ' are somewhat mis leading T he Ul ster

Pr ot estants a re dist inct fr o m any other sec tion o f Br itish so ciety.

Wh ile itis im portantto them that hey belo n g to the Un ited

Kingdom,it isjustas im portantto them thatthey donotbelon gto

theRepublic of Ireland Fromtheirpoint of view,andalso from the

point ofviewofsome Catholics ,aplacefo rUlster in a federated Euro pe is apossible solu tion

I n U ls t er th ere is no w a ge neral disg ust a t he ac tivities of ext rem ists, a n a str ong d esire fo r p eace A t the time of wri ting,

n early a ll t errorist activities h ave ceased an d a No rthern I reland

g overnm ent w hic h includes rep resentatives o f all poli tical views h as

been set up

QUES TI ONS

J W hat ind icatio ns c an y o u find in t his chap ter

thatBritishpeople liketo th in kofth eirco untry

as an i m portant a nd ind epende n t p ower in t he

world?

2 Wouldyou say tha tthe Britsh peoplefeelclo ser

to the USAortlie Eur opean Union ' What

evid-ence d o you h ave for y our vi ew ?

3 The peopleofScotlan dhavechan ged frombein g 'ant i-Europe'to being 'p ro-E urope' in th ela t twentyyearsof the tw entiethcen tury.Wh y'

SUGG ES T ION S

4 I n 1 9 94, P rime Minister Joh n Major an no unced

that he would like toho ld a referendumin

U lster on tha t a rea's future co nst itutional p o s

i-ton Some people saidthat the referendu m sho uld include thewholeofIrelan d Which peopledo yo think tlieywere?Wliy did they saythis'

5 Do youthin k tha t the presentbo un d ari es ofthe

UKshou ldremainastliey are orshouldthey change'Do you think theywillstay asthey are?

• A Pass agetoIndioby E MForsteris setin India attheheightoftheBritish

Empireandreflectscolo nialattitudes.(Thereisalsoafilm of the

bo ok.) Th e R ajQuartet,b Paul Scott (originallyfournovels, but

pub-lished in a com bined vers io n und er thi s titl e) is similarlyse t in In di a, but in the l as t years ofBritish rul e in t he I940 s

Religion

The vastmajorityofpeoplein Britaindo no t regu larlyatten d religious

services Many doso only a few timesintheirlives Mo st people's

everydaylan guage isno longer, asi wasin previous centuries,

enric he d bytheir knowledgeofth e Bible and theEn glish Bookof

CommonPrayer.Itis sign ifican t thatth e most familiarandwell-loved

En glish translati on ofth e Bible, knownas the King JamesBible , was

writtenin the earl yseve nte enth centuryandthatn latertranslation

has chi eved sim ilarstatus

Ittherefor e seems thatmo st peopleinBritaincannotstrictlybe

describeda religious.How ever,thisdoes no t lucan that heyhave

110relig iousor sp irit ual beliefs or inclinations.Surveys havesu

g-gested that nearly three-quartersofth e populationbelieve inGod

and betw eena thirdand ahalf believe in conceptssuch as life after

death,heavenand hell(and that half or more of the populationbelieve

in astrolo gy,parapsychology, ghosts nd clairvoyan ce) Inaddition ,

amajorityapproveofth efact thatreligiousinstruction atstate

schoolsis com p ulsory.Furthermore,almost nobodyobjectsto the

factthat the Queenisqueen' by thegrace of God' , or the fact that

sh e,like allprevio usBritishmonarchs,was crownedbyareligious

Religious participationin

Britain Here are two graphs showing the

e xtent of active p anicipation in orga nized r eligion in 1990 and the chang e in these numbers from five years before Of course, what exactly

is me ant by 'act ive p articipation ' can vary Neverth eless the figures give a rea sonably accur ate picture The

ca tegory 'Indepe ndent Christian' denotes the various charismatic

a nd Pentecosta list groups men -tioned in the te xt.

Numbers, 1990

mi llions

Percentage change,1985-90

Roman Catholic Ang lican Presbyterian Mus lim

I ndependent Christian

-Methodist _ Sikh -Orthodox -Baptist -Mormon -Hindu

-J eho vah's Witnesses •

J ew

-Source: U K Christi an Ha ndbook, J 992 - 93

I ndependent Christ ian

S ikh Jehovah's W itnesses

Orthodox

M uslim

Presbyterian _

A nglican _ Roman Catho lic _

I 2 2 13Religion

The r o ad t o to le r ance UIllil 18 28 nonconformists were not allowed to hold any kind of gov-ernm ent post or publi c office or even 1O g to un i crsny Exclude d from pub lic life m any de veloped interests

in trade and com me rce as an outlet for their energies and we re the leading commercial figur es in the industrial revolution For exam ple.

all the big British chocolate manu -factur ing co mpa nies w ere starte d by Quaker families (not e also the well-kno w n' Quaker ' brand of cereals).

Catholics we re eve n worse off havin g 1O wor ship in secret, or, later.

at leas t with discretion The last restriction on t heir freedom was

li fted in 1924 w hen be lls to announce the celebration of Cath-olic Mass w ere allowed to r ing as long as they liked (previousl y Mass had to be ann ounced with a Single chi m e of the be ll only) Catholics were given the rig ht to hold public office in I 829, Th ere is still a law today which forb ids Catholic priests

to sit in Parliam ent (though it is doubtful that an)' would want 1O ! )

figure (the Archbishopof Canterbury) in ach ur ch (Westminster Abbey) and that the British nationalanthem (God Save Our Queen) invokes God's helpin protecting her

The general picture,as with so manyaspe ctsof Britishlife, sof a general to leran ce and passiveapproval of thestatus quo The majority

attit ude tow ard s organ ized religionisrathersim ilar to that towards

themonarchy Justa thereis no seriousrepublican movementin the country, sothere is no widespreadant i-clericalism.And just asthere

isn royalistmovem ent eithe r,so most peoplearenot activeparti -cipants in organizedreligion,butthey seem to be glad it sthere!

Re ligion a nd p o liti cs Freedomofreligio usbelief andworship (and alsothe freedom to be

a non-believer) is taken forgranted in mod ernBritain With the notableexceptionofNorthernIreland (see chap ter 4), a person 's

religio n hasalmostno political significance.Ther eare no important 'Christian'or anti-clericalpolitical parties.Exceptperhapsfor

Muslims,there isno recognizable political pressuregroup in the

countrywhich isbased on a particularreligiousideology.To describe oneselfas 'Catholic' or 'Churchof Eng land ,or 'Methodist' or any

othe rrecognized labelisto indicateone's personal beliefs butnot the way onevotes

Thereligiou s conflictsof the pastand theirclose relations hipwith

p li cs(see chap ter 2)haveleft on lya few tracesin modern tim es,

andthemostimpo rtant oftheseareinstitu tionalrathe r than political:

thefactthat the mo narch cannot, bylaw , be a Catholic; the fact that

thetw enty-six senior bishops in one particularchurch (theChurch

of Engla nd)are members of theHo use of Lords(where they are known as the 'LordsSpiritual'); the fact that the governmenthasthe right of veto onthe choiceof these bishops;thefact that the ultimate authorityforthis sam e churchis the BritishParliament.These facts

point to a curiousanomaly.Despite the atmosphereof toleranceand the sepa ratio nofreligio n and poli tics, it isin Britain that we find the

last two cases inEuropeof ,estab lished 'churches, that is churches which are, bylaw, theofficial religi o n of a cou ntry These casesare

theCh urc hofScotand (see 'othe rChrist iandenom inations' below ) and the Churc hof En gland Themonarch isthe officialheadof both,

andthe religio sle der of the latter, he Arch bisho p ofCan ter bury,

is ap ointedb the govern m en t

However ,the privilege dpositionof theChurch of England (also

kno wna the AnglicanCh urch) isno t,in mode rn times,apolitical

issue Nobodyfeels thattheyare discri mi nated agains t if they do not belongtoit In any case,the AnglicanChurch, ratherlike the BBC (see chapter 16) , has show n itsel f to be effectivelyindependent of governmentand there isgeneral approvalof thisindependence

In fact, there isa modern politics-and-religiondebate,but nowit is the othe rwayaround.That is, while it isacceptedthat politics sho uld

Aservice in a Pentecostalistchurch

stay out of religion, it is a point ofdebate asto whetherreligion

sho uldstay out of politics

The Anglican Church used to be half-jokin glydescribed as 'the

Conservativepartyat prayer' Thisreputationwas partly the result

of history (seechapter 6) andpartlythe result ofthefact tha tmost of

its clergyandregularfollowerswere from the higher ranksof society

However,duringthe I980s andearly '990S it was commonfor the

Churc to publicly condemn thewideninggapbetw een richandpoor

in Britishsociety.Its leaders,including the Arch bishop of Canterbury

himself,repeatedlyspoke outagainstthistrend, im plyingthatthe

Con servative governmentwas largely to blamefor it- desp ite

com-mentsfrom government ministersthatpolitics should beleftto the

politician s.The Archbishopalso angered some Conse rva tiveAng

-licanswhen,at the end of the Falklands/MalvinasWar in '9 8 2,he

did notgivethanks to Godfo r a Britishvictory Instead ,heprayed for

the victimsof thewar on both sides

In 1994the CatholicChurc h inBritain pub lish ed a report which

cri cized the Conserva tivegovernI11:ent Since the gene raloutlookof

Britain'sother convent ionalChristian den om inationshas always been

ant i-Conservative , it appearsthat all the country's major Christian

churchesarenow politically broadlyleftof centre

A nglican ism

AlthoughtheAnglican Churchapparentlyhasmuch the largest fol

-lowing in England,andlargeminor ities ofadheren ts inthe other

nationsof Britain,appearances canb decepti ve It hasbeen estima ted

thatlessthan 5%of thosewho,if asked,migh t describethem selves as

Ang licansregularly attendservices Many others are christe ned,

married and buriedin Anglicanceremonies butotherwisehardly

evergo to church.Regularattendancefo r many Anglic ansis tradit ion

-Anglicanism 123

The Christian churches in Britain

The o rganization o f the Anglican and Ca tholic c hurches is b roa dly

s im il ar At t he h ighest l evel is an archbis hop who pres ides ove r a

pr ovin ce There are only two of these i n the Ch urch of England Can-terbur y a nd York The senior

C atholic archbishopric is Westmtns-ter and i ts archbishop i s t he only cardinal from Britain At t he ne xt

l evel is the d iocese preside d over by

a bishop I n the A nglican C hurch

the re are other high -ranking posi

-t ions at the level of the diocese, whose hol ders can have the title dean canon or archdeacon O ther

C hristian churches do not have such

a hi erarchica l organizat ion, though the Methodists h ave a system of

ci rcu its.

At the loca l level the te rms verger.

w arden and se xton are variously used for lay members of churches (t.c not t rained clergy) who assist

i n va rious ways dur ing services or

w ith the u pkeep o f the c hurch Note also that a pr iest w ho c aters for the

s p ir itu a l needs of those in some sort

of mstituuon ( for e xample a univer

-s ity or a h ospital) i s ca lled a

ch aplain

An Anglicanserviceinprogress

I 24 13 R elig ion

W om en prie sts

On W ednesday I I Nov ember 1992 ,

at five i n t he e vening, Dr George

Ca rey, t he A rchbisho p o f Came

r-bur)' rose to a nno unce a

momentous d ecision B )' ju strw o

votes more than the requi red IW

O-thir ds major ity, the Ge ne ral Syn od

of t he A nglican Church (its go

v-erning body) had vote d toallow( he ord ination of wo me n p riests The

debate in theSynodhad la sted more

t han s ix h o urs and h ad bee n go ing

o n fo r years before that bot hinsid e

and outsidethechurc h, all ov er th e

cou mrv.

Abou t e ighteenmonths

after-wa rds t he fi rst w om en prie sts were

or dained Th o se wh o s upport thi s

develo pment believ etha t it will h elp

to g ive t he C hurcho f Englanda

g reaterreleva nceto th e m odern

wo rld a nd finall y bring it up to d ate

(U nlike the Cath oli c Church it has

a l ways all owed it s clergy to be

marricd.)So me w ho were opposed

10 the change have not acce pted the Synod's decision, and there are af ew

lo ca l c ases ofattemptsto set up a rebel c hurch Some members o f the

An glica n Church have decide d to 'go

over to Rome' - that i s, to joi n the

C atho lic Church , which does not

ha ve wome n p riests.

Women priests ' 'raiting to be o rdained

a lly as m u ch a social a s a r eli gio us act ivity, and predominan tly one for

the ma in mo tivation for th e birt h of A nglicanism wa s more patriot ic

tradition.

c hurch ' st rand a re V irtually ide ntical to those of Catholicism- except

th at it do es notacceptthe Popeas the ultimateauthority.Hig hchurch

services are more colo urful an d in clud e organ mu s i c and elabora te

But the re is a lso a li e a l w ing , wh i ch i s w illing to q ues tio n some of

t he t r aditi o nal C hrist i an b eli efs , is m o re incl in ed t o view th e Bib le as

merelya hi sto ri caldocumen t, i s m o r e t ol era nt to w ards homosexual

-i ty a nd wa s t he fir st to s uppo rt mov es to ord ain wome n p r iests

( C>W omenpriests)

Bu t to m any, per haps most, of its mem bers, it is t he 'E ng lishness'

ofthe AnglicanChurchwhichis jus t as importantasits religious

d octrine T h is i s what g ives i t m eani ng a nd h o lds i ts various s trands

low churc he rs an d libe rals wou ld fo rm t heir own sects or join exi s ting

members to other churches , it could spend l ess time on internal

d isagreeme nt and more on the mo ral and spiritual guidance of its

r em ain ing mem bers Th o se who a re agains t this move fear tha t it

Cat ho lici s m

Aftertheestablish me ntof Protestantismin Britain (see ch apter2) ,

Catholicism wasfora timeanillegalreligionandthen abarely

tolerated religion.Not until 1850wasa BritishCatholichierarchy re

-established Only in the twentie th centurydid it become full y open

about itsactiviti es.AlthoughCatholicscan nowbe found in all

ranksofsociety and in all occupatio ns,th e comparativelyrecen t

integ rationof Catholicismmeans that theyare still und er-rep resen ted

at thetop levels.Forexample, althoughCatholics comprise more

than 10%of the po pu latio n , theycomprise only around5%ofMPs

Alargeproportionof CatholicsinmodernBritain are thosewhose

fam ilyroots arein Italy,Irelandor elsewherein Europe.The Irish

connec tio n isevidentin the large proportionofpriestsin England

who comefromIrelan d (theyare sometimessaid tobe Ireland's

biggest export ')

Partly because ofits comparativelymarginalstatus, the Catholic

Church, in thein terestsof self-preservation,hasmaintained a greater

cohesiveness and uniform itythanthe Anglican Church In modern

timesitispossible to detectopposing beliefswithini (there are

conservative and radl cal/Tiberal wings), but thereis, for example,

morecen tralized control over practicesof worship Not havin g had

arecognized,official role toplay in society, theCath olicChurchin

Britaintakesd ctrineandpractice (for example, weekly attendance

atmass)a bit more seriously thanit is taken in countrieswhere

Catholicism isth e major ityreligion- andalo t mores rio usly th an

theAnglican Church in gen eraldo es

This com parativededicatio ncanbe seen in twoaspects of Catholic

life First, religious instru ctio nis taken mores rio uslyinCatholic

schools than it isin Anglicanones, andCatholicschools in Britain

usuallyhavea head whois eithera monk, afriaroranun Second,

thereisthe matterof attendance atchurch Many peoplewho hardly

everstep insidea church stillfeel en titledtodescribethemselves as

'An glican ' In con trast, Britishpeople who were broughtup as

Catholicsbutwho no longerattendmassregu larly orreceivethe

sacrame n ts do notnor m ally describeth emselves as 'Catholic'.Th ey

qualifythis labelwith'brought up as' or 'lapsed ' Despite being very

mucha minorityreligion in mostplaces inthecountry ,as many

BritishCatholicsregularlygo to ch urchas do Ang licans

Catholicis m 12 5

T he Anglican Church is the official

s tate r eligion in England o nly There

a re, h ow ever , churches i n other count ries (such as Scotland Ireland.

the USA an d Australia) which have the same origin an d are almost

i den tical to it in their genera l be liefs

an d p ractices Members of these churches sometimes describe them -selv es a s 'Ang lican' H owever, t he term officiall y used in Scotland and

t he U SA i s 'Episco palian' (",vhich means t hat they have bishops) and

t his i s t he term w hich is often used

to denote a ll of these churches, incl uding the Church of England , as

a group

E very t en yea rs the bishops of all the Episcopalian churches in the

wo rld gather together in London for

th e L am beth Conference, which is chai red by the Ar chbisho p of Ca

nter-b ur y.

Despi te the name 'Canterbury', the official residence of the head of the C hurch of England is Lambeth

P alace i n London.

1 26 13R e lig io n

K e ep in g t h s abbath

I n t he l ast two c en tur ies t he i nflu

-e nc e of t h e Ca lvinist t radition h as

b een f e ll i n l aw s relati n to S un days.

These l aw s h ave r ecent I }' been relaxed, but shop ope ning hours, gambling and professional sport on Sundays arc still all restricted in s mall

wars In some pl aces i n rural W ales.

where n oncon fo rm ism i s t ra dit ion

-a lly s t ro n g, S un days ar c s t ill 'dry';

t h at i s , th e pub s s tay clo sed ,

Ot h er c onventiona l Chr i stian c hurc he s

In many ways,Anglicanism represents a compro misebetw een

authoriyofth Pop andotherimport ant aspectsofCatholicdoctrine,

isProt estant Butits style , as shownb ishierarch icalstructureand

isforms of worship ,isratherCatholic

WhenPro testantism firsttookroot in Britain ther e were many

people whorejectedn to lyCatholicdoctrinebutalso'Ro m ish '

style.Thesepeo ple did no tjoin the newly-establishedAnglican

co nt inu atio n oforthodoxritu las obstaclestotru eworshi p.Instead,

wordsof the Bibleandon livinganausterelifeof hard workands elf-sacrifice.They disapprovedofthe pursuit of pleasur eand therefore

frowned onp blicent erta inments such asthe theatre, ondrinkin g

on gambling ando any celebra tio nofthe sexualaspectof life

Thisisthe originofth Puritan/ Calvin isttradition in Britain (see

c apt er 2).Thefirstchurchwihin thistradito n wasthe Presbyter ian Church.InSco tland, h isformof Prot estanti sm was sostro ng thati

becam e the nation'sestab lishedchurch.TheChurch of Scotland hasa separateorgan ization fromth AnglicanChurch.Ithasn bishops

Itshead, or'Mo erator', selected byitsgeneralassembly.It isth

biggestreligion inSco tland ,whereit isoftenknownsim ply as'the

kir k'(the Scotswordfor'c urch').There arealsomany Presbyterians

InEngland th seProt estantswhodidno t accept the authority of theAnglicanChurc werefirstknownas 'dissenters' and later,as

Whati s it call ed?

Angli can Cat ho lic Pr esbyteri a n

an d o ther

no nconform ist

L o cal unit Place of worsh ip

C le rgy

vic ar /r ec to r /par son ] p r i est prie sts

c ur ate "

congregation chapel kirk!

meet ing h o use !

m in is te r

p asto r

Ne w member of clergy de aco n

R esidence of cle rgy vicarage

r ectory

no vice

manse !

I Church o f Scot la nd on ly

2 Mai nl y Q uaker

s O n e of the se i s us e d w hen r eferri ng to a n i nd ividual; 'p riests' is used co llectively.

-l A ju nior me mber of ( h e cler gy

to lerance grew , as 'no nconform ists ' Thes e d ays , w hen refu sal t o

conform to theestablishedchurc h isirrelevan t,theyare simp lycalled

'mem bersof the free churc hes' Agreat many differ en t free-church

grou ps have come int o be ing over th e ce n turies In th e d etails of

t heir organiz atio n , s tyles of wo rship an d doctr inalemphasis,t he

variousnonconformistgroups differ considerably.How ever, hey

a ll s hare , in v ary i ng deg rees , certain characteris tics: they r egard s i

m-plicityandindividualprayer as more im portant than elaborateritual

and publiccerem ony ; the reis compara tivelylittledifference betw een

theirclergy (ifthey have any atall)andthe irlay members; they praise

self-denial,although to alesser exten tthan theorigin al Puritans For

example, manyare teetotal(theirmembers do notdrink alcohol)

After P resbyterians, t he l argest tr aditionalnonconform istg roup in

Britainisthe MethodistSociety.Methodis tsfollow the teachings of

John Wesley,an eighteenthcentury preacher who started his career

asa Anglicanclergyman Hehad little doctrinaldisagreem ent with

the establishedchurch How ever, he andhisfollowersconside red

that itdid not careenough abo uttheneedsof ordina ry people and

th atits h ierar chy was not se rious e noug h a bo ut th e C hristian m essage

The Salvation Army (seechapter I8) grew outofthe Wesleyan

movement.

T wo other nonco nformis t g rou ps w ith a l ong hi sto ry are the

Baptistsandthe Quakers.Theform er arecomparativelystrict bothin

their interpretation of the Bible and intheir dislike of wo rldlyple

as-ures The latter, also knownas the Society of Friends, are a very small

groupwhose notablecharacte ristics are their com pletelackofclergy

and their pacifism Theyrefu se tofightin any war, thou gh they will

do ambulanceandhosp italwork

Oth er r eligions, c hurches and r eligi ous mo vements

Since it is a mult icultural cou ntry w here t he pr essure t o co nform i s

com paratively weak, B ritain i s h om e t o fo llowers o f almo st every

religion andsect imaginable.Someofthese are offshoo ts,or local

combinations,ofthose already mentioned.Forexample, the only

Church of distinctlyWelshorigincalls itselfboth'Calvini stic

Methodist'and 'Presbyterian Ch urc hof Wales'

The numbers of ollow ers of all the tradi tion alChristianchurches

have been slow lybutsteadily decliningin the second half of the

twentieth cen tury Other Ch ristian sec ts and c hurches have b een

growi ng B ecause of t heir e ne rge ticen thusiasma nd t heir des ire to

attrac t new fo llowers, th ey ar e s o me times c haracterize d b y t he t erm

'evange lical' Most of t hem ar e s im ilar t o t raditio nal no nconformist

groupsin that they avoid rigid ritual and placegreatem phasison

sc ripture I n the case o f some g roups, t heir in terpretations of t he

Bibleare often literal:the Mormons, Jehovah 's Witnessesand Seventh

DayAdventists (allofwhichorigin ated in the USA) are examples

These groups, andothers,also provideastrictcode of behaviour for

their followers

O the r re li g io ns 127

Ecumenicalism

-ti o n, a nd e ven un ity, a mong the

Britain Cynics say that this spi rit i s

t he r esult of the f act that active p

arti-ci pat ion in a ny f o rm o f Christianity

th em , t hey find that they do indeed

T he only actual union tha t

ec um enica lismha s yet produced is

Congr egationalis ts, "\ ,vho,in 1972, becam e the Un ited Reformed Church Anglicans and Methodists

c ame ve ry close (but not quite close

T hep ossibilityof the Anglican

seems to have receded sinc e the

i ntroductio n of wome n priests.

Church of Wales?

Th ere is no W elshe quivalentof the

Ch urch o f England or the Church of

o nly a t inyfollow ing. in 1914.

W ales i s predominantly n

on-c onformist.

128 13 Re ligion

As qui e t as a church mo use

Conventional church se rvices in Brita in are typically ve ry quie t, except when hymns are be ing s ung British people atten ding ch urch services abroad have of ten b een amazed , e ven shock ed, by t he noisiness and liveliness of the con

-g regation They chatter among themse lves, they wa lk i n and out

In Britain, respect a nd reve rence have traditiona lly been expressed b y

s ilence and stillness Many peop le, howe ver, find the atmosphere at

tra-ditional servi ces rather re pressive

to explain the trendtowardse van

-gelical and charismat ic Chr is tian churches.

The fastest-gro w in g type of evang elicalChristia nit y,however, places less emphasison dogma,sin , or givin gpeo plea cod eof

b ehavio ur I nstead, t he e mpha sis i s on t h e s p i ri t ual and m ir acu lou s;

on r v elat i o n G ather i ng s often in vol ve jo yfu l s i nging T here i s a

beliefin spiritualhealing of thesick.The oldest existin gch urchof

t hi s t ype in Britain i s alled Pent eco sta l and thi s term i s s o metimes

u sed to d enot e all s uch groups P e nt ec o s tali s m ha s had a s ma ll

w orking- class f ollow in g fo r man y ye ars It s re cen t gr owth i s among

the mid dle class Many groupsbeganwithmeeting sin people'sliving

ro om s, w here fo rmality i s a t a minim um A no t her t erm so me times use dof thesegroups i s 'chari sma ti c', r eflecting b o th t h eir en t h siasm

and th e i r mpha sis o n the miraculo s,The g row th o f the se group s

might indicatethat manyBritish peoplefeela gapin th eirlive which

n ei t he r t he mater ia l be n efits ofmo dernlife n or th e co nve nt io nal

of t he C h r ist ia n t rad i t i o n The term ' New Ag e ' i s u sed t o cove r a v ery

w ide r ange of beliefswhich c an inv ol ve el e m en t s ofChristian ity,

ea stern relig io ns a nd anci en t pag an b e li efs a ll m ixed i n t o ge t h e r I nter

-e t s and be liefsofth isk ind ar e not n ew in Britain T h eo sop h y,

Dru id ism, Bu ddhi s m , C hri st ianScien tism (w hich be lieves i n th e

con trol of the bodythroughthe mind) and many other beliefshave

a ll h ad t heir fo llo w ers in t h i s co untry f or a hundred ye ars or m ore.

Unti the 1960ssuch peoplecam eexclusively from asm allset of the

up per middleclass.Sincethen, ho w ever,New Agebeliefshavefil

-te red d ow n w ar d s t o o th e sect i on s o f h e so cial sca le Des pite th eir

g re at va rie ty and lack o f e x clu sive n ess , t w o f eatures see m t o b e

com monto allNew Agebeliefs:first,anem p h asison personald

nat ura l env iro nment

l-l owers in B ritain are a ll associated wit h racial minor iti es The mo s t

we ll -es tabli s hedofthese are the J e w s A nti-Sem i t is m e xists in Brit ain ,

bu t o r a l on g t im e i t h as b een wea k er than i t i s in m o st o ther part s

ofEu ro pe Thesecurityand confidence ofIudaism inBritaincan be

seen bothin the health y proportionoflew sinParliamentand in the

fact t h at wit h i n it t he r e is, qui te openly , th e s ame s truggle b etw een

or tho dox/conservative and lib e ral /ra di cal v iew po in ts a s th ere i s i n

the Anglicanan dCatholicchurch es

Thenumbers of ollowersof theChristianOrthodo x, Sikh ,Hind u and Muslimreligionsareall growing, mainlybecau se ofhighbirth rates among familiesbelong ing to them.Thela t of theseisb far the

largest I ts co ntinue d growth i s al so f or a n ot h er r eason Rela t ive

pove rty, r acial discr im ination and o ccasio n al co nflicts wi th t he

i-cized - m o re so than any o the r r eligi o u s g rou p i n t he c o untry As a

result, you ng Muslims arelesslikelytodrift away from theirreligion