Less than half of population of England and Wales is Christian, census shows

 

Less than half of the population of England and Wales described themselves as “Christian” in the 2021 census, according to the results published today.

Of the 56 million people who responded to the question “What is your religion?” 27.5 million said “Christian”, 46.2 per cent.  

This was a 13.1 percentage point decrease from the 59.3 per cent in the 2011 survey and the first time that less than half the recorded population have described themselves as Christians.

The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, said that the figures were “not a great surprise” but added that this development “still throws down a challenge to us not only to trust that God will build his kingdom on Earth but also play our part in making Christ known”.

He said: “We have left behind the era when many people almost automatically identified as Christian but other surveys show how the same people still seek spiritual truth and wisdom and a set of values to live by,” he said.

The proportion of census respondents who said they had “no religion” had increased by 12 percentage points since 2011 to 37.2 per cent, 22.2 million people.  In Wales, the proportion was 46.5 per cent, more than the 43.6 per cent who said they were Christian.

Research published last week by the think tank Theos found that those who say they have “no religion” – around 50 per cent in recent British Social Attitudes surveys, and colloquially known as “nones” – varied significantly in their views of religion.

A report The Nones: Who are they and what do they believe? used data collected from 5000 people to categorise this group into three decreasing degrees of hostility towards religion: “Campaigning Nones”, “Tolerant Nones” and “Spiritual Nones”.

The last group, the report said, “are characterised by a range of spiritual beliefs and practices, as much as many people who tick the ‘religion’ box”.

It found that 51 per cent of those who said they had no religion also stated that they “don’t believe in God” and 42 per cent believe in some form of the supernatural.

Humanists UK, which last year ran a campaign encouraging census respondents to describe themselves as of “no religion”, issued a statement criticising the wording of the census question: “What is your religion?”

Ecumenical Advent Service to be livestreamed between Bethlehem and Glasgow

An Ecumenical Advent Service will be livestreamed between Bethlehem and Glasgow on Saturday, 3rd December at 2pm GMT.

Organised by Friends of the Holy Land, the combined service will be led by local Church Leaders. 

In Glasgow: Revd Dr Iain Greenshields, General Moderator of the Church of Scotland, The Most Revd William Nolan, Catholic Archbishop of Glasgow, the Rt Revd Kevin Pearson, Bishop of the Scottish Episcopal Church in Glasgow Cathedral and Galloway Revd Hillary McDougall, Moderator of the Glasgow Presbytery. 

In the Church of St Catherine in Bethlehem: Bishop William Shomali, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, Archbishop Hosam Naoum, the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem, Metropolitan Benedictos of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem in Bethlehem and Revd Dr Munther Isaac of the Lutheran Church in Bethlehem.

Brendan Metcalfe, Executive Director of Friends of the Holy Land, said: "In this year of challenging and dangerous times, we remember and are renewed by the Hope that was born in Bethlehem more than 2,000 years ago."

Those unable to make it to Glasgow Cathedral to take part in this service can watch the livestream on the Cathedral's website here - www.glasgowcathedral.org/a-live-broadcast-from-glasgow-cathedral

Ireland: Church leaders meet President Higgins

 

Leaders of the Methodist and Presbyterian Churches in Ireland, Roman Catholic Church, Church of Ireland, and Irish Council of Churches met the President of Ireland, Michael D Higgins on Monday at Áras an Uachtaráin in Dublin.

In a statement issued by the Church Leaders following the meeting, they said: "We were delighted to accept the President's invitation and very much welcomed the opportunity to spend time with him in what has been a focussed, but relaxed and informal conversation across a wide range of issues. The context for today's meeting was our shared commitment to reconciliation and peacebuilding on the island of Ireland. While recognising the obvious challenges, we acknowledged that the important and vital work of peace is still an unfinished work, but one we are all committed to actively pursuing for the common good of all the people of Ireland.

"We were also keen to discuss together the difficult economic situation and its impact across the island. At the same time we spoke of its wider international implications, especially for the Global South when coupled with the devastating effects of climate change and famine, including in the Horn of Africa, which is particularly close to the President's heart.

"At the start of this Advent Season, when as disciples of Jesus Christ we look forward to celebrating the arrival of the Prince of Peace, it was positive and worthwhile to meet with the President and his wife Sabina today."

Attending the meeting were Rt Rev Andrew Forster, President of the Irish Council of Churches, Rt Rev Dr John Kirkpatrick, Moderator of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, Most Rev John McDowell, Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, Most Rev Eamon Martin Roman, Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, and Rev David Nixon, President of the Methodist Church in Ireland. Also in attendance were the Co-Secretaries of the Church Leaders' Group (Ireland) Rev Trevor Gribben, Clerk of the General Assembly and General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and Rev Dr Heather Morris, General Secretary of the Methodist in Ireland.

The Church Leaders Group (Ireland) comprises the Roman Catholic and Church of Ireland Primates of all Ireland, the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, the President of the Methodist Church in Ireland and the President of the Irish Council of Churches. 

All of these represent all-Ireland denominations with churches across the whole of the island of Ireland. 

The Group came into existence in the late 1960s when the Church Leaders recognised the value in working together in light of the urgency of political developments of the time. 

Since then, those holding these offices have met frequently, united in their identity as disciples of Jesus and their shared commitment to work together for the common good.

Russian reaction to new interview illustrates logic for papal ‘silence’

In a new interview with the Jesuit-sponsored America magazine, Pope Francis defended himself against charges that’s been excessively silent on both Russia and China – Russia in the context of the war in Ukraine, and China vis-à-vis its record on human rights and especially religious freedom.

From time to time, critics have suggested that just as Pope Pius XII is sometimes reviled today for his alleged “silence” during the Holocaust, so Pope Francis may one day face a negative historical judgment for his discretion on both Moscow and Beijing.

As if right on cue, events yesterday proceeded to illustrate why Francis, or any pope, has to think carefully before issuing the sort of specific condemnations to which the pontiff referred.

In that same America interview, Francis briefly touched on the human cost of the conflict in Ukraine, saying he’s received “much information about the cruelty of the troops.” He included an observation about the source of the greatest abuses.

“As a rule, the most cruel, perhaps, are those who are from Russia, but do not adhere to the Russian tradition, such as Chechens, Buryats and so on,” the pope said, referring to two ethnic minorities who often supply front-line troops in Russia’s conflicts.

Chechens, from the south-west of Russia, are mostly Muslim. Buryats, meanwhile, are a Mongol ethnic group indigenous to eastern Siberia who traditionally follow Buddhist and shamanic beliefs.

Quite possibly, Francis intended the comment as an indirect overture to Moscow, a way of saying that the Russians themselves may not be quite as bloodthirsty as depicted. Based on the reactions from Moscow, that’s not quite how the pope’s words played out.

Yesterday a spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, lashed out in response to the papal interview.

“This is no longer Russophobia, it’s a perversion of the truth on a level I can’t even name,” Zakharova told the Russian news agency TASS.

Afterwards, Zakharova dispatched a Tweet effectively accusing the pope of trying to divide the Russian forces: “We are one family with Buryats, Chechens and other representatives of our multinational and multi-confessional country,” she wrote.

Alexey Tsydenov, governor of the Republic of Buryatia, was equally astringent in his reaction.

“To hear the head of the Catholic Church talk about the cruelty of specific nationalities, meaning the Buryats and the Chechens, is strange to say the least,” Tsydenov said. “Our soldiers do their duty with honor,” adding that given the checkered history of the Crusades, perhaps Catholic leaders shouldn’t be giving lessons to others about the morality of armed conflict.

Even the head of the Buddhist tradition followed by most Buryats, Damba Ayusheev, joined the chorus of criticism, calling the pope’s rhetoric “unexpected and unkind.”

“I think the European Latins don’t understand that living in the cold Siberia and the Far East makes people more persistent, patient and resilient to various hardships,” Ayusheev said. “So our people are not cruel, they simply have to once again protect their Homeland from Nazism, just like our grandfathers and their fathers did.”

It might be tempting to dismiss this tit-for-tat as a verbal tempest in a teapot, expect for another inconvenient fact.

Also yesterday, the pontifical organization Aid to the Church in Need reported the arrest of two Catholic priests in the Russian-occupied port city of Berdiansk in southeastern Ukraine. 

The priests, Fathers Ivan Levitskyi and Bohdan Heleta, had been providing pastoral care to both Greek Catholic and Latin rite believers, and are among the few clergy who stayed behind after the Russian occupation.

According to the Aid to the Church in Need report, the two priests stand accused of preparing a terrorist attack and are being held in a pre-trial detention center. If convicted, the crime with which the priests are charged theoretically could lead to the death penalty. The local prelate, Bishop Stepan Meniok, has called the arrests “groundless and unlawful.”

It’s not clear whether the arrests were a response to the new papal interview or if they preceded it, although one Italian newspaper has already suggested that it’s a form of “blackmail to force Francis into silence.”

In any event, it’s unlikely that the contretemps will help the priests’ situation. It likely will also set back efforts by the Vatican to position itself as a potential mediator in the conflict with Ukraine.

In retrospect, it’s entirely possible that Pope Francis and his advisers today are wishing they could roll back even the limited openness the pontiff demonstrated in his America interview.

If you ever wonder, in other words, why popes aren’t more outspoken in such conflict situations, just remember that popes are well aware that they don’t have to live personally with the aftermath of such declarations – that, alas, is the fate of figures such as Levitskyi and Heleta, and no pope is eager to put more of his own people into harm’s way.

China vows more ‘friendly consensus’ amid Vatican complaints

Beijing and the Vatican are once again tangling over the prickly issue of appointing Chinese bishops.

After complaints from the Vatican that Beijing was violating a 2018 interim accord, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian on Monday said the country is willing to expand the “friendly consensus” achieved with the Vatican over bishops’ nominations.

The Vatican issued an unusually harsh statement Saturday complaining that Beijing on Nov. 24 had installed Bishop John Peng Weizhao as an auxiliary bishop in the province of Jiangxi, which the Vatican doesn’t recognize as a diocese.

China and the Vatican haven’t had diplomatic relations since 1951, following the Communists’ rise to power and the expulsion of foreign priests. The Vatican has sought in recent years to open contacts and reduce frictions, particularly over the appointment of bishops.

At a daily briefing Monday, Zhao said he was unaware of the specific situation involving Peng, but said that relations between China and the Vatican had improved over recent years for the benefit and “harmonious development” of Chinese Catholicism.

“China is willing to continuously expand the friendly consensus with the Vatican side and jointly maintain the spirit of our interim agreement,” he told reporters.

In its statement, the Vatican said Peng’s installation ceremony took place after “long and heavy pressure from the local authorities.”

“In fact, this event did not take place in accordance with the spirit of dialogue,” or what is called for by the 2018 accord, the Vatican statement said.

Since the break in ties, Catholics in China since have been divided between those who belong to an official, state-sanctioned church and an underground church loyal to the pontiff. Estimates of the total number of Chinese Catholics run between 6 million and 12 million worshiping in both the recognized Patriotic Catholic Association and the underground church.

The Vatican efforts toward reconciliation led to its willingness to sign what it admits is a far-from-ideal accord in 2018, which regularized the status of several bishops and paved the way for future nominations. Full details of the agreement never have been made public but Pope Francis has claimed he has final say in the process.

The agreement was seen as a step toward warmer ties that would help fill dozens of empty seats, but it was hotly criticized by many, including by Hong Kong’s influential bishop emeritus Cardinal Joseph Zen.

AsiaNews, which follows the Catholic Church closely in China, said Francis had ordained Peng clandestinely as bishop of Yujiang in 2014, four years before the 2018 accord, explaining the Holy See’s lament that he had been named by Beijing to another diocese that it doesn’t recognize.

It was the first time the Vatican had explicitly accused Beijing of violating the 2018 accord and came just a month after the agreement was renewed for another two years.

The Holy See said it hoped that “similar episodes will not be repeated.”

Under nationalist leader Xi Jinping, the officially atheist Communist Party has pressured all religions to “sinosize,” meaning they must closely adhere to its rulings on all matters and reject foreign involvement.

Strict anti-COVID-19 social distancing and quarantine rules have also seen religious services disrupted for the better part of four years since the virus was first detected in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

US bishops call for vigilance on anti-Semitism in all of its forms

 

With the rise of anti-Semitism in the last year, the U.S. Bishops Conference Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs is urging Catholics to decry and remain vigilant against anti-Semitism in all of its forms.

“Outraged by the deeply hurtful proliferations of antisemitic rhetoric, both online and in-person, and the violent attacks on Jewish individuals, homes, and institutions, we wish to convey our sincere support to the Jewish people,” the committee members said in a Nov. 28 statement. “As Pope Francis has stated, ‘A true Christian cannot be an antisemite.’”

The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks anti-Semitic behavior in the U.S., found a record 2,717 incidents in 2021. The organization’s website lists 1,490 such incidents so far this year. The latest incidents were a banner with racist and anti-Semitic language was displayed on the Walnut Creek overpass in California on Nov. 21, and a day before a group of Black Hebrew Israelite protesters distributed anti-Semitic propaganda near the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.

On Nov. 19, two men were arrested in New York City after one of them made online threats to attack a New York City synagogue. Police recovered an illegal semi-automatic firearm with an extended 30-round magazine, and several other items from the scene, authorities said. Earlier in November, New Jersey synagogues were on high-alert after widespread threats were made against them, the source of which was eventually questioned by the FBI.

“In unequivocal terms, we condemn any and all violence directed at the Jewish people, whether motivated by religious, racial, or political grievances,” the USCCB statement said. “We furthermore denounce any rhetoric which seeks to demonize or dehumanize the Jewish people or Judaism as a religious tradition.”

The statement was signed by Bishop David Talley of Memphis, who leads the USCCB Committee on Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, and the eight other bishop members. It also affirms that Jewish people cannot be held responsible for the death of Christ or be “depicted as rejected or accursed in theological discourse,” noting that Jesus, Mary, and his apostles were all Jewish.

More than a condemnation of the rise of anti-Semitism, the statement is a recommitment by the USCCB to a relationship with the Jewish community with the 60th anniversary of Pope Paul VI’s Vatican Council declaration about other world religions, Nostra Aetate (“In our time”) a few years away, “marking a milestone in the relationship” between the two religions.

The statement highlights the partnerships built over the last six decades between U.S. Catholic leaders and Jewish leaders, where members of the two faiths have “learned to encounter each other in a spirit of good will and a sincere desire to encourage our respective faithful to live together in a society increasingly diverse in its racial, ethnic, religious, and political makeup.”

“As partners and neighbors, we seek to foster bonds of friendship between members of the Body of Christ and the Jewish people,” the statement reads. “With this in mind, and in light of the upcoming 60th anniversary of Nostra Aetate, we recommit ourselves to broadening the implementation of the teaching found within that prophetic document.”

It also touches on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, stating that the conference remains firm in its “dedication to a just political solution – a secure and recognized Israel living in peace alongside a viable and independent Palestine.”

As war drags on, Ukraine bishops declare a ‘Year of Mercy’

 

Ukraine’s Roman and Greek Catholic bishops have declared the next 12 months a “Year of Mercy” dedicated to showing solidarity with the poor and needy, specifically those most impacted by the ongoing war with Russia.

Ukraine’s Roman Catholic bishops held their annual plenary assembly Nov. 25, which was preceded by a retreat and a joint meeting attended by both the Roman and Greek Catholic bishops.

In a final communique, the bishops announced that they have declared the 12-month period from Nov. 27, 2022, until the Feast of Christ the King on Nov. 26, 2023, as a “Year of Mercy.”

This time, the bishops said, ought “to make people sensitive to the needs of their neighbors, who are already experiencing difficulty during wintertime, and who will also increasingly feel the consequences and burden of war.”

The Russia-Ukraine war is now in its ninth month following Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion. There have been thousands of casualties and millions have been displaced by the ongoing violence, both internally and those who have fled abroad and are living as refugees.

Russian troops have been accused of war crimes in occupied cities and in recent weeks, Russia missile attacks have targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing major outages and power shortages that have left millions without heat or electricity with cold winter temperatures continuing to drop.

In their statement, Ukraine’s Roman Catholic bishops said they held a meeting with the Vatican’s envoy to Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, in which the humanitarian situation was discussed, as well as the Holy See’s intervention in the release of prisoners.

An update was also provided on child safeguarding efforts in Ukraine, as well as the status of local initiatives unfolding as part of the pope’s Synod of Bishops on Synodality, which is now in its second, continental stage.

Representatives from various aid groups, including Aid to the Church in Need and Caritas Spes, also attended to evaluate and discuss humanitarian needs on the ground, and highlight priority areas.

Father Vyacheslav Hrynevych, executive director of Caritas Spes, which is the Roman Catholic branch of the Caritas charity in Ukraine, gave the bishops an update on their work and activities since the outbreak of the war, and the support they have received from the international community.

A range of other issues were discussed, including the challenge of living consecrated life during times of war, as many parishes and convents have become humanitarian centers and refuges for civilians fleeing violence.

The Year of Mercy was called as two Greek Catholic priests were detained by Russian forces in Berdyansk in the Donetsk Exarchate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church for allegedly housing explosives with the intention to commit “guerilla” activities against the Russian army.

In a statement, the Donetsk Exarchate said the allegations were both “false” and “slanderous,” as the priests had never ventured beyond the pastoral scope of their ministry, and amounted to a strategy typical of Soviet-era propaganda to discredit clergy.

The use of these strategies, the exarchate said, is indicative of a “complete disregard for the fundamental principles of human rights.”

Calling the evidence allegedly found against the clergy fabricated, they said the priests were spiritual guides who were focused on ministering to their people, and who “had no intention” of using weapons or doing any harm.

Their detention, the exarchate said, is indicative of the Russians’ intention “to use further terror against the imprisoned fathers,” who “Only because of their loyalty to God and the Church” are being falsely incriminated.

They demanded the “speedy release from custody and imprisonment” of the priests, as well as their “unhindered” return to ministry, and asked faithful to join them in praying for the clergy’s release.