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Belonging and believing

UK denominations

Division of Church in the UK

In some countries churchgoing is predominantly in a single denomination, but in the UK there is no main denomination. While many non churchgoers may put the Church of England on a census form, amongst churchgoers the Church of England is just one of many popular denominations. From a non Christian point of view this diversity makes it difficult to understand the faith. To them this plurality represents brokenness not a richness of expression. To the churchgoer the diversity represents the ability to choose a style of churchmanship that best suits their liking.

Denominations of the UK

Source: Tearfund Churchgoing April 2007 Table 12.4 & 12.7

Downloadable chart: "Denominations of the UK"

Pattern of decline

With one or two exceptions all the major denominations in the UK are and have been in a state of decline for several decades. The similarity of these rates of decline is strikingly similar. It seems that denomination is not the key to Church decline and points to the problem lying with the UK itself.

Trends in membership by Denomination

Source: Tearfund Churchgoing April 2007 Table 12.4 & 12.7

Downloadable chart: "Trends in membership by Denomination"

Lessons from Denominations in decline

To make comparisons easier those relative trends were calculated for those denominations in decline. This make it clear that both the Methodist and Presbyterian Church (URC in England and the Church of Scotland), have the steepest rate of decline. Given these are the Churches with the most liberal theology and practice, this is what many would have expected.

With their Calvinist background you might expect the Presbyterian Church to be very reformed, Bible believing and orthodox. Yet the reverse is true with the URC adopting women's ordination from 1972 when they formed their union and their acceptance of practising homosexuals for ordination in 1997. The Christian Research data shows URC membership declining by 50% from 92,787 in 2000 to 46,200 in 2020.

Denominations in decline

Source: Tearfund Churchgoing April 2007 Table 12.4 & 12.7

Downloadable chart: "Denominations in decline"

Methodists with their history going back to the time of the revival in the UK with George Whitefield and John Wesley, havw a very evangelical history with a focus on holiness. Yet today it also has adopted a revisionist approach to the Bible. They ordained the first women ministers at the Bristol Conference in 1974 and the Pink News were delighted to report that "Methodists Church backs GAY marriage " in 2006".

Lessons from Europe and the USA

In Europe France is a Catholic nation and at 14.9% has one of the lowest attendance rates in Europe, while Poland which is also Catholic has the highest attendance at 75.5%. Again this shows that the decline in church attendance is not a matter of denomination.

Churchgoing in the EU

Source: Tearfund Churchgoing April 2007 Fig 18

Downloadable chart: "Churchgoing in the EU"

One theory here is that secularisation of the society may be the cause of the decline in churchgoing. While Poland had a Communist government for most of the post World War 2 period, its faith seems to have survived this period relatively in tact. In the same period the countries in Western Europe became secularised, and this has been accompanied by a decline in churchgoing as the secularists predicted. Significantly this is not the case in the USA where going to Church ( about 50% go once a month), belief in God (over 90%) and belief in Creation (over 70%) are still relatively high. It seems that being an evangelical in the USA, is quite different to being an evangelical in the UK.

In his book "The God who is there" Francis Schaeffer talked about the "line of despair" which he said marks the change epoch from one where men "lived with romantic notions of absolutes" and below the line "man thinks differently concerning the truth." What he describes is the arrival of post modern epistemology but he wrote his book in 1968, over 11 years before it would be given that name. He also said the timing of this shift in thinking occurred geographically, so it went through Europe in 1890 but did not reach the USA until 1930. This is largely because secularisation theory originated in Europe but also because of the separation of church and state in the USA, however it would explain the difference in the secularisation of the USA compared with the UK. Interestingly he also describes how secularisation works down over time from philosophy through art, music, general culture, then theology.

What can we learn from this?

Most Christian leaders in the UK seem blind to the effects of secularisation; at least because they rarely see it as an opposing atheistic belief. The Church leadership needs to recognise it as a spiritual threat and to develop ways of dealing with it both within the Church and the social fabric of the UK. Perhaps there are ways to learn from the Evangelicals in the USA, who seem much more effective in this regard. It may also be true that the principle of separation of Church and State has helped the Church in the USA to avoid the effects of secularisation and enables the Church to fight it more effectively.

Main UK denominations

The history of the Church is one of splits or schisms, and this has been especially true in the protestant churches. Many of the smaller denominations are so small that they are not documented here.

Anglican Church

Principally the Church of England but the Anglican Church in the UK includes The Church of Wales, The Scottish Episcopal Church and The Church of Ireland. The Church of England broke away from Rome in 1534 under the reign of King Henry VIII. The Anglican way is one that holds to the belief that it is a reformed church while maintaining the catholic doctrine of apostolic succession and the ancient creeds. The 39 Articles and the Book of Common Prayer are the documents that define reformed aspects of Anglican doctrine and practice. Historiclly it tolerated a wide variety of church practice from Anglo-Catholic to Evangelical via liberal traditions.

Local Anglican Churches are located in a parish, that is part of a diocese under the authority of a Bishop. In the Church of England there are two archbishops that have authority over the Bishops and as an established church there is a link between church and state with the Monarch being Governor General of the Church.

Baptist Church

In the UK THERE ARE three Baptist groups the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Grace Baptist and Independent Baptists. What gives Baptists their name is the belief in believers$#039; baptism by total immersion. The Baptist Church is also a free church in that it believes in the separation of church and state and independent local churches are not subject to the authority of a bishop. Other key beliefs include the Lordship of Christ, biblical authority, priesthood of all believers and congregational leadership. The modern Baptist movement was born in the 16th century and has grown to become a worldwide denomination that regard itself as protestant and evangelical.

Methodist Church

Methodism came mainly from the work of John Wesley and was a movement within the Protestant church in the 18th century. Wesley was an Anglican clergyman who did not intend to start a new church when he started the Methodist movement. He had great gifts as an itinerant preacher and in organisation. In 1932 the Wesleyan Methodist Church, the Primitive Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church came together to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain.

In the UK the Methodist Church is a free church that does not have a hierarchy based on bishops and archbishops. None the less it has a strong central organisation. Ministers are appointed to circuits rather than individual churches, and these are organised into districts administrated by a "superintendent minister". The theology within Methodism is quite broad and tends to follow the historical interpretations and liturgies of its Anglican roots. In theology it has become one of the most liberal in the country, having for example adopted GAY marriage in 2006.

Charismatic Churches

In recent years the failure of traditional churches has given rise to a number of new church initiatives. These comprise of mainly charismatic churches of varying denominations and often no denomination. By nature charismatic churches borrow from the Pentecostal tradition an emphasis of direct experience of the Holy Spirit, while looking to avoid the failures of traditional forms of church. The charismatic movement also has its followers inside most established churches.

Other Churches

What remains is an increasingly desperate group of minor protestant denominations. There is statistical evidence that the number of these tend to increase with time. Their diverse nature makes classification impossible. Because of the multicultural nature of the UK these include churches from many ethnic groups and branches of the protestant faith.

Presbyterian Church

There are several Presbyterian denominations in the UK by geographical location including the Church of Scotland, United Reformed Church(in England), Presbyterian Church of Wales, and Presbyterian Church in Ireland.. It traces it ancestry from reformers like Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and John Knox. From this you might expect a Bible believing evangelical theological position (Sola scriptura), however over the years it has adopted a radical revisionist liberal theology that denies biblical authority.

The Presbyterian church has a hierarchical structure without bishops. Each congregation has a Session of Elders who are also members of a Presbytery covering several churches. Members of the Presbytery may also be members of the General Assembly that governs a country.

The Orthodox Church

Originally the Orthodox Church included the Western Orthodox Church (what we now call the Roman Catholic Church), the Oriental Orthodox Church and the Assyrian Church. The Assyrias broke from the Church with the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD, the Oriental Orthodox following the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD, and the Roman Catholics through the Great Schism 1054 AD. While the largest church in the UK is the Greek Orthodox it also includes Russian Orthodox and Coptic Church. It is an ancient Church that preserves a tradition that traces its origins back to the original apostles. It does not accept the claim by the Roman Catholic Church that the Apostle Peter gave it and the Bishop of Rome (Pope) supremacy over the other Patriarchs.

The Pentecostal Church

The Pentecostal Church places emphasis on the direct personal experience of the Holy Spirit, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit as in the biblical account of the Day of Pentecost. Other denominations emphasise an indirect route to the Holy Spirit; for Roman Catholics their route to the Holy Spirit is principally through the Mass and for Protestants it's through the Word of God. For Pentecostal "speaking in tongues" is the sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and therefore essential to being saved. Like the Baptists their view is that they are restoring the Church to its early form.

The Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church is the historic church that can trace its history back to the early church in Rome. The Orthodox Church was divided by the emperor Constantine into the Eastern and Western Orthodox churches when he divided the Roman empire into two. The Roman Catholic(Western Orthodox) Church split from the Eastern Orthodox Churches in the Great Schism in 1054AD. Its head is the Pope(Bishop of Rome) who oversees as a worldwide church that became the largest Christian denomination in the world. It places a strong emphasis on the apostolic succession, the traditional teaching of the church, the ancient creeds, and a formal Eucharistic service called the Catholic Mass. In the UK the RC Church has serarate organisations for England and Wales, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.

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