Category: Religion

Presbyterianism is a system of church governance in which ‘presbyters’, or elders, represent the congregation in the ‘presbyteries’ which are a part of the church leadership. At the top is a ‘general assembly’, or ‘general synod’, and presbyterians maintain that this type of church structure is in the Bible, whereas papacy is not. The Church of Scotland is a presbyterian church, for example.

The Presbyterian Church, with a capital P, is a Protestant church formulated on presbyterianism, which has many beliefs in opposition to Catholicism. Some even see the Pope as the antichrist. It was established in Scotland by the activist preacher John Knox in 1560, when there was an official split from the rule of the Pope. It was taken to Ireland and the USA soon afterwards. Knox was a fervent advocate of the new Protestant religion, condoning all sorts of subversive action in the anti-Catholic cause.

Presbyterians follow the King James Version of the Bible, which they judge to be the best English translation. Most churches are plain, with few images, musical instruments or modern gadgets. In England the Presbyterian church merged into the United Reformed Church in 1972. There are around half a million members of UK presbyterian churches.

(Image: Tiger at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Gideons were formed in the USA in 1899 by a group of travelling businessmen. They wanted to spread the Christian religion and their idea was to place copies of the Bible where people can read them in a spare moment. These Bibles are free of charge to the hotels, nursing homes, schools, prisons, hospitals, campuses and military bases that agree to take them.

Thirty million Gideon Bibles have been distributed in the UK since 1949 among two billion worldwide. They are the King James version and the covers are colour-coded according to the target groups. The shortened edition, comprising the New Testament, Psalms and Proverbs, is the one given to schoolchildren.

Today, other religions are wanting to copy the Gideons’ initiative, which is funded by donations from Christian supporters. Some organisations are deciding not to accept any religious books at all. The Gideons now promote their app (called ‘The Gideon Bible’) by which subscribers can search, read and listen to Bible texts.

(Image: Sarah-Rose at Flickr.com / CC BY-ND 2.0)

The Spiritualists’ National Union, founded in 1853, is the organising body for the spiritualist churches or societies in the UK, serving up to thirty thousand followers. The movement began in the USA in the 1840s and found favour in British upper class circles, intrigued by the claims of communication with dead loved ones in the spirit world via séances. This had the unfortunate result of turning these sessions into entertainment spectacles, which gave spiritualism a bad name, especially when some mediums were found to be fraudulent.

Despite this, spiritualism continued to attract followers as it envelops all kinds of spiritual searching, including tarot readings, trance circles, spiritual healing, mindfulness and meditation. It allows for a variety of beliefs and does not have a holy book. There are, however, Seven Principles, such as the ‘Fatherhood of God’ and the ‘Brotherhood of Man’. God can be referred to as the Divine Spirit, God Force, Great Spirit or simply, Spirit.

Although there are some ‘Christian’ spiritualist churches, their fundamental belief in the spirit world and reincarnation makes this controversial. Their church services include hymns, prayers and readings, but may also include spiritual healing and spirit messages for attendees.

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The Protestant Church of Scotland (CofS) is the largest religion in Scotland and was formed in 1560, after The Reformation. It follows the Christian Bible and a 1647 document known as the ‘Westminster Confession of Faith’, although many members see this as outdated and would like to discard it. It has no bishops, but there is a hierarchy of Moderator, Principal Clerk, General Treasurer, councils, courts, committees, elders and ministers.

The Queen attends CofS services when she is in Scotland, but she is not the head of it. However, she and her representative, the Lord High Commissioner, are entitled to attend the CofS General Assembly conference each May. In the face of declining numbers in church (kirk) congregations, today there is more collaboration with the other Anglican churches in the UK than in the past. However, some kirks are being closed through lack of funds and ministers.

Nevertheless, the CofS continues its community projects which offer caring, nursing, befriending, sheltering and group-work opportunities. Its ‘Go For It Fund’ accepts grant applications from CofS-partnered community initiatives aimed at making a positive difference to people’s lives.

(Image: Bill Henderson at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Salvation Army is otherwise known as ‘the Sally Army’ in the UK, where it has around 50,000 followers. It was founded in 1865 by William and Catherine Booth in East London as a ‘mission’, before evolving into the Salvation Army in 1878. Once the name ‘Army’ was adopted, it determined the organisation’s structure. William Booth was its first General. The clergy titles are army ranks, all the way down to cadets. They wear uniforms with épaulettes and their churches are called citadel corps.

The Salvation Army has a strong evangelical purpose and is well-known for going into deprived areas and pubs in an effort to spread its message of following the teachings of Jesus Christ. Pub landlords have had Salvationists arrested for alleged interference with their right to conduct a business, since they are against the drinking of alcohol.

Originally for protection from physical attack, the brass band is another feature of the Sally Army’s ventures out to engage with the public. Their work includes running charity shops, refuges and rehabilitation centres and they have bases in over one hundred countries. One of their slogans is ‘the three Ss’..

Soup, soap and salvation.

(Image of a Salvation Army charity shop: N. Chadwick at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

Most of the first Sikhs in the UK arrived from India and East Africa in the 1950s/60s. They settled mainly in London and the Midlands. Southall’s ten Sikh temples (gurdwaras) include the largest one outside of India. There are currently around 420,000 Sikhs in the UK.

Followers of the Sikh religion believe that there is one abstract god (waheguru) and all humans are equal. Indeed, the first of their ten successive founding Gurus in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries pioneered women’s equality. The Gurus wrote the Sikh scripture ~ Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Sikhs value the family, education, work, security, charity, courage, justice and peace. This makes them admirable members of society, though they were faced with some hostility in the UK initially.

The wearing of the turban by Sikh males and some females makes them easy to spot, which is intentional. They are not permitted to cut their hair, as it is a ‘gift’ from waheguru. Hospitals have guidelines to follow for Sikh patients and Sikhs are exempted from wearing motorcycle helmets and hard hats (except where it would be life-threatening not to do so). Sikhs are also legally allowed to carry a symbolic dagger (kirpan).

(Top image of a gurdwara in Hounslow: Des Blenkinsopp at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-NC 2.0)

Until 1526, Catholicism held sway in Britain but the combination of esoteric rituals, opulence and Latin pronouncements, though wondrous, was unintelligible to most. That year, William Tyndale (c.1491-1536) published his English translation of the New Testament from the original Hebrew and Greek on the newly-invented printing presses. The Reformation in Britain had begun.

German monk Martin Luther, pioneered Protestantism in 1517, but his books were burnt in London for being heretical. He reasoned that if a particular rite was not in the Bible, it was unnecessary. This helped King Henry VIII (1491-1547) to have his first marriage annulled, as it was pointed out that nowhere in the Bible did it state that the Pope was in charge, only monarchs. The Church of England was formed and all Catholic monasteries and abbeys were confiscated.

The next King, Edward VI (1537-53), was the first heir brought up as a Protestant. However, he died young and his official successor was the Catholic Queen ‘Bloody’ Mary (1516-58), so called because of her murderous revenge on the Protestants. On her death, another turnaround occurred with the accession of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), who tried to placate both sides but was excommunicated in 1570 by the Pope, thereby deciding the matter for Protestantism.

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Some say that our first Christian visitors landed in Britain in the year 37. Certainly the religion was being practised long before the missionary St. Augustine arrived from Italy in 597. He was sent by the Pope in a time when Europe was experiencing one disaster after another, prompting him to make a big push for conversion. For Britain he selected a senior Benedictine monk called Augustine to head an Italian monastic task force.

They arrived in Kent and acquired a piece of land at Canterbury on which they built two monasteries. One became Canterbury Cathedral and the other St. Augustine’s Abbey, where Augustine was buried seven years later. They found the inhabitants worshipping many gods, including Jesus. Augustine did not speak the language but, with advice and guidance from the Pope, he started to persuade people, including the king of Kent, to concentrate solely on the one Christian god.

After his death, worship of the other gods resurfaced, until the Norman Conquest of 1066. Nevertheless, St. Augustine is remembered not only as the first Archbishop of Canterbury but as the first missionary to stamp a Christian identity onto Britain.

(Image of ruins of St. Augustine’s Abbey: Arjen Bax at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)

The Quakers (or the ‘Religious Society of Friends’) were one of the breakaway religious groups which formed during the 11-year British republic in the mid-17th century. These groups had esoteric names such as the Ranters, the Diggers and the Seekers, but it was the simple, peace-loving, self-empowering ethos of the Quakers that caught on. By 1700 there were 60,000 members, or ‘Friends’.

The idea of their founder, George Fox (1624-91) from Leicestershire, was that people should live each day aware of their own “inner light” of God and not have to rely on priests, church buildings, doctrines or rituals to tell them how to travel on their spiritual path. Although they began as an offshoot of Christianity, the Bible is not the only book from which they take inspiration.

The Quakers have been at the inception of many of our social justice reforms. They profess a non-violent and non-resistant stance and see everyone as equal. Indeed, they were probably the first religious group in the UK to give equal rights to women. Their ‘meetings’ are not led or scripted and can be totally given over to silent meditation. There are estimated to be 15,000 Quakers in the UK today.

(Image: Evelyn Simak at geograph.org.uk / CC BY-SA 2.0)