# data[].attributes.headline
Is secularism becoming more militant in this country

# data[].attributes.subject
Is secularism becoming more militant in this country

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The British Humanist Association tells Channel 4 News Baroness Warsi's description of secularists is "an astonishing smear" - but Christians say they are victims of a growing intolerance.

Baroness Warsi's comments about a growing intolerance towards religion have been met with anger among humanist and secular groups.

In much publicised comments Baroness Warsi warned, ahead of a visit to the Pope in Rome, that religion is being "sidelined, marginalised and downgraded in the public sphere".

Her claims come shortly after the government mounted a heated defence of Christianity sparked by the ruling against prayer sessions in council meetings. Communities Secretary Eric Pickles said it was time to defend "British traditional Christian culture".

But is Britain really a Christian country? The last figures available on what religion people consider themselves to be are from the British census of 2001. When asked, what religion are you, 72 per cent (42 million) described themselves as Christian, 15.5 per cent as no religion (9.1 million) and 2.7 per cent as Mulsim (1.6 million).
Real Christian beliefs?
One group, campaigning for less influence of religion on public life, is arguing that religious belief is not as widespread as these figures might suggest.

In a survey conducted for the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, Ipsos Mori questioned just over a thousand people - all of whom said they would be listed as Christians in the latest census.

The foundation claims that identifying as a Christian did not correspond to a real belief in Christianity. Only a third cited religious beliefs as the reason they ticked the "Christian" box in the census.

The research also suggests that even people who identify as Christian are opposed to the influence of religion in public life. Three quarters agree that religion should not have special influence on public policy and nearly half oppose the idea of the UK having a state religion.
'There is a lot of nominal Christianity in Britain'
Nick Spencer is research director at Theos, a Christian public policy think tank. He thinks that people's religious beliefs should not be so easily dismissed. He told Channel 4 News: "There is a lot of nominal Christianity in Britain. Their beliefs will be a bit flakey, but I have spent time interviewing people who were non-practising religion, half of whom were nominal and half had not ticked - there was a real difference between them. It is still significant."

A small minority are using human rights legislation to sweep religion into corners. Nick Spencer, Research Director, Theos

He argues that there is a move towards forcing people to leave their religious beliefs at the door of public life, which is undemocratic.

"She (Baroness Warsi) is on to something with regards to the vocal presence of a small number of exclusive secularists. A small minority of people are trying to use human rights legislation in order to sweep religion, particularly Christianity, into corners.

"A free and democratic society is marked by the fact that people feel able to engage in public life for their own reasons."

'Disproportionate role'

Both the last Labour government and the present coalition have pushed for more involvement of religious groups in state business. There has been an increase in the number of faith schools, and David Cameron has made clear his desire to see more faith groups delivering services.

Warsi's talk about illiberal sectarianism is a cover for driving through pro-religious policies. Andrew Copson, British Humanist Association

Secular thinkers say that this is a worrying trend. Andrew Copson is chief executive of the British Humanist Association. He told Channel 4 News that far from religion being swept into corners, it has a disproportionate role in public life: "There are fewer and fewer religious people but ironically the government is driving in the other direction.

"Warsi's talk about illiberal sectarianism is a cover for driving through pro-religious policies. People like the Archbishop of York love to weave this false narrative of persecution of Christianity as a way of hiding their own privileges and power.

"Surveys show again and again that the public are against state funded faith schools. The contracting out of public services is an even bigger issue. Religious groups can discriminate in employment, so if you are working in a care home and it is contracted out to a religious group you can find your prospects limited."

Nick Spencer draws a distinction between ways that secular influence can work: "There are two different kinds of secularism - one is inclusive, it says come onto the playing field, we will make sure it's level and there is an exclusive secularism that says you can only come if you play in our strip."

But for Andrew Copson, it is Baroness Warsi who is not being inclusive. Referring to her comment about 'militant secularisation' he said. "It is an astonishing smear and a totally inappropriate one for a minister who is supposed to be inclusive."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Is 'militant secularisation' a threat to Britain?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The British Humanist Association tells Channel 4 News Baroness Warsi's description of secularists is "an astonishing smear" - but Christians say they are victims of a growing intolerance. Baroness Warsi's comments about a growing intolerance towards religion have been met with anger among humanist and secular groups.

# data[].attributes.headline
What should happen at the next coronation?

# data[].attributes.subject
What should happen at the next coronation?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The most potent symbols of the British establishment, including the coronation of the next monarch and the House of Lords, need to adapt to reflect modern Britain, which is increasingly less religious, less Christian and more diverse, a major new report says.

The commission on religion and belief in British public life calls for the next coronation ceremony to reflect a pluralist society, and for the number of Church of England bishops in the House of Lords to be reduced.

Chaired by former high court judge Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, the commission's report demands a major overhaul of key areas - including education, the law and the media - to reflect the realities of 21st century Britain.

"Britain's landscape in terms of religion and belief has been transformed beyond recognition," says the report, Living With Difference. It points to three "striking" trends:

* The rapidly increasing number of people with non-religious belief and identities, now almost half the population.

* The decline in Christianity, now a minority of the population - and among those, a huge shift away from mainstream denominations to evangelical and Pentecostal churches.

* Increased diversity in faith and rapid demographic growth of Muslim, Sikh and Hindu populations in the UK.

The commission - whose patrons include Rowan Williams, the former archbishop of Canterbury, and whose members were drawn from all major religions in the UK as well as academia and the British Humanist Association - spent two years consulting the public. The result was a "new settlement for religion and belief in the UK", said Butler-Sloss.

Acknowledging that society "needs customs, symbols and ceremonies which give public expression to how it sees itself", it says that those responsible for such events, including the coronation, should "ensure that the pluralist character of modern society is reflected".

The last coronation, of Elizabeth II in 1953, was an explicitly Christian ceremony in Westminster Abbey, with the monarch swearing to uphold Protestantism and protect the Church of England and its bishops and clergy. Tellingly, the queen has reigned over a significant decline in adherence to, and influence of, the established church.

Symbols and institutions of the nation, such as the House of Lords, must reflect the diversity of worldviews, it says. At the moment, 26 seats in the upper chamber of parliament are reserved for Church of England bishops, known as the "Lords Spiritual". Their number should be reduced to allow representation of other faiths, the commission says.

Britain and Iran are the only countries in the world which reserve places in their legislatures for unelected religious clerics. The report cites a 2012 poll which found that almost six in 10 Britons believed bishops should not sit and vote in the Lords, and two-thirds thought bishops were out of touch with public opinion.

The commission recommends that the BBC charter, to be renewed next year, continues to require the broadcaster to cover religion, taking into account the UK's changing religious landscape. It calls for Radio 4's Thought for the Day slot, currently restricted to members of faith communities, to be "extended to include contributions from those who will speak from a non-religious perspective, including humanists".

It laments a serious shortcoming in "religious and belief literacy" among media professionals. "Even if allowances are made for the pressures on journalists and for the difficulty of reporting on a far from straightforward topic, and even if it is recognised that much reporting is balanced and accurate, there is widespread public dissatisfaction with how the media handle religion and belief matters." It recommends better training for journalists.

Many respondents to the commission specifically referred to misleading representations of Islam in the media. The report cites research which found that references to extreme forms of Islam or Muslims were 21 times more common than references to moderate Islam or Muslims.

Saying the the relationship between the media and religious institutions was one of "mutual suspicion, indeed at times antagonism", the commission suggests that a panel of experts in religion and belief should advise the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) on complaints in this area.

It calls for far-reaching changes to the place of religion in schools, as revealed by the Observer, including the abolition of the legal requirement to hold daily Christian worship in state schools, curtailing selection on the basis of religion in faith schools, and a radical overhaul of the teaching of religion and belief.

Anti-terror legislation should be reframed to promote rather than limit freedom of enquiry, speech and expression. The government "should engage with a wide range of affected groups, including those with which it disagrees ... and should lead public opinion by challenging negative stereotyping and by speaking out in support of groups that may otherwise feel vulnerable and excluded."

The Ministry of Justice should study the workings of religious tribunals and courts, such as Muslim sharia and Jewish Beth Din courts, to disseminate best practice and promote gender equality.

In launching the report, Butler-Sloss said: "From recent events in France to the schools so many of our children attend, and even the adverts screened in cinemas, for good and ill, religion and belief impacts on all our daily lives. The proposals in this report amount to a 'new settlement for religion and belief in the UK', intended to provide space and a role for all within society, regardless of their beliefs or absence of them."

According to Ed Kessler of the Woolf Institute, which established the commission, British society had "changed beyond all recognition in two generations ... Public policy needs, as a matter of urgency, to be overhauled to be much more pluralistic and much more welcoming of difference."

Andrew Copson of the British Humanist Association said the report's recommendation began "to deal with a transformed social reality in Britain and [acknowledge] that public policy has got to change to accommodate that reality ... Vital to the future of Britain as a cohesive society will be the ability of people of all religions and non-religious beliefs and identities to act together for the common good."

The National Secular Society said the commission's report failed to give due weight to the "religious indifference" that permeated British society. "What we have at the moment is a secularised country, but one still dominated by a disproportionate level of religious influence. This report would see that interference strengthened at all levels of society," said executive director Keith Porteous Wood.

He added: "Disestablishing the Church of England should be a minimum ambition for a modern Britain in the 21st century."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Coronation of next monarch should reflect 'less Christian' Britain, report says

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The most potent symbols of the British establishment, including the coronation of the next monarch and the House of Lords, need to adapt to reflect modern Britain, which is increasingly less religious, less Christian and more diverse, a major new report says.

# data[].attributes.body
Brief article about the decline in marriages that have religious content.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Oxford University demographer John Haskey has charted the history of marriage since early Victorian times by analysing datasets looking at the manner of solemnisation and denomination in England and Wales. He finds that the rapid rise in marriages in Approved Premises over the past 20 years is one of the fastest changes observed over the last 170 years. Until the Act came into effect, most first marriages for both partners were religious ceremonies. In 2012, however, 70% of all weddings were civil marriages, with 85% of those in Approved Premises, and religious marriages lagged behind at 30% - the smallest proportion recorded since national marriage registration began in 1837. In 2012, 85% of civil marriages were in Approved Premises, such as hotels, castles, stately homes or sports and leisure centres.

The Marriage Act 1994 opened up a wide variety of premises permitted by local authorities for civil marriages. 'Approved Premises', included hotels, castles, stately homes or sports and leisure centres. The changes in the Act meant couples were no longer restricted to holding their civil marriage ceremony at a Register Office and also could marry outside their district of residence. Haskey says these two extensions of civil marriage are arguably the most important development in civil marriage since it was first introduced in 1837.

In 1995/96 (covering the first 21 months of the Marriage Act), only 3% of first marriages for both partners were solemnised in Approved Premises, with 60% of first timers opting for religious ceremonies and 36% having Register Office marriages. However, by 2011, 53% of first marriages were in Approved Premises, 37% chose a church wedding and 10% were married in a Register Office.

The research shows that in the past, the previous marital status of the spouses played a major role in where marriages were, or could be, solemnised, and to some extent still does. Until 1996, the trend in the proportion of religious marriages follows almost exactly that of first marriages; and civil marriages those of remarriages involving a divorced partner.

John Haskey, senior researcher at the Department of Social Policy and Intervention, commented: 'The growth in marriages in Approved Premises has largely been at the expense of religious marriages - and also, to some extent, of Register Office marriages. Although the change in the law allowing couples to marry in Approved Premises quickened the fall in traditional church weddings, the decline had already started in the 1970s - the start of a period of enormous social upheaval. Since then there have been large changes in sexual and partnership behaviour, with rates of divorce, cohabitation, pre-marital cohabitation and births outside marriage all rising considerably. Together with growing secularisation, these factors probably reinforced the trend towards civil marriage.'

Haskey points out that the vast majority of Muslims and Sikhs who marry under English law have a civil marriage, which can be followed by a religious ceremony in their mosque or temple. National data on religious ceremonies conducted after the legal marriage has been solemnised are not collected. At marriage registration, only the faith and denomination in which a marriage is solemnised are recorded, not the religion or denomination of the spouses.

The trends in marriage in the different denominations are also reviewed in Haskey's study. The proportion of remarriages after divorce is particularly high amongst marriages in the Methodist and United Reformed Churches (as well as in civil marriages), and comparatively low in marriages in the Church of England and Church in Wales.

The research shows that after 1972, the total number of marriages fell, almost entirely due to the decline in religious marriages. From 1976 until 1987 the annual numbers of religious and civil marriages were roughly equal. Since 1987, the number of civil marriages has remained constant, but religious marriages have continued to decline, more than halving between 1987 and 2012.

The proportion of civil marriages rose quickly during the 1960s, and also in the early 1970s, when it was partly fuelled by reforms to the divorce law which allowed divorce on the new basis of separation. During the 1970s, the proportion of all marriages involving a partner who was previously divorced more than doubled from 14% to 31%.

Mr Haskeyis one of a group of leading scholars who have contributed to a new book entitled Marriage Rites and Rights, to be published by Hart Publishing in August 2015.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Just one in three weddings in England and Wales has a religious ceremony

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Oxford University demographer John Haskey has charted the history of marriage since early Victorian times by analysing datasets looking at the manner of solemnisation and denomination in England and Wales. He finds that the rapid rise in marriages in Approved Premises over the past 20 years is one of the fastest changes observed over the last 170 years.

# data[].attributes.headline
The Role of the Church of England in key moments of life.

# data[].attributes.subject
The Role of the Church of England in key moments of life.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals | The Church of England

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Baptisms, Weddings and Funerals at The Church of England. We accompany you through baptism and confirmation, wedding and funerals.

# data[].attributes.body
BBC article outlining the history and current setup of the denomination/

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
History and role

The Church of England is the established or state church in England. It is divided into two provinces - Canterbury in the South of England and York in the North. Each province has a head or Primate - the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.

The Church of England is part of the Anglican Communion, which is a worldwide family of churches in more than 160 different countries. On any one Sunday more than a million people attend Church of England services, making it the largest Christian denomination in the country.

The Established Church

The Church of England is the established church, meaning, amongst other things:

the Monarch is the the Supreme Governor of the church (theologically Jesus is the head),

the Church performs a number of official functions,

Church and State are linked

History

The Church of England traces its roots back to the early church, but its specifically Anglican identity and its links to the State date back to the Reformation.

Henry VIII started the process of creating the Church of England after his split with the Pope in the 1530s. Henry was anxious to ensure a male heir after his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, had borne him only a daughter. He wanted his marriage annulled in order to remarry. In 1534 after several attempts to persuade the Pope to grant an annulment, Henry passed the Act of Succession and then the Act of Supremacy. These recognised that the King was "the only supreme head of the Church of England called Anglicana Ecclesia". Henry adopted the title given to him by the Pope in 1521, that of Defender of the Faith.

In order to see this content you need to have both Javascript enabled and Flash installed. Visit BBC Webwise for full instructions

Role of the Monarch

Today the Monarch retains the title Defender of the Faith and is still the Supreme Governor of the Church. He or she has to:

approve the appointment of archbishops, bishops and deans (on the recommendation of the Prime Minister)

formally open each new session (every five years) of the General Synod (the church's governing body)

promise to maintain the Church in his or her coronation oath.

Legislative role

The Church of England also has a law-making role in Britain. Twenty-six bishops (including the two Archbishops) sit in the House of Lords and are known as the Lords Spiritual. They are thought to bring a religious ethos to the secular process of law.

However, in an increasingly multi-cultural society, questions are being asked as to whether that role needs to be specifically fulfilled by Church of England Bishops. Future reform of the House of Lords could see the Lords Spiritual made up of a variety of Christian denominations and other faiths to reflect the religious make-up of Britain.

Civic duties

The Church of England, as the established church, fulfils a civic responsibility too. Its bishops and priests are responsible for performing state weddings and funerals, acts of remembrances, memorial services as well as grand occasions like the coronation. After events like the Gulf War or major disasters, the country 'comes together' to mourn under the spiritual guidance of the Church of England.

In recent years, such occasions have become more ecumenical and multi-faith as the Church of England acknowledges Britain's changing religious landscape.

Hierarchy, beliefs and worship

Hierarchy

There are 43 dioceses in England covering the two provinces of Canterbury and York, plus the Diocese in Europe, with chaplaincies from the Arctic Circle to the Canaries. Each diocese has a bishop and usually at least one suffragan or assistant bishop. Each diocese is split into archdeaconries run by archdeacons. They are responsible for the administration of that part of the diocese. Each archdeaconry is split up into deaneries, which is a collection of parishes.

The parish is the heart of the Church of England. Each parish is overseen by a parish priest, usually called a vicar or rector. Sometimes they are assisted by a curate or deacon or parish worker. The latter is a lay post.

Parishes

Each parish church is run by the priest in collaboration with the PCC or Parochial Church Councils. This group is usually made up of the congregation but is open to anyone on the electoral roll. It, along with the bishop or other patron, appoints the priest. It also decides on the style of services and maintains the church buildings.

The parish structure means that the church is there for everyone. Ideally, everyone in England has a parish priest to whom they can turn. Everyone lives in a parish. This means it's an organisation for everyone, not just believers.

Cathedrals

Each diocese has a Cathedral which is the 'seat' of the bishop but is run independently of him. Deans are in charge of Cathedrals, assisted by Canons and supported by a Greater Chapter including lay appointees. A number of newer parish church Cathedrals used to be headed by Provosts until the Cathedrals Measure 1999.

Governance

The Church of England is described as being episcopally-led (there are 108 bishops in total) and synodically governed. This means it's led by bishops and its practices are decided by the General Synod.

The General Synod is elected from the laity and clergy of each diocese and meets in London or York at least twice a year. There are three houses: the house of bishops; the house of clergy; the house of laity. Each synod member is elected to serve for five years. Complex rules govern how church law is passed. Some has to go through Parliament and all must be given Royal assent.

Beliefs and worship

The Church of England is a broad church, representing a wide spectrum of theological thought and practice. However, as part of the Anglican Communion there are some distinctively Anglican ideas which can be identified in the Church of England. They are:

a belief that the Bible contains the core of all Christian faith and thought

a loyalty to a way of worship and life that was first set out in the Book of Common Prayer

celebration of the sacraments ordained by Jesus - that of Baptism and Eucharist or Holy Communion

a system of Church order that stems from ancient times and is focused in the ordained ministry of Bishop, Priest and Deacon

a firm commitment to the ministry of the whole people of God, lay and ordained together

a way of Christian thinking that involves Scripture, Tradition and Reason held together in creative tension.

Individual parishes can decide how many services they hold in the week, how often they conduct Eucharistic services and how they structure the service to include hymns/songs, readings, the Creed, a sermon and prayers. Despite this flexibility, each priest is expected to conduct a service which has been authorised by the church in the service book.

Decline, ordination of women, homosexuality

Current issues

As the established church, the Church of England and the comments and decisions its leaders make frequently attract media attention. These are just a few of the key issues facing the church at the beginning of the twenty-first century:

Decline in church attendance

The Church of England is responsible for more than 16,000 churches and 42 Cathedrals in England, yet the number of people attending services has been in decline in recent decades. In 2002 the average number of people attending church on Sundays declined by 4% to just over a million. If you include those who attended during the week, the number rises to approximately 1.2 million.

Many of those attending are of the older generations, with statistics showing that few 15 to 30 year olds go to church.

Despite the slow decline in average attandance, giving to parish churches continues to increase by more than inflation every year. Individual congregations themselves are responsible for the financial maintenance of the church, despite its national church status.

The Church Commissioners are responsible for managing the Church's historic assets, paying clergy pensions earned up to 1998 and helping to support parish ministry. Since 1998, parishes have been paying into a fund to provide pensions earned by clergy from that date. There are now more people claiming a clergy pension than there are ordained stipendiary (paid) clergy. This is putting even greater pressure on the parish system with more and more priests being asked to take on additional parishes.

As ever, bald statistics obscure signs of hope for the Church of England:

the Diocese of London has an increasing churchgoing population due to the rise in immigrants from Africa and the importance of the church in African and Caribbean communities.

many people still attend church for major festivals like Christmas. A poll carried out in 2003 revealed that nearly 40% of adults attended a church service over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in 2002.

the Church of England has had to think of new ways of "doing church". Many parishes provide services during the week so as not to compete with leisure pastimes associated with the weekend. In one diocese, Oxford, an online parish has been established for those who want to opt out of the traditional parish structure.

The ordination of women

In 1992 when General Synod passed a vote to ordain woman not everyone in the Church of England was in agreement. In 1993 it passed the Act of Synod setting up an official structure to enable parishes to refuse women's ministry.

Male priests and their congregations could accept an alternative bishop known as a Provincial Episcopal Visitor or "flying bishop", who also rejected women as priests. This system, although criticised as institutionalising discrimination against women, has been credited with avoiding a split in the Church of England over the issue.

Two other options were set up to allow male priests to reject women's ministry. Firstly, a scheme allowed men to leave the priesthood with appropriate financial support until they had resettled. Secondly, the Roman Catholic Church allowed married (and non-married) Anglican priests to join its priesthood.

In 1994 in Bristol the first women priests were ordained. Now, more than ten years on, one in five Church of England licensed priests is female. Pressure is growing to now allow women to be Bishops. A working party, set up by General Synod, has published a theological study of women in the Episcopate and the impact such a move would have both on the Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion. The Synod will debate it in 2005.

Homosexuality and the Church of England

Many of the headlines regarding the Church of England since 2002 have regarded the rights of homosexual priests. The Church of England allows for the ordination of gay priests as long as they are celibate.

In 2003 Canon Jeffrey John was appointed as Bishop of Reading. Despite his pro-gay views (he's written articles and pamphlets outlining why gay couples should live in faithful, permanent, stable relationships) he made it clear that he was celibate. His appointment, and the subsequent election of an openly gay bishop in America, prompted a national and international examination on the rights of homosexual clergy. Canon Jeffrey John stood down as Bishop-elect of Reading but has subsequently been installed as Dean of St Albans.

Alongside issues of homosexual clergy, the wider Anglican Communion has been wrestling with whether to sanction same-sex blessings. Both these issues could cause divisions within the Anglican Communion with the provinces of the global south (Nigeria, South East Asia, South America among many others) threatening to split permanently from those sanctioning the blessing of same-sex relationships and the ordination of non-celibate gay clergy - mainly in North America. A commission set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury and headed by Dr Robin Eames, Primate of Ireland made recommendations on the matter in autumn 2004.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The Church of England is the established or state church in England. It is divided into two provinces - Canterbury in the South of England and York in the North. Each province has a head or Primate - the Archbishops of Canterbury and York.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Prime Minister David Cameron talks about the message of hope for Christians in our country and all around the world at Easter. Follow us on: www.gov.uk/number10 www.twitter.com/Number10gov www.facebook.com/10DowningStreet

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An ethical and religious discussion series that invites the audience to get involved.

# data[].attributes.body
Article contains statistics about faith schools and how they are funded, etc.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
How many faith state schools are there in England?

Primary schools - 6,384

Secondary schools - 589

Of these, 4,716 are Church of England, 2,108 Roman Catholic, 32 Jewish, four Muslim, two Sikh, one Greek Orthodox and one Seventh Day Adventist. Until Labour was elected in 1997, all state faith schools were Christian or Jewish. Is that enough?

Not according to the Blair government, which believes they improve educational standards and wants to see more of them. Previous education secretary David Blunkett said he wanted to "bottle" the ethos of faith schools, and a recent white paper declares: " We wish to welcome faith schools, with their distinctive ethos and character, into the maintained (state) sector, where there is clear local agreement."
Will the government get its way?
Since January 2000, there have been 61 enquiries - seven of which have come to fruition. The Church of England is this week discussing ambitious plans for 100 new schools and is particularly keen to expand the number of its secondaries. Some Muslim private schools are expected to apply for state funding, although, until now, most Muslim parents have put a high premium on integrating their children into local schools. The main constraint on a big increase in Muslim schools is not so much buildings as teachers. The growth of Catholic schools in the 19th century in response to immigration from Ireland was underpinned by teaching orders of friars, monks and nuns and more recently by Catholic teacher training colleges.
Who pays for them?
You do - if you are a taxpayer. The state pays 85% of capital costs and the government says it is considering raising this to 90%. It also pays the teachers.
What do they teach?
All have to teach the national curriculum. For religious education, around 57% of faith schools (voluntary-aided) teach their own faith. The remaining 43% (voluntary-controlled or foundation schools) teach the locally agreed religious education syllabus, which has a more multi-ethnic approach.
Who can attend faith schools?
Admissions policy is determined by the school governors, but in many cases the local education authority is also involved. A school can insist children come from a particular faith background but it is bound by the Race Relations Act. Popular schools may insist on proof of baptism and regular church attendance. The Church of England urges schools to take account of the local community and make sure wealthier parents from outside the area do not push out local people. "We would suggest that some places should be reserved for children of other faiths and no faith," advises the recent report by Lord Dearing for the church. However, it is the governors' decision.
Will educating children separately lead to social and religious divisions?
Yes, say critics, including the National Secular Society, which claims 80% of the population disapprove of faith schools. "School provides the best, and sometimes only, opportunity to teach tolerance, but only if children of all beliefs and cultures are educated together. The problems in Belfast, Bradford and elsewhere remind us how imperative this need is," it said.

No, Estelle Morris, the education secretary told the Church of England general synod today. However, she said they must be "inclusive" and not select children rigidly on religious lines and should be part of the "local family" of schools in their area. "Our aim is that all faith schools should adopt more inclusive admission policies."
Topics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
How many faith state schools are there in England? Primary schools - 6,384 Secondary schools - 589 Of these, 4,716 are Church of England, 2,108 Roman Catholic, 32 Jewish, four Muslim, two Sikh, one Greek Orthodox and one Seventh Day Adventist. Until Labour was elected in 1997, all state faith schools were Christian or Jewish.

# data[].attributes.body
Article containing statistics from the last national census

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
1. Key points

Despite falling numbers Christianity remains the largest religion in England and Wales in 2011. Muslims are the next biggest religious group and have grown in the last decade. Meanwhile the proportion of the population who reported they have no religion has now reached a quarter of the population.

In the 2011 Census, Christianity was the largest religion, with 33.2 million people (59.3 per cent of the population). The second largest religious group were Muslims with 2.7 million people (4.8 per cent of the population).

14.1 million people, around a quarter of the population in England and Wales, reported they have no religion in 2011.

The religion question was the only voluntary question on the 2011 census and 7.2 per cent of people did not answer the question.

Between 2001 and 2011 there has been a decrease in people who identify as Christian (from 71.7 per cent to 59.3 per cent) and an increase in those reporting no religion (from 14.8 per cent to 25.1 per cent). There were increases in the other main religious group categories, with the number of Muslims increasing the most (from 3.0 per cent to 4.8 per cent).

In 2011, London was the most diverse region with the highest proportion of people identifying themselves as Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Jewish. The North East and North West had the highest proportion of Christians and Wales had the highest proportion of people reporting no religion.

Knowsley was the local authority with the highest proportion of people reporting to be Christians at 80.9 per cent and Tower Hamlets had the highest proportion of Muslims at 34.5 per cent (over 7 times the England and Wales figure). Norwich had the highest proportion of the population reporting no religion at 42.5 per cent.

Back to table of contents

2. Animated YouTube video

A podcast explaining this story using audio commentary and graphical animations is available on the ONS YouTube channel at the ONS YouTube channel.
Back to table of contents

3. Changing picture of religious affiliation over last decade

The largest religion in the 2011 Census for England and Wales was Christianity with 33.2 million people (59.3 per cent of the population). Muslims were the next largest religious group with 2.7 million people (4.8 per cent of the population).

14.1 million people in England and Wales said they had no religion, around a quarter (25.1 per cent ) of the population.

Of the other main religious groups: 817,000 people identified themselves as Hindu (1.5 per cent of population); 423,000 people identified as Sikh (0.8 per cent ); 263,000 people as Jewish (0.5 per cent ) and 248,000 people as Buddhist (0.4 per cent ).

240,000 people (0.4 per cent ) identified with religions which did not fall into any of the main religious categories ¹. The most common groups were Pagan and Spiritualist, accounting for 57,000 people and 39,000 people respectively. Some of the other higher reporting groups included Mixed Religion with 24,000 people, Jain with 20,000 people and Ravidassia with 11,000 people.

The religion question was the only voluntary question on the 2011 census and 7.2 per cent of people did not answer the question.

Figure 1: Religious affiliation, England and Wales, 2011

Source: Census - Office for National Statistics

Figure 2: Minority religious groups, England and Wales, 2011

Source: Census - Office for National Statistics

Download this chart

Image.csv.xls

Compared with the 2001 Census ² the most significant trends were

an increase in the population reporting no religion - from 14.8 per cent of the population in 2001 to 25.1 per cent in 2011,

a drop in the population reporting to be Christian - from 71.7 per cent in 2001 to 59.3 per cent in 2011, and

an increase in all other main religions. The number of Muslims increased the most from 3.0 per cent in 2001 to 4.8 per cent in 2011.

Figure 3: Change in religious affiliation, 2001-2011, England and Wales

Source: Census - Office for National Statistics

Download this chart

Image.csv.xls

These trends are consistent with data from other sources which show a decline in religious affiliation. The Annual Population Survey data in 2011 show 27.9 per cent of the population in England and Wales have no religion, 63.1 per cent are Christian, 4.8 per cent are Muslim, 1.5 per cent are Hindu while Buddhist, Jewish and Sikh each account for less than 1.0 per cent . However, comparisons between the census and social survey data should be treated with caution due to methodological differences.

There are many factors driving changes in religious affiliation including natural growth (for example, some minority religious groups have a younger demographic profile), migration, changes in willingness to report and awareness of the question. ONS will explore these factors further as part of its analysis programme of the census.

Notes for changing picture of religious affiliation over last decade

1. Some people selected the 'Any Other Religion, write in' box and specified their own religion. Note that in some cases these were reassigned to one of the main religions offered (eg. within the Christian group) or to 'No religion'.

2. The England and Wales census asked the same religion question in 2011 as was asked in 2001.

Back to table of contents

4. Religious affiliation across the English regions and Wales

London was the most diverse region in terms of religious affiliation with over a fifth of the population identifying with a religion other than Christian. London had the highest proportion of Muslims at 12.4 per cent , followed by the West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber (both under 7 per cent ). London also had the highest proportion of other religions including Buddhist, Hindu and Jewish. However, the largest proportion reporting to be Sikh was in the West Midlands.

The North East and North West has the highest proportion of people who identified themselves as Christian with two-thirds of the population. The lowest proportion was in London where under half of the population were Christian.

Wales had the highest proportion of people reporting no religion at nearly a third of the population. The lowest proportion reporting no religion was in the North West with less than a fifth of the population.

Figure 4: Religious affiliation, English regions and Wales, 2011

Source: Census - Office for National Statistics

Download this chart

Image.csv.xls

In comparison with 2001,

the proportion reporting no religion increased across all regions - ranging from 5.0 percentage points in London to 13.6 percentage points in Wales,

Christian affiliation fell across all regions - ranging from 9.8 percentage points in London to 14.3 percentage points in Wales,

London had the largest increase of Muslims (3.9 percentage points) and Hindus (1.0 percentage point), and

within the other religious groups, the largest increase of Sikhs was in the West Midlands (0.4 percentage points).

Back to table of contents

5. Differences in religious affiliation across local authorities

Christians formed the majority religion across most areas in England and Wales. In over nine in ten areas, the proportion of people who were Christian was over 45 per cent . It was the largest religion in all local authorities except Tower Hamlets where there were more people who identified as Muslim.

The 13 local authorities with the highest proportions of the population reporting to be Christian were in the North West, with the highest in Knowsley at 80.9 per cent . Tower Hamlets was the lowest at 27.1 per cent . Leicester, Camden, Redbridge, Harrow and Hackney all had proportions under 40 per cent.

The proportion of people identifying with Christianity has decreased in all local authorities in England and Wales since 2001 with Kingston Upon Hull seeing the largest drop of 16.8 percentage points.

Map 1: Christian population, 2011, England and Wales local and unitary authorities

Source: Census - Office for National Statistics

Norwich had the highest proportion of people reporting no religion with 42.5 per cent , closely followed by Brighton and Hove with 42.4 per cent.

Some local authorities in Wales also reported some of the highest levels of no religion. Caerphilly had the largest percentage point increase since 2001 of 16.7 to 41.0 per cent . Blaenau Gwent, Rhondda Cynon Taf and Torfaen also saw large increases of no religion with 16.0, 15.5 and 15.4 percentage points respectively.

In London, the boroughs of Newham, Harrow, Brent and Redbridge had the lowest proportions of the population reporting no religion. Other areas under 15 per cent included Slough in the South East, and Knowsley, Blackburn with Darwen, Copeland, Ribble Valley, and St Helens in the North West.

Map 2: Population reporting no religion, 2011, England and Wales local and unitary authorities

Source: Census - Office for National Statistics

Muslims tended to be concentrated in particular areas of England. In over half of local authorities the proportion of the population who were Muslim was under 1 per cent . In over three-quarters of areas it was under 6 per cent.

The areas with the highest proportion of Muslims were in London with the boroughs of Tower Hamlets and Newham having 34.5 per cent and 32.0 per cent respectively, and Redbridge and Waltham Forest having proportions of the population higher than 20 per cent . There were several areas outside London with proportions higher than 20 per cent including Blackburn with Darwen in the North West (27.0 per cent ), Bradford in Yorkshire and the Humber, Luton in East of England, Slough in South East, and Birmingham in the West Midlands.

The proportion of Hindus was highest in the London boroughs of Harrow and Brent. Outside London, the highest proportion of Hindus was in Leicester. The biggest growth since 2001 was seen in Harrow where there was an increase of 5.7 percentage points.

Affiliation with Budhism was predominantly greater within the London areas with the exception of Rushmoor which saw the highest increase since 2001 of 2.9 percentage points to 3.3 per cent.

There is a concentration of Jewish people in the London borough of Barnet and Hertsmere in the East of England, 15.2 per cent and 14.3 per cent of the population respectively. Jewish has increased most since 2001 in Hertsmere by 2.9 percentage points.

The proportion of Sikhs was highest in Slough but the biggest growth was seen in South Bucks where there was a 3.2 percentage point increase.

Table 1, Local authorities with the highest proportions of main minority religious groups, 2011

England and Wales

Source: Census 2011, Office for National Statistics

View table

Download this table

.xls

Back to table of contents

6. Measuring religion

The England and Wales census asked the same voluntary religion question in 2011 as was asked in 2001 ¹. The question ('What is your religion?') asks about religious affiliation, that is how we connect or identify with a religion, irrespective of actual practise or belief. Religion is a many sided concept and there are other aspects of religion such as religious belief, religious practice or belonging which are not covered in this analysis ².

Religion is an important defining characteristic of people's identity. Collecting information on religious affiliation complements other questions on people's ethnic group, national identity and language to provide a detailed picture of the society we live in, and how it is changing.

Comparability with other sources

The Annual Population Survey, an ONS sample survey, asks a question on religious affiliation, although comparisons with the census should be treated with caution for methodological reasons. Between 2005 and 2010 the proportion of respondents reporting to be Christian fell from 77 per cent to 70 per cent, the proportion reporting no religion increased from 16 per cent to 21 per cent and the proportion reporting to be Muslim increased from 3.8 per cent to 4.8 per cent. The question changed in 2011 to be consistent with the census question. In 2011, 63.1 per cent reported to be Christian, 27.9 per cent as having no religion and 4.8 per cent as Muslim.

Notes for measuring religion

1. See Census Comparability Report for further details.

2. Further details on how the question was developed can be found on Census web pages

Back to table of contents

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Religion in England and Wales 2011 - Office for National Statistics

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
1. Key points Despite falling numbers Christianity remains the largest religion in England and Wales in 2011. Muslims are the next biggest religious group and have grown in the last decade. Meanwhile the proportion of the population who reported they have no religion has now reached a quarter of the population.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Are we losing our religion? The answer for the UK seems to be "Yes", while the answer for the developing world is a resounding "No".

That was the conclusion of a recent analysis by the Pew Research Center in the US.

It suggests that in the UK, if current trends continue, the proportion of the population identifying themselves as Christians will fall from 64% in 2010 to 45% by 2050, while the proportion of Muslims will rise from 5% to 11%.

The proportion of the population claiming no religion in the UK - the "unaffiliated" - will also rise significantly, from 28% to 39%.

Pew's research also suggests there are likely to be more Muslims than Christians in the world by 2070, with Islam's share of global population equalling that of Christianity at just above 30% each by 2050.

Equally eye-catching is its conclusion that by 2050, under half of the population will be Christian not just in the UK, but also France, the Netherlands, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Australia and New Zealand, while Muslims will make up about 10% of Europe's population, up from 6% now, thanks to higher birth rates.

However, Christianity globally will continue to grow, with the number of Christians projected to rise significantly in sub-Saharan Africa in particular.

According to demographer Conrad Hackett at Pew, in 1910 some 66% of the world's Christians lived in Europe. Now that has fallen to about 25%.

By 2050, however, Europe will be home to just 16% of the world's Christians, while four out of every 10 Christians globally will live in sub-Saharan Africa, thanks to high birth rates and falling infant mortality.

Huge transformation

So what does that mean for the UK?

"We are living through the biggest religious transition since the Reformation of the 16th Century," says Linda Woodhead, professor of the sociology of religion at Lancaster University.

"[Prime Minister] David Cameron may have said at Easter that 'we are still a Christian country', but for how much longer?"

For Mr Hackett, the idea religion will fade as developing countries become more economically successful and better educated "is often tied in to the secularism debate".

But, he says, while there is evidence of that in some societies, in others "there is no evidence that people are shedding their religious identity, even as their societies become wealthier".

"In China, for example, people are more and more claiming some religious identity, and we have no clear evidence that as these countries develop, they will follow the patterns we see in Western Europe," he says.

Religions in the UK:

Christians: 2010: 64%, 2050: 45%

Muslims: 2010: 5%, 2050: 11%

Hindus: 2010: 1.4%, 2050: 2%

Jews: 2010: 0.5%, 2050: 0.3%

Buddhists: 2010: 0.4%, 2050: 0.9%

Folk religions: 2010: 0.1%, 2050: 0.3%

No religion: 2010: 28%, 2050: 39%

Source: Pew Research Center

According to Ms Woodhead, that means that contrary to long-held Western assumptions that religion would disappear as societies developed, secular and religious liberalism itself will become the exception in the world and not the norm.

"Western governments will have to work hard to convince the world of the value of liberal democracy and the forms of religion and belief which have supported it, and I am not sure they yet grasp the scale of the challenge," she says.

But why should the UK in particular be losing the Christian roots that have so profoundly shaped its history, culture and even its welfare state?

Inward-looking

"The Church of England and the Church of Scotland are in collapse," says Ms Woodhead.

"The Church lost touch with our everyday life and has become inward-looking rather than being a broad Church for the whole of society.

"The Churches of England and Scotland have failed to win the hearts and minds of the young for several generations now, while numbers for the Catholic Church are really only holding up thanks to immigration."

She believes there is the danger of a future in Britain in which those with no religious affiliation and the faithful "won't understand each other", with the religious of all faiths potentially moving more towards the extremes, with the risk of cultural segregation.

"Religions have a natural dynamic towards more sectarian fundamentalist extremes, and we are losing the moderating forces internally and externally that used to regulate and deal with these tendencies, including Parliamentary interest and involvement," she says.

Adjustment 'needed'

However, Grace Davie, professor emeritus in sociology at the University of Exeter and author of the new book Religion in Britain: A Persistent Paradox, has a slightly different take.

"This is an adjustment of Christendom, rather than an Anglican issue," she says.

"We hear a lot of debate saying that the Anglican Church has failed.

"But it's only facing the same challenges as the Catholic Churches and the Scandinavian Churches in Europe.

"Anglicans tend to beat themselves up about it as if it's their fault. It's not," she says.

"It's an adjustment they all have to make, but it's at a particularly acute stage for the Anglicans.

"Looking at the figures, there are the committed religious people, the committed secular people, and in the middle, there's this grey area.

"The pendulum is swinging gradually towards the secular end, while everyone is wondering what the growth in Islam will mean.

"In the UK, we are all adjusting to greater diversity."

Prof Davie points out that the figures indicate Christians will still be the biggest single faith group in the UK by 2050.

"There's no room for complacency, but there will be a future for Christianity," she says.

"It will just be a different future.

"It will be smaller and more committed, but not necessarily more extreme.

"It's a gradual shift in the model, which brings with it more pressure to choose.

"But you have to be very cautious about predictions.

"In the 1960s, many thought the world would become more secular, and that hasn't happened.

"Europe is so distinctive from the rest of the world, and that is to be pondered - bearing in mind that it's a tiny and shrinking bit of the world."

New spirituality

Yet in an age when Christianity appears to be dwindling in the UK, what - if anything - will take its place, or attempt to offer meaning to those of no faith?

Is it art or science, poetry or football, or humanism - or new forms of spirituality, or simply seeking contentment in family and friends?

That increasing lack of belief is not confined to religion alone, but appears to be affecting almost every other sphere of authority - while new technology allows individuals to access more knowledge than ever before about the world around us, while apparently leaving us no happier.

Faith in politicians, government, the mainstream media and in many other institutions has diminished, yet the human search for meaning, identity and principles that unite us as a society has not gone away.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Are we losing our religion? The answer for the UK seems to be "Yes", while the answer for the developing world is a resounding "No". That was the conclusion of a recent analysis by the Pew Research Center in the US.

# data[].attributes.headline
Britain is no longer a Christian country. 

# data[].attributes.subject
Britain is no longer a Christian country. 

# data[].attributes.body
Opinion piece from the Daily Mail

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Now it's official - Britain is no longer a Christian society and needs a 'new settlement for religion in the UK' recognising our secular multicultural diversity.

'Socially divisive' faith schools must be phased out and King Charles III's coronation should be a multi-faith affair.

That's the verdict, published with a fanfare yesterday, of the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life, chaired by the Rt Hon Baroness Butler-Sloss of Marsh Green GBE, the first female Lord Justice of Appeal.

The commission's patrons include the Rt Rev and Rt Hon Lord Williams of Oystermouth - i.e., Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury; the Rt Hon Lord Woolf CH, former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales; and Sir Iqbal Sacranie OBE, formerly secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain.

Lord Williams, Lord Woolf and Sir Iqbal are among the most distinguished representatives of, respectively, the Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities in this country.

Commission members include The Rt Rev Professor Lord Harries of Pentregarth and Professor Lord Parekh of Kingston upon Hull.

Life peers. Emeritus professors. Royal decorations. Blimey!

These are very, very eminent people who, if they dressed up in all their ermine, academic robes and medals, would look like the court of Ruritania in a comic opera. When such Establishment figures decree the death of Christian Britain and that it's time for a new order of society, we're supposed to bow our heads respectfully, dazzled by their collective enlightenment.

Except we shouldn't . . .

These people have as much authority as the judges on Strictly Come Dancing.

Sadly, the pompous, jargon-rich report looks to me as if it has a pernicious agenda. And that agenda is to turn Britain into a country where public Christianity is little more than embarrassing shop-window dressing that needs taking down before it drives away sophisticated customers.

That's probably how it seems to the panjandrums of the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life, as they peer through the windows of the chauffeur-driven limo taking them to the next reception.

Admittedly, the 'commission' has a point when it says Christianity is in deep trouble in this country. Between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, the number of Christians born in Britain fell by 5.3 million. That's a loss of about 10,000 a week.

What the report doesn't say, though, is that its decline has been sped up by people such as the commission's sponsors and authors.

The fact is that Rowan Williams was a hopeless Archbishop of Canterbury. His biographer, Rupert Shortt, revealed last year that the Primate of All England once 'slumped against a doorway during a bishops' meeting and told a colleague: "I can't tell you how much I hate this job." '

Britain lost five million Christians while Lord Williams led our national church.

That's not entirely his fault - but his hand-wringing despair sapped Anglican morale just when Christianity needed defending from militant secularism and Islamism.

Indeed, as Archbishop of Canterbury he controversially declared that the adoption of parts of Sharia law in the UK 'seems unavoidable' and might even help social cohesion.

That must have been music to the ears of his fellow 'commission' patron, Sir Iqbal Sacranie, who, when Salman Rushdie received a fatwa from Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini over his novel The Satanic Verses, declared that 'death, perhaps, is a bit too easy for him'.

During Sacranie's time running the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), it boycotted Holocaust Memorial Day, claiming 'genocide' in the Palestinian territories also needed to be recognised.

Last year, a government-commissioned report into the so-called 'Trojan Horse' Islamist infiltration of Birmingham comprehensive schools argued that the MCB was part of 'an international movement to increase the role of Islam in education'.

The MCB denies the allegation, but ask yourself: what would be the quickest way to remove barriers to the Islamisation of education in state schools? One answer would be to secularise England's 7,000 faith schools, which are overwhelmingly Church of England or Roman Catholic.

Islamic fundamentalists cannot easily hijack these schools, which are monitored by the churches. But that task becomes much easier if they are stripped of their Christian identity. And that's what the 'commission' recommends, on the grounds that they are 'socially divisive'.

This isn't to say the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life has an Islamic agenda. But it is dogmatically multiculturalist, and multi-culti grandees have a long tradition of soft-pedalling criticism of Islamic fundamentalism.

Muslim hardliners, in turn, have mastered the language of grievance culture. The UK's grant-making bodies are much quicker to open their cheque-books if they can be seen to be advancing 'minority rights'.

Which brings us to an intriguing question: Who paid for the folie de grandeur of the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life?

Its main sponsor is the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, which never met a Left-liberal pressure group it didn't like.

For example, the trust funds Climate Outreach, whose website discusses 'communicating climate risks in the aftermath of the Paris attacks'.

Not surprisingly, many of the members of the Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life uses flawed logic - also typical of climate change activists. Slippery rhetoric abounds. Take, for example, the beliefs of Lady Butler-Sloss, who last year quit a major government inquiry into historic child sex abuse, following criticism of her links to the establishment.

She claims that the proposed 'new settlement for religion' would add to our heritage, rather than taking anything anyway.

But this is an entirely disingenuous argument. What she is proposing is such a dilution of Christianity's role in our national life that it would never recover - and many much-loved traditions and institutions would be taken away. Christian school assemblies would disappear, for example, despite their popularity with parents who don't go to church. Indeed, that popularity baffles liberal elitists, as does the determination of non-religious parents to obtain places for their children in faith schools.

More often than not, these parents are motivated by a deep-seated affection for institutional Christianity.

Such feelings are strongest in England, where the C of E represents the most tolerant strain of the faith imaginable.

And this is an absolutely crucial point. For we've now reached a time in our history where the gentle tolerance of English Christianity is, tragically, a liability. Faced with the threat of terrorists who claim to act in the interests of Islam, it is vital that Christianity stands firm.

Ignoring this, Lady Butler-Sloss's secular-Muslim alliance and its grand plan for de-Christianising Britain envisages vast changes that would alter the fabric of this country's history.

The resemblance to the way the EU does things is not at all coincidental. The Commission on Religion and Belief in British Public Life is made up of passionate Europhiles.

Yesterday, the Church of England was sufficiently annoyed by the publication of the report to accuse it of 'falling captive to liberal rationalism'. By C of E standards, that's strong stuff.

But the worrying truth is that both the Anglican and Catholic churches in Britain are led by middle-manager types.

Neither the thoughtful Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, nor the platitude-spouting Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, have the instincts of a fighter.

For those, we have to turn to others. For example, the Scottish Catholic composer Sir James MacMillan, who reacted to the report by telling me: 'The people behind this are the old-guard liberal establishment throwing the last dice of a discredited multiculturalism.

'We now live in a plural society, but our civilisation has been shaped by Judaeo-Christian values and culture. The old curmudgeons here are creating a problem which doesn't exist.'

But we can be sure of one thing. Even if this particular anti-Christian report is knocked back, Lady Butler-Sloss and her fellow old curmudgeons will keep trying.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Now it's official - Britain is no longer a Christian society

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Now it's official - Britain is no longer a Christian society and needs a 'new settlement for religion in the UK' recognising our secular multicultural diversity. 'Socially divisive' faith schools must be phased out and King Charles III's coronation should be a multi-faith affair.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
A landmark in national life has just been passed. For the first time in recorded history, those declaring themselves to have no religion have exceeded the number of Christians in Britain. Some 44 per cent of us regard ourselves as Christian, 8 per cent follow another religion and 48 per cent follow none. The decline of Christianity is perhaps the biggest single change in Britain over the past century. For some time, it has been a stretch to describe Britain as a Christian country. We can more accurately be described now as a secular nation with fading Christian institutions.

There is nothing new in the decline of the church, but until recently it had been a slow decline. For many decades it was possible to argue that while Christians were eschewing organised religion, they at least still regarded themselves as having some sort of spirit-ual life which related to the teachings of Jesus. Children were asked for their Christian name; conversations ended with 'God bless'. Such phrases are now slipping out of our vocabulary - to wear a cross as jewellery is seen as making a semi-political statement. Christians are finding out what it's like to live as a minority.

Just 15 years ago, almost three quarters of Britons still regarded themselves as Christians. If this silent majority of private, non-churchgoing believers really did exist, it has undergone a precipitous decline. Five years ago, the number of people professing no religion was only 25 per cent.

Remarkably, the overall decline of religion in Britain has coincided with the arrival of three million migrants who tend to have more religious belief than British Christians. In particular, the visual impact of Islam, most obviously expressed in the proposal for a 9,000-capacity 'super-mosque' in east London that was rejected by planners last year, might give the impression that migration has brought a religious revival to Britain. Yet neither the growth of British Islam nor the huge influx of Christian immigrants from Africa and Eastern Europe has spurred a revival in public Christianity.

It is possible that the rise of Islamism has made casual believers less inclined to ally themselves with any kind of organised faith. Say 'religious' to many Britons and the next word that pops into their heads is 'extremist', or perhaps 'bigot' or 'homophobe'. To the growing population of secularists, religion has become something to be treated with suspicion. Politicians who are religious find their faith used against them. Iain Duncan Smith's Department of Work and Pensions was known by his critics as the Department of Worship and Prayer, the joke being that his reforms were inspired by a desire to save lives rather than money. In government, to be a Christian can be seen as a personal failing. The ambitious minister keeps his or her faith under wraps. It is unthinkable now that a Prime Minister would do as Mrs Thatcher did on arrival in Downing Street 37 years ago, and quote St Francis of Assisi. All Cameron has dared to say, quoting Boris Johnson, is that his faith comes and goes like the reception of Magic FM in the Chilterns.

The eclipsing of our national religion has deep implications for those who do retain faith, especially those who wish to pass it on to their children. They must now face the reality that they, no less than Muslims, Jews and Hindus, face being treated as oddballs.

As for the church itself, it is no use pretending there is a Christian majority whose non-attendance at church is just down to laziness. If church leaders wish to keep their buildings open, they will have to start from the beginning - with missionary work to recruit parishioners in a now-sceptical country.

Inevitably, the question of what is to be done about our national Christian institutions will arise. Is it appropriate that we are still invited to swear on the Bible in court? (Many new MPs routinely refuse to do this in the Commons.) Is it right that the Lords Spiritual should still have a role in the Upper House, or that church and state should have any formal connection at all? The British regard for tradition will see that such roles are preserved, but for nostalgic reasons. The aesthetics of Christianity - the architecture, the choral singing and so on - still pull in crowds, even if little of the liturgy is inwardly digested.

Christians, for their part, should not automatically associate a decline in religiosity with a rise in immorality. On the contrary, Britons are midway through an extraordinary period of social repair: a decline in teenage pregnancies, divorce and drug abuse, and a rise in civic-mindedness.

We cannot discount the possibility of a Christian revival; the Christian faith specialises in defying the odds. But it seems more likely that Britain will continue to muddle along as a post-Christian country with quaint customs that derive from its history as a deeply religious country. Some will find this sad, others as a sign of progress, but the greater majority will view it with indifference.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Britain really is ceasing to be a Christian country | The Spectator

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A landmark in national life has just been passed. For the first time in recorded history, those declaring themselves to have no religion have exceeded the number of Christians in Britain. Some 44 per cent of us regard ourselves as Christian, 8 per cent follow another religion and 48 per cent follow none.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
UK's faux democracy - unelected bishops in unelected House of Lords

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Reform the Lords? They never will. Only a YES vote and Scotland's independence will free us from the unelected red leather benches and the motley crew of clerics, political failures, party donors, dodgy businessmen and somnolent old farts that infests them.

# data[].attributes.headline
Islam fastest growing religion in the UK

# data[].attributes.subject
Islam fastest growing religion in the UK

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Islam fastest growing religion in UK as churches decline

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
While Christian Churches in the UK are struggling to draw people to worship, the Islamic community there is burgeoning. Some Muslim groups are doing all they can to counter fears the rapid growth is a challenge to British traditions. RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air Subscribe to RT!

# data[].attributes.headline
Britain is no longer a Christian country

# data[].attributes.subject
Britain is no longer a Christian country

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
The report, by the Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life, claims that faith schools are "socially divisive" and says that the selection of children on the basis of their beliefs should be phased out.

It also accuses those who devise some RE syllabuses of "sanitising" negative aspects of religion in lessons and suggests that the compulsory daily act of worship in school assemblies should be abolished and replaced with a "time for reflection".

The report backs moves cut the number of Church of England bishops in the Lords and give places to imams, rabbis and other non-other non-Christian clerics as well as evangelical pastors.

Meanwhile the coronation service for the next monarch should be overhauled to include other faiths, the report adds.

Controversially, it also calls for a rethink of anti-terror policy, including ensuring students can voice radical views on campus without fear of being reported to the security services.

And it also recommends new protections for women in Sharia courts and other religious tribunals - including a call for the Government to consider requiring couples who have a non-legally binding religious marriage also to have a civil registration.

It also suggests that Thought of the Day on BBC Radio 4's Today programme should include non-religious messages.

The Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life has attracted particular controversy because of the seniority of those behind it.

Its patrons include Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Woolf, the former chief justice, and Sir Iqbal Sacranie, the former general secretary of the Muslim Council of Britain.

While gathering evidence the commissioners met key players including Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury; Ephraim Mirvis, the Chief Rabbi; the Home Secretary Theresa May, and senior executives at the BBC and Channel 4.

The Church of England said the report was a "sad waste" and had "fallen captive to liberal rationalism".

A spokeswoman for the Church of England said: "The report is dominated by the old fashioned view that traditional religion is declining in importance and that non-adherence to a religion is the same as humanism or secularism."

A source close to Nicky Morgan, the Education Secretary, described the report's recommendations on faith schools as "ridiculous".

The source said: "Nicky is one of the biggest champions of faith schools and anyone who thinks she is going to pay attention to these ridiculous recommendations is sorely misguided."

The report highlights figures showing the decline in people who say they are Anglicans from 40 per cent in 1983 to less than a fifth in 2013.

It says: "Three striking trends in recent decades have revolutionised the landscape on which religion and belief in Britain meet and interact.

"The first is the increase in the number of people with non-religious beliefs and identities. The second is the decline in Christian affiliation, belief and practice and within this decline a shift in Christian affiliation that has meant that Anglicans no longer comprise a majority of Christians.

"The third is the increase in the number of people who have a religious affiliation but who are not Christian."

It goes on to say: "The increase in those with non-religious beliefs, the reduction in the number of Christians and an increase in their diversity, and the increase in the number of people identifying with non-Christian religions: these are the settled social context of Britain today and for the foreseeable future, as is the unsettled and unsettling context of the international environment".

Its central recommendation is for a national consultation exercise to draw up a 21st Century equivalent to the Magna Carta to define the values at the heart of modern Britain instead of the Government's controversial "British values" requirements.

"From recent events in France, to the schools so many of our children attend and even the adverts screened in cinemas, for good and ill religion and belief impacts directly on all our daily lives," said Lady Butler-Sloss.

"The proposals in this report amount to a 'new settlement for religion and belief in the UK', intended to provide space and a role for all within society, regardless of their beliefs or absence of them."

The 150-page report sets out a major shift away from Christianity in Britain - particularly the Church of England - with the number of people describing themselves as having no religion jumping from less than a third of the population to almost half in just 30 years.

At the same time it highlights the growth of non-Christian faiths, especially Islam, and an explosion in the number of newer Pentecostal and evangelical Churches outside of the traditional denominations.

But the report stops short of calling for the disestablishment of the Church of England, arguing that the special status of Anglicanism in England and the Church of Scotland north of the border, has helped other faith groups and "enables them to make their voice heard in the public sphere".

But it adds: "The relationship of the Church of England to the state has changed and is changing, and could change further.

"The pluralist character of modern society should be reflected in national forums such as the House of Lords, so that they include a wider range of worldviews and religious traditions, and of Christian denominations other than the Church of England"

It goes on to call for all national and civic events - including the next coronation - to be designed to reflect "the pluralist character of modern society".

Although the commission does not call for the abolition of faith schools, it questions the fundamental premise on which they exist.

"In England, successive governments have claimed in recent years that faith schools and free schools create and promote social inclusion leading to cohesion and integration," it says.

"However, it is in our view not clear that segregation of young people into faith schools has promoted greater cohesion or that it has not been socially divisive, leading to greater misunderstanding and tension."

But it also questions the approach to religion in universities and colleges, including measures to curb extremism on campus- particularly demands for lecturers to report students showing signs of extremism.

"Free debate should be possible without fear of students being labelled as extremists or attracting the attention of the security services," the report argues.

"That all said, universities will deal better with religion if they approach it as something that belongs to their intellectual discussions rather than an external factor with which they have to cope."

It also urges the Government to rethink its approach to the Muslim community in general, including consulting those it considers to have less "palatable" views on policy.

It says: "In its selection of organisations with which to engage the Government must guard against the perception that it is operating with a simplistic good Muslims/bad Muslims distinction, or between 'mainstream moderates' and 'violent or non-violent extremists'."

The report also suggests setting up an "advisory panel" of religious "experts" to examine complaints about coverage of religion in the press.

Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society, said the report did not go far enough.

"There are some sensible recommendations in the Commission's report, but there is no escaping that the Commission is composed of vested interests and is unlikely to make recommendations for any radical change. Disestablishing the Church of England should be a minimum ambition for a modern Britain in the 21st century."

"This report promotes a multi-faith approach to public life which is completely at odds with the religious indifference that permeates British society."

The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the former Bishop of Rochester, said: "As to the next coronation, I hope it doesn't come for a long time but when it comes, it will be an important occasion to reaffirm the constitutional basis of the nation.

"This is Judaeo- Christian through and through, with the monarch promising to uphold 'the Laws of God and the true profession of the Gospel'."

Rabbi Danny Rich, chief executive and senior rabbi of Liberal Judaism, said: "If we fail to recognise the diverse nature of our society in our civic institutions, our national events, our legal system, schools and media, we risk alienating large sections of our community who will see themselves as 'the other'.

"This in turn leads to them feeling excluded not just from the rights of British citizens, but also the obligations and standards of behaviour which go with being a full partner in British society.

"This is a huge a growing threat to us all."

Dr Shuja Shafi, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: "We have long argued that one of the unintended consequences of anti-terrorism legislation has been how it limits freedom of speech.

"We therefore agree wholeheartedly with the recommendation of the report in this respect.

"The Muslim Council of Britain has long argued that the portrayal of Islam and Muslims provides a misleading representation of the reality. With a rise in hate crime against Muslims and Muslim religious institutions, the media has a particular responsibility to raise awareness and promote greater understanding between communities."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Britain is no longer a Christian country and should stop acting as if it is, says judge

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The report, by the Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life, claims that faith schools are "socially divisive" and says that the selection of children on the basis of their beliefs should be phased out.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
David Cameron's remarks that the UK is a "Christian country" were criticised by a group of public figures. What are the arguments for and against the prime minister's claim?

Writing for the Church Times, the prime minister said British people should "be more confident about our status as a Christian country".

In response, 50 prominent individuals including authors, broadcasters, comedians and scientists added their names to a letter to the Daily Telegraph which argued the UK was a largely "non-religious society". Two senior Conservative ministers have backed the prime minister, arguing that those who deny the UK is a Christian country are "deluding themselves".

So what are the main arguments?

For: The census

In the 2011 census 59% of residents of England and Wales described themselves as Christian when asked "What is your religion?" This was down from 72% in 2001. In Scotland, the figure was 54%, down from 65%. In Northern Ireland 83% said they belonged to a Christian denomination.

Although the total number of Britons who described themselves as Christian had fallen by more than four million since 2001, the fact it constitutes a majority is "really, really significant", says Christina Rees, a member of the general synod, the highest governing body of the Church of England.

"That's a strong number and the census is one of the more reliable ways of getting information in this country," Rees adds. "You could be picky and say they don't all go to church but they have chosen to identify as Christian."

Against: Church attendance

Secularists say it's entirely reasonable to be picky on this subject. According to the Church of England's own figures, 800,000 people would have attended a service on a typical Sunday in 2012. This is approximately half the number that attended in 1968.

Andrew Copson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, says the census question is "flawed" because it assumes the respondent has a religion in the first place. The 2013 British Social Attitudes Survey reported that 48% of respondents claimed they did not belong to a religion. The proportion of people who described themselves as belonging to the Church of England was just 20%, down from 40% in 1983.

"'Any politician or government that tried to make Christianity and Christian beliefs the foundation of British values or social morality would be building on seriously unstable foundations," says Copson.

For: Established church

England has an established Church. Its bishops sit in the House of Lords. The Queen is both head of state and also supreme governor of the Church of England. One of the monarch's titles is Defender of the Faith.

Because of this, Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has told the Daily Telegraph that claims the UK was not a Christian country ignored "both historical and constitutional reality". The legal system was founded on "the Christian principles of justice and fairness", says Rees.

Harry Cole - a "lapsed agnostic" who is open to disestablishing the church - writes in the Spectator that it is impossible to deny the UK is a Christian country without attempting to "rewrite history and ignore our heritage".

Against: Waning influence

The laws relating to abortion, same-sex marriage, the teaching of homosexuality, adoption and other issues have changed in spite of vocal opposition from religious groups. For secularists, this is evidence that the Church's prestige and importance is no longer what it once was.

In a 2006 Ipsos MORI poll, "religious groups and leaders" topped the list of domestic groups that people said had too much influence over ministers. A 2013 Lancaster University study of British Catholics suggested they were wildly at odds with their spiritual leaders on matters of personal morality. According to the survey, only 9% would feel guilty using contraception and just 19% would support a ban on abortion. More favoured allowing same-sex marriage than were opposed.

"The law that Christianity imposed on us is gradually being eroded and reformed," says Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society (NSS). "It's true that Christianity informed our laws but they are rapidly changing because we are being secularised."

For: Cultural Christianity

Even Richard Dawkins, figurehead for many atheists, has described himself as a "cultural Christian" who liked "singing carols along with everybody else". While Dawkins himself rejects the teaching of the church, Rees says the widespread attachment to the Christian rituals, symbolism and institutions is further evidence that people still regard the church as occupying a central role in civic life.

"The most significant events in people's lives - getting married, having your babies baptised, saying goodbye to a loved one - these tend to happen in a church," says Rees.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve, a patron of the Conservative Christian Fellowship, said that atheism had not made "much progress" in the UK. "Many of the underlying ethics of society are Christian-based and the result of 1,500 years of Christian input into our national life," he said. In 2011 there were 51,880 weddings, 139,751 baptisms and 162,526 funerals conducted by Church of England clergy. Some 68% of 2010's marriages were civil ceremonies according to ONS. There were 729,674 live births and around 500,000 deaths registered in England and Wales in 2012.

The prominent role of the church in the country's education system may have much to do with this. In 2011, about one third of England's 20,000 state-funded schools were faith schools, of which 68% were affiliated to the Church of England schools and 30% were Roman Catholic.

Against: Non-Christian influences

In their letter to the Daily Telegraph, pro-secularist public figures argued that "Britain has been shaped for the better by many pre-Christian, non-Christian, and post-Christian forces".

While praising the contributions of Christians to public life they said it was wrong to "exceptionalise" them over and above those of different faiths and of none.

Britons who are agnostic, atheist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and who share other non-Christian belief system have all made a positive contribution to British culture, Sanderson says.

For: The calendar

A glance at the way national holidays are structured - not to mention the working week - demonstrates the continued influence of Christianity, says Rees.

"The major holidays around Christmas and Easter are there for the Christian festivals and events," she says. Despite occasional warnings about a "war on Christmas", both festivals are widely celebrated by Christians and non-Christians alike.

Although Sunday trading laws have been relaxed, "there's still an awareness of trying to keep one day that's for something more than earning money and the daily grind".

Against: Rise of other religions and the non-religious

The 2011 census suggested there were 14.1 million people of no religion compared with 7.7 million a decade previously. This represented a rise from 15% to 25% of the population. It also showed an increase in the number of Muslims, with the proportion of the population in 2011 standing at 4.8%, or 2.7 million, up 2% or 1.5 million in 2001.

The Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Sikh faiths all registered increases. There were 817,000 Hindus in 2011, a rise of 264,000 since 2001. The Jewish faith also rose by 3,000 over the last decade from 260,000 to 263,000.

When the census was released, Nick Spencer, research director at think-tank Theos, said the UK had "a plural religious landscape". Groups like the NSS say it is unfair to give one faith group advantages in this context.
Follow @BBCNewsMagazine on Twitter and on Facebook

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Eight arguments about whether the UK is a Christian country

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
David Cameron's remarks that the UK is a "Christian country" were criticised by a group of public figures. What are the arguments for and against the prime minister's claim? Writing for the Church Times, the prime minister said British people should "be more confident about our status as a Christian country".