The decline of Christianity

The Times reports that a new statistical analysis suggests that church attendance is now in such a steep decline that within a generation there will be more attending mosques than churches. Not only that, but by 2050 there may be as many active Hindus as Christians in this country.

These startling trends will leave both the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church financially unviable. Some other denominations will probably disappear altogether - with the Methodist Church in a catastrophic decline which will see its regular attendance (if it survives) fall to 3,600 by 2050, according to the Religious Trends survey.

The social, cultural and political implications of all this are profound. We are, nominally, a Christian country. Even at the last census in 2001 over seventy percent of us claimed to be Christian. But the reality is rather different. The Christianity of the seventy percent is diffuse, and diluted by secularism to the point where for many people it is for all practical purposes devoid of content. By contrast, the number of active Muslims is increasing steadily, not least because Islam is central to the identity of many of its adherents in precisely the way that Christianity is not to many of its professed believers.

The fact is that for several generations now Britain has become increasingly secularised. Many of the larger Christian denominations in this country, most notably the established Church itself, have accepted this process, if not actively embraced it. The Church of England finds itself in a tricky double-bind because of its constitutional position. In various respects the Church of England is either obliged or considers itself obliged to act on behalf of the entire population - whether Christian or not. It is important to bear this in mind when considering the Archbishop of Canterbury's disastrous intervention into the debate on Sharia law: there is an inherent contradiction for the leader of the Church of England - a Christian leader - to feel himself required effectively to support the use of Islamic law in certain circumstances.

In other words, the Church of England has largely lost its identity in much the same way as the broader community which it reflects. Many may argue that in our secular age it doesn't much matter whether the CofE survives or not - but political questions are raised which need to be addressed. In view of the social changes which are progressing with increasing speed, can the constitutional position of the Church of England really be sustained? It must surely be time for the Church of England to be disestablished: there is no longer any justification for Bishops to be appointed to the House of Lords, except on the same basis that any other religious dignitary might be so honoured. Equally there is no reason why government should intervene in the management of a religious organisation, or why the Royal Family (or anyone else) should face discrimination on the grounds of religion. Now that Christianity is losing its place as the dominant religion among the British people, it must surely be preferable to enshrine secularism as a principle of the British constitution rather than accept instead a creeping communalism of competing demands from other religious groups. And for the Church of England itself, the freedom to cling to its own spiritual identity may offer a chance to prosper in the future which the stifling demands of its current constitutional position can never do.