Secularisation In Britain

Using evidence from the 1851 census, what does Crockett estimate?

That in that year, 40% or more of the adult population of Britain attended Church on Sundays. This is much higher than that of today.

What are some of the general trends in religion seen in the UK?

• A decline in the proportion of the population going to church or belonging to one.

• An increase in the average age of churchgoers.

• Fewer baptisms and church weddings.

• A decline in the numbers holding traditional Christian beliefs.

• Greater diversity, including more non-Christian religions.

What did Wilson argue?

That Western societies had been undergoing a long-term process of secularisation.

What did Wilson define secularisation as?

‘The process whereby religious beliefs, practices and institutions loose social significance‘.

What are some examples of secularisation?

• Church attendance in England and Wales had fallen from 40% in the mid-19th century to 10-15% by the 1960s.

• Church weddings, baptisms and Sunday school attendance had also declined.

Wilson has concluded Britain has become a secular society.

Have the trends Wilson identified continued?

Yes:

• By 2015, about 5% of the adult population attended church on Sundays.

• Churchgoing in Britain has therefore more than halved since Wilson's research in the 1960s. For example, Sunday attendance in the Church of England fell from 1.6 million in 1960, to under 0.8 million in 2013.

• Sunday school attendance has declined further and only a tiny proportion of children now attend.

What does the English Church Census show?

That large organisations such as the Church of England have declined more than small organisations, some of which are remaining stable or have grown. However, the growth of these small organisations has not made up for the decline or large ones, so there has been an overall decline.

What is happening with church weddings and baptisms?

They remain more popular than attendance at Sunday services.In 1971, 60% of weddings were in church, but by 2012 the proportion was only 30%. The number of weddings in Catholic churches fell by three quarters between 1965 and 2011.

What else has fallen steadily?

Infant baptisms. The number of Catholic baptisms today is under half of those in 1964.

What is meant by ‘bogus baptisms‘?

While infant baptisms have declined, those of older children has increased in recent years. Research indicates that this is because many faith schools, which tend to be higher-performing schools, will only take baptised children. Baptism thus becomes an entry ticket to a good school rather than a sign of Christian commitment.

What does a person’s religious affiliation refer to?

Their membership of or identification with a religion.

What does evidence indicate about religious affiliation?

A continuing decline in the number of people who are affiliated to a religion.

What is the trend in those identifying as Christian?

(2015) It fell by a third. The sharpest fall was for Anglicans, whose numbers more than halved.

What do ’other Christians’ include?

Denominations such as Methodists and Baptists. This category has remained static since 1983, at 17% of the population. But while over four fifths of them identified with a specific denomination in 1983, only a fifth are now attached to a group.

What does evidence about religious beliefs from 8 years of survey research show?

That religious belief is declining along with the decline in church attendance. Surveys show a significant decline in belief in a personal god, in Jesus as the son of God and in Christian teachings about the afterlife and the Bible.

What has declined along with religious belief and practice?

The influence of religion as a social institution. Although the church has some influence on public life, this has declined significantly since the 19th century.

Until the mid-19th century, what did the churches provide?

Education, but since then it has been provided mainly by the state.

What is there a legal requirement for schools to provide?

A daily act of collective worship of a ‘broadly Christian character‘, a BBC survey in 2005 found that over half the secondary schools in Wales failed to comply with this.

What is one measure of the institutional weakness of the churches?

The number of clergy. During the 20th century , this fell from 45,00 to 34,000. Had it kept pace in population growth , it would now number over 80,00. The number of Catholic priests fell by a third between 1965 and 2011.

What does a lack of clergy on the ground in local communities mean?

The day-to-day service of the churches is reduced/

What does Bruce agree with Wilson in?

That all the evidence in secularisation has now been pointing in the same direction for many years.

What does Bruce predict?

That if current trends continue, the Methodist Church will fold around 2030 and by then, the Church of England will be merely a small voluntary organisation with a large amount of heritage property.