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Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother 6 page


12413 Religion


> Women priests On Wednesday 11 November 1992, at Eve in the evening, Dr George Carey, the Archbishop of Canter­bury, rose to announce a momentous decision. By just two votes more than the required two-thirds majority, the General Synod of the Anglican Church (its gov­erning body) had voted to allow the ordination of women priests. The debate in the Synod had lasted more than six hours, and had been going on for years before that, both inside and outside the church, all over the country. About eighteen months after­wards, the first women priests were ordained. Those who support this development believe that it will help to give the Church of England a greater relevance to the modern world and finally bring it up to date. (Unlike the Catholic Church, it has always allowed its clergy to be married.) Some who were opposed to the change have not accepted the Synod's decision, and there are a few local cases of attempts to set up a rebel church. Some members of the Anglican Church have decided to 'go over to Rome' - that is, to join the Catholic Church, which does not have women priests.


ally as much a social as a religious activity, and predominantly one for the upper and middle classes. The doctrine of the Church of England was set out in the sixteenth century, in a document called the Thirty-Nine Articles. However, the main motivation for the birth of Anglicanism was more patriotic and political than doctrinal (see chapter 2). As a result, it has always been what is called a 'broad church', willing to accommodate a wide variety of beliefs and practices. For example, the nature of its reli­gious services varies quite widely from church to church, depending partly on the inclinations of the local priest and partly on local tradition. Three main strands of belief can be identified. One strand is evan­gelical, or 'low church'. This places great emphasis on the contents of the Bible and is the most consciously opposed to Catholicism. It therefore adheres closely to those elements of the Thirty-Nine. Articles that reject Papal doctrines and is suspicious of the hierarchical structure of the Church. It prefers plain services with a minimum of ceremony. In contrast, the beliefs of the 'Anglo-Catholic', or 'high church', strand are virtually identical to those of Catholicism - except that it does not accept the Pope as the ultimate authority. High church services are more colourful and include organ music and elaborate priestly clothing. Both these strands are traditional in their outlook. But there is also a liberal wing, which is willing to question some of the traditional Christian beliefs, is more inclined to view the Bible as merely a historical document, is more tolerant towards homosexual­ity and was the first to support moves to ordain women priests (> Women priests). But to many, perhaps most, of its members, it is the 'Englishness' of the Anglican Church which is just as important as its religious doctrine. This is what gives it meaning and holds its various strands together. Without it, many Anglo-Catholics would be Catholic, many low churchers and liberals would form their own sects or join existing nonconformist groups (see below), and a very large number would simply cease to have anything to do with organized religion at all. Perhaps this is why an opinion poll in the 1980s showed that most people, displaying apparently uncharacteristic intolerance, approve of the law that does not permit a Catholic monarch. At present, this national distinctiveness is emphasized by the Ang­lican Church's position as the official religion. It has been argued that the tie between Church and State should be broken; that is, that the Church should be disestablished so that, after losing its extreme members to other churches, it could spend less time on internal disagreement and more on the moral and spiritual guidance of its remaining members. Those who are against this move fear that it would cause the obvious Englishness of the Church to disappear and thus for the number of its adherents to drop sharply.

 




Catholicism 125


Catholicism After the establishment of Protestantism in Britain (see chapter 2), Catholicism was for a time an illegal religion and then a barely tolerated religion. Not until 1850 was a British Catholic hierarchy re­established. Only in the twentieth century did it become fully open about its activities. Although Catholics can now be found in all ranks of society and in all occupations, the comparatively recent integration of Catholicism means that they are still under-represented at the top levels. For example, although Catholics comprise more than 10% of the population, they comprise only around 5% of MPs. A large proportion of Catholics in modern Britain are those whose family roots are in Italy, Ireland or elsewhere in Europe. The Irish connection is evident in the large proportion of priests in England who come from Ireland (they are sometimes said to be Ireland's biggest export!). Partly because of its comparatively marginal status, the Catholic Church, in the interests of self-preservation, has maintained a greater cohesiveness and uniformity than the Anglican Church. In modern times it is possible to detect opposing beliefs within it (there are conservative and radical/liberal wings), but there is, for example, more centralized control over practices of worship. Not having had a recognized, official role to play in society, the Catholic Church in Britain takes doctrine and practice (for example, weekly attendance at mass) a bit more seriously than it is taken in countries where Catholicism is the majority religion - and a lot more seriously than the Anglican Church in general does. This comparative dedication can be seen in two aspects of Catholic life. First, religious instruction is taken more seriously in Catholic schools than it is in Anglican ones, and Catholic schools in Britain usually have a head who is either a monk, a friar or a nun. Second, there is the matter of attendance at church. Many people who hardly ever step inside a church still feel entitled to describe themselves as 'Anglican'. In contrast, British people who were brought up as Catholics but who no longer attend mass regularly or receive the sacraments do not normally describe themselves as 'Catholic'. They qualify this label with 'brought up as' or 'lapsed'. Despite being very much a minority religion in most places in the country, as many British Catholics regularly go to church as do Anglicans.

> Episcopalianism The Anglican Church is the official state religion in England only. There are, however, churches in other countries (such as Scotland, Ireland, the USA and Australia) which have the same origin and are almost identical to it in their general beliefs and practices. Members of these churches sometimes describe them­selves as 'Anglican'. However, the term officially used in Scotland and the USA is 'Episcopalian' (which means that they have bishops), and this is the term which is often used to denote all of these churches, including the Church of England, as a group. Every ten years the bishops of all the Episcopalian churches in the world gather together in London for the Lambeth Conference, which is chaired by the Archbishop of Canter­bury. Despite the name 'Canterbury', the official residence of the head of the Church of England is Lambeth Palace in London.

 


126 13 Religion


> Keeping the sabbath In the last two centuries, the influ­ence of the Calvinist tradition has been felt in laws relating to Sundays. These laws have recently been relaxed, but shop opening hours, gambling and professional sport on Sundays are still all restricted in small ways. In some places in rural Wales, where nonconformism is tradition­ally strong, Sundays are still 'dry'; that is, the pubs stay closed.

Other conventional Christian churches In many ways, Anglicanism represents a compromise between Protestantism and Catholicism. Its stated doctrine, which rejects the authority of the Pope and other important aspects of Catholic doctrine, is Protestant. But its style, as shown by its hierarchical structure and its forms of worship, is rather Catholic. When Protestantism first took root in Britain, there were many people who rejected not only Catholic doctrine but also 'Romish' style. These people did not join the newly-established Anglican Church. They regarded both the authority given to its clergy and its continuation of orthodox ritual as obstacles to true worship. Instead, they placed great importance on finding the truth for oneself in the words of the Bible and on living an austere life of hard work and self-sacrifice. They disapproved of the pursuit of pleasure and therefore frowned on public entertainments such as the theatre^ on drinking, on gambling and on any celebration of the sexual aspect of life. This is the origin of the Puritan/Calvinist tradition in Britain (see chapter 2). The first church within this tradition was the Presbyterian Church. In Scotland, this form of Protestantism was so strong that it became the nation's established church. The Church of Scotland has a separate organization from the Anglican Church. It has no bishops. Its head, or 'Moderator', is elected by its general assembly. It is the biggest religion in Scotland, where it is often known simply as 'the kirk' (the Scots word for 'church'). There are also many Presbyterians in England and a large number in Northern Ireland. In England, those Protestants who did not accept the authority of the Anglican Church were first known as 'dissenters' and later, as

 


> What is it called?  
    Anglican   Catholic   Presbyterian and other nonconformist  
Local unit   parish   parish   congregation  
Place of worship   church   church   chapel kirk' meeting house2  
Clergy   vicar/rector/parson3 priests curate4   priest   minister pastor  
New member of clergy   deacon   novice      
Residence of clergy   vicarage rectory       manse'  

 

' Church of Scotland only

2 Mainly Quaker

3 One of these is used when referring to an individual; "priests' is used collectively.

4 A junior member of the clergy


Other religions 127


tolerance grew, as 'nonconformists'. These days, when refusal to conform to the established church is irrelevant, they are simply called 'members of the free churches'. A great many different free-church groups have come into being over the centuries. In the details of their organization, styles of worship and doctrinal emphasis, the various nonconformist groups differ considerably. However, they all share, in varying degrees, certain characteristics: they regard sim­plicity and individual prayer as more important than elaborate ritual and public ceremony; there is comparatively little difference between their clergy (if they have any at all) and their lay members; they praise self-denial, although to a lesser extent than the original Puritans. For example, many are teetotal (their members do not drink alcohol). After Presbyterians, the largest traditional nonconformist group in Britain is the Methodist Society. Methodists follow the teachings of John Wesley, an eighteenth century preacher who started his career as an Anglican clergyman. He had little doctrinal disagreement with the established church. However, he and his followers considered that it did not care enough about the needs of ordinary people and that its hierarchy was not serious enough about the Christian message. The Salvation Army (see chapter 18) grew out of the Wesley an movement. Two other nonconformist groups with a long history are the Baptists and the Quakers. The former are comparatively strict both in their interpretation of the Bible and in their dislike of worldly pleas­ures. The latter, also known as the Society of Friends, are a very small group whose notable characteristics are their complete lack of clergy and their pacifism. They refuse to fight in any war, though they will do ambulance and hospital work. Other religions, churches and religious movements Since it is a multicultural country where the pressure to conform is comparatively weak, Britain is home to followers of almost every religion and sect imaginable. Some of these are offshoots, or local combinations, of those already mentioned. For example, the only Church of distinctly Welsh origin calls itself both 'Calvinistic Methodist' and 'Presbyterian Church of Wales'. The numbers of followers of all the traditional Christian churches have been slowly but steadily declining in the second half of the twentieth century. Other Christian sects and churches have been growing. Because of their energetic enthusiasm and their desire to attract new followers, they are sometimes characterized by the term 'evangelical'. Most of them are similar to traditional nonconformist groups in that they avoid rigid ritual and place great emphasis on scripture. In the case of some groups, their interpretations of the Bible are often literal: the Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Seventh Day Adventists (all of which originated in the USA) are examples. These groups, and others, also provide a strict code of behaviour for their followers.

Ecumenicalism This term is used to describe the trend in the last half of the twentieth century towards greater co-opera­tion, and even unity, among the various Christian churches in Britain. Cynics say that this spirit is the result of the fact that active parti­cipation in any form of Christianity has become the activity of a rather small minority. However, the churches themselves are quite sincere about it. With political and social divisions far enough behind them, they find that they do indeed have a lot in common. The only actual union that ecumenicalism has yet produced is the unification of Presbyterians and Congregationalists, who, in 1972, became the United Reformed Church. Anglicans and Methodists came very close (but not quite close enough) to a union in 1968. The possibility of the Anglican Church rejoining world Catholicism seems to have receded since the introduction of women priests.

> Church of Wales? There is no Welsh equivalent of the Church of England or the Church of Scotland. That is to say, Wales has no officially established Church. The Anglican Church was disestablished in Wales, where it has always had only a tiny following, in 1914. Wales is predominantly non­conformist.

 


128 13 Religion


> As quiet as a church mouse Conventional church services in Britain are typically very quiet, except when hymns are being sung. British people attending church services abroad have often been amazed, even shocked, by the noisiness and liveliness of the con­gregation. They chatter among themselves, they walk in and out... In Britain, respect and reverence have traditionally been expressed by silence and stillness. Many people, however, find the atmosphere at tra­ditional services rather repressive and unwelcoming. This could help to explain the trend towards evan­gelical and charismatic Christian churches.

The fastest-growing type of evangelical Christianity, however, places less emphasis on dogma, sin, or giving people a code of behaviour. Instead, the emphasis is on the spiritual and miraculous; on revelation. Gatherings often involve joyful singing. There is a belief in spiritual healing of the sick. The oldest existing church of this type in Britain is called Pentecostal, and this term is sometimes used to denote all such groups. Pentecostalism has had a small working-class following for many years. Its recent growth is among the middle class. Many groups began "with meetings in people's living rooms, where formality is at a minimum. Another term sometimes used of these groups is 'charismatic', reflecting both their enthusiasm and their emphasis on the miraculous. The growth of these groups might indicate that many British people feel a gap in their lives which neither the material benefits of modern life nor the conventional churches can fill. Some people are turning even further afield, beyond the bounds of the Christian tradition. The term 'New Age' is used to cover a very wide range of beliefs which can involve elements of Christianity, eastern religions and ancient pagan beliefs all mixed in together. Inter­ests and beliefs of this kind are not new in Britain. Theosophy, Druidism, Buddhism, Christian Scientism (which believes in the control of the body through the mind) and many other beliefs have all had their followers in this country for a hundred years or more. Until the 196os such people came exclusively from a small set of the upper middle class. Since then, however, New Age beliefs have fil­tered downwards to other sections of the social scale. Despite their great variety and lack of exclusiveness, two features seem to be common to all New Age beliefs: first, an emphasis on personal devel­opment (often seen as spiritual development); second, respect for the natural environment. The remaining religious groups with significant numbers of fol­lowers in Britain are all associated with racial minorities. The most well-established of these are the Jews. Anti-Semitism exists in Britain, but for a long time it has been weaker than it is in most other parts of Europe. The security and confidence of Judaism in Britain can be seen both in the healthy proportion of Jews in Parliament and in the fact that within it there is, quite openly, the same struggle between orthodox/conservative and liberal/radical viewpoints as there is in the Anglican and Catholic churches. The numbers of followers of the Christian Orthodox, Sikh, Hindu and Muslim religions are all growing, mainly because of high birth rates among families belonging to them. The last of these is by far the largest. Its continued growth is also for another reason. Relative poverty, racial discrimination and occasional conflicts with the authorities have caused people brought up as Muslims to be politi­cized - more so than any other religious group in the country. As a result, young Muslims are less likely to drift away from their religion

 


Other religions 12 9



> Samye Ling

In February 1993 thirty-five monks emerged from a four-year retreat. It was a very strict retreat. The monks never left their sleeping quarters. They spent most of their time meditating in wooden boxes, the same boxes in which they slept. They never once listened to the radio, watched television or read a newspaper.

If you know something about religion, you will not be surprised to learn that these monks were Tibetan Buddhists and that the name of the monastery in which the retreat took place is Samye Ling. But what you may be surprised to learn is that Samye Ling is in Eskdalemuir, near Lockerbie, in Scot­land. It was set up in 1968 when a group of Tibetan monks arrived in the area. They soon collected a large number of European followers and set them to work building Europe's largest Buddhist temple. Since then, Samye Ling has continued to attract new followers. So many Buddhists now live in the area that in 1993 the local primary school had only one Christian pupil.


than the young of other faiths. One example of conflict is the Salman Rushdie affair (see chapter 6). Another is the question of Muslim schools. There have been both Catholic and Jewish state schools for some time now. The country's Muslims are demanding the same opportunity.

Finally, it is necessary to mention what are called 'cults'. The beliefs of these groups vary so widely that it is impossible to generalize about them. What they seem to have in common is the style of their belief, involving absolute commitment to and unquestioning obedience of the leader around whom they are centred (it is often only in this sense that they can be called religions). Cults have a bad reputation for using mind-control techniques. Their extremist tendencies are often offensive to most people and, with a few exceptions, each individual cult is tiny. However, it has been estimated that there are between 500 and 700 of them in the country and that, taken together, they have nearly half a million followers.


 


QUESTIONS

1 What reasons have been put forward for dises­tablishing the Anglican Church? What are the arguments in favour of keeping it in its favoured position?

2 In what ways, and to what extent, can different churches and religions in Britain be associated with particular geographical areas and particular social classes?

3 How does the relation between religion and pol­itics differ between your country and Britain?


 

4 It could be argued that in both the nature of their services and their general attitude, the charis­matic churches are surprisingly un-British in their approach to religion, m contrast, it could be said that the general attitude of the New Age movement fits quite comfortably into the tradi­tional British approach. Do you agree?



> Public means private! Terminology to do with the school system in Britain can be confusing. Schools funded by the government, either directly or via local education authorities, are called 'state schools' and education provided in this way is known as 'state education'. This distinguishes it from 'private education', which comprises 'independent schools'. Some inde­pendent schools (a varying number, because the term is not exact) are known as "public schools'. The possibility of confusion is especially great because in the USA schools organized by the govern­ment are called 'public schools' and the education provided by the gov­ernment is called the 'public school system'. In Britain today, about 8% of chil­dren are educated outside the state system.

The basic features of the British educational system are the same as they are anywhere else in Europe: full-time education is compulsory up to the middle teenage years; the academic year begins at the end of summer; compulsory education is free of charge, but parents may spend money on educating their children privately if they "want to (> Public means private!). There are three recognized stages, with children moving from the first stage (primary) to the second stage (secondary) at around the age of eleven or twelve. The third (tertiary) stage is 'further' education at university or college. However, there is quite a lot which distinguishes education in Britain from the way it works in other countries. Historical background The British government attached little importance to education until the end of the nineteenth century. It was one of the last governments in Europe to organize education for everybody. Britain was leading the world in industry and commerce, so, it was felt, education must somehow be taking care of itself. Today, however, education is one of the most frequent subjects for public debate in the country. To understand the background to this debate, a little history is needed. Schools and other educational institutions (such as universities) existed in Britain long before the government began to take an interest in education. When it finally did, it did not sweep these institutions away, nor did it always take them over. In typically British fashion, it sometimes incorporated them into the system and sometimes left them outside it. Most importantly, the government left alone the small group of schools which had been used in the nineteenth century (and in some cases before then) to educate the sons of the upper and upper-middle classes. At these 'public' schools (> The public school system), the emphasis was on 'character-building' and the devel­opment of' team spirit' rather than on academic achievement. This involved the development of distinctive customs and attitudes, the wearing of distinctive clothes and the use of specialized items of vocabulary. They were all 'boarding schools' (that is, the pupils lived in them), so they had a deep and lasting influence on their pupils. Their aim was to prepare young men to take up positions in the higher ranks of the army, in business, the legal profession, the civil service and politics.

 


Historical background 131



> The public school system

Stereotypical public schools:

• are for boys only from the age of thirteen onwards, most of whom attended a private 'prep' (= preparatory) school beforehand;

• take fee-paying pupils (and some scholarship pupils who have won a place in a competitive entrance exam and whose parents do not pay);

• are boarding schools (the boys live there during term-time);

• are divided into 'houses', each 'house' being looked after by a 'housemaster';

• make some of the senior boys 'pre­fects', which means that they have authority over the other boys and have their own servants (called 'fags'), who are appointed from amongst the youngest boys;

• place great emphasis on teamsports;

• enforce their rules with the use of physical punishment;

• have a reputation for a relatively great amount of homosexual activity;

• are not at all luxurious or comfort-|able.

However, this traditional image no longer fits the facts. These days, there is not a single public school in the


 

country in which all of the above fea­tures apply. There have been a fairly large number of girls' public schools for the last hundred years, and more recently a few schools have started to admit both boys and girls. Many schools admit day pupils as well as boarders, and some are day-schools only; prefects no longer have so much power or have been abolished altogether; fagging has disappeared;


 

there is less emphasis on team sport

and more on academic achievement;

life for the pupils is more physically comfortable than it used to be.

Among the most famous public schools are Eton, Harrow, Rugby and Winchester.


When the pupils from these schools finished their education, they formed the ruling elite, retaining the distinctive habits and vocabu­lary "which they had learnt at school. They formed a closed group, to a great extent separate from the rest of society. Entry into this group was difficult for anybody who had had a different education. When, in the twentieth century, education and its possibilities for social advancement came within everybody's reach, new schools tended to copy the features of the public schools. (After all, they provided the only model of a successful school that the country had.) Many of the more distinctive characteristics of British education outlined below can be ascribed, at least partly, to this historical background. Of more recent relevance is Britain's general loss of confidence in itself (see chapters 4 and 6). This change of mood has probably had a greater influence on education than on any other aspect of public life (> Looking towards Germany). The modern educational system has been through a period of constant change and it is difficult to predict what further changes will occur in the next decade. At the same time, however, there are certain underlying characteristics that seem to remain fixed.

> Looking towards Germany The accepted wisdom in modern Britain is that the education systems of many other countries are better than the British one, especially the German system. Queen Victoria was known to have remarked on this in the nineteenth century. But that, of course, was in the days when Britain ruled the world, so who cared? These days, however, the British take their inadequacies seriously. In 1991 The Economist reported that pil­grimages to Germany from British educationalists, education ministers and business people had become so common that the British embassy in Bonn employed a full-time official to look after these visitors and put them in touch with the right educa­tional experts.

 


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