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Catastrophic Collapse of Christianity in Britain Says New Study

By Ijaz Ahmad• May 18, 2013

It’s long been known that the number of British persons identifying themselves as Christian has been on the decline for several years now. As recently as last year, one study as reported in the British Newspaper (Telegraph UK), had these surprising statistics to report:

The number of people who declare themselves as Christians in England and Wales has fallen by almost ten per cent over the last five years, according to an official survey.
While Christianity remains the faith followed by the overall majority figures have been falling, down from 77 per cent in 2005 to 70 per cent in 2010.
The research also showed that Christians are less than half as likely to attend a place of worship as followers of other faiths.
Christian people were much less likely than all the other main religions to say that they practised their religion, while Muslim people were the most likely to practise their religion.

An updated study was done on the information from the 2011 census and some new data/ trends have been derived. The new information, provided by the Office for National Statistics now states (as published by the Telegraph UK):

Christianity is declining 50% faster than originally thought.
It suggests that only a minority of people will describe themselves as Christians within the next decade, for the first time.
The proportion of young people who describe themselves as even nominal Christians has dropped below half for the first time.
Meanwhile almost one in 10 under 25s in Britain is now a Muslim.
They (The Office for National Statistics) disclosed that there were in fact 5.3 million fewer British-born people describing themselves as Christians, a decline of 15 per cent in just a decade.
At the same time the number of Muslims in England and Wales surged by 75 per cent – boosted by almost 600,000 more foreign born followers of the Islamic faith. While almost half of British Muslims are under the age of 25, almost a quarter of Christians are over 65.

What’s striking from this report, is the main point made by Dr. Fraser Watts, a Cambridge Theologian who said:

“It was “entirely possible” the people identifying themselves as Christians could become a minority within the next decade on the basis of the figures.
“It is still pretty striking and it is a worrying trend and confirms what anyone can observe – that in many churches the majority of the congregation are over 60.”

Replies sorted oldest to newest

Mr.TI pity the fool

There has not been a catastrophic collapse. Pure nonsense. What has happened is that the faster breeding muslims and hindus have increased their numbers at a faster rate that the white folks.

5/20/1310:59 AM

PointblankSenior Member

'One church a week' faces closure

More than one church a week could close to worshippers in the next few years, while the UK stands to lose priceless heritage, a preservation body claims.

Unless new and imaginative uses can be found for the Church of England buildings, 60 could shut down every year, says the Ecclesiological Society.

Currently, between 25 to 35 churches are made "redundant" each year.

The society's Trevor Cooper said there was a huge range of churches vulnerable to abandonment.

Listed

"The reason it matters is that three-quarters of these churches are listed buildings and the key point here is these buildings are being looked after by small voluntary groups, which effectively is what congregations are," he said.

"There are 12,000 listed churches which need £50 million of funding a year to keep them going.

“ They are very historic, important buildings, but a huge number of which depend on dwindling congregations ”
Crispin Truman, Churches Conservation Trust

"One of the big problems is rural churches because a large number of rural churches are in tiny villages and when congregations shrink it becomes very hard to keep the church going."

Fewer church-goers, vandalism and a fluctuating population are all blamed for the crisis.

A total of 800 parishes now have 10 or fewer adults in their regular Sunday congregations - although, more positively, there are 2,500 churches which get regular congregations of more than 100 adults.

Crispin Truman, chief executive of the Churches Conservation Trust, said the crisis was compacted because heritage funding was being frozen in favour of the arts and sport.

"Churches are an important part of the landscape - it's part of what England is to many of us," he said.

"There are more than 15,000 parish churches. They are very historic, important buildings, but a huge number depend on dwindling congregations."

He said the way forward was by using churches more as a community space - they had a huge range of potential from concerts and art exhibitions to cafes.

One example was an 18th century church in St Paul's, in Bristol, which the trust had recently restored after it was "almost lost through vandalism and neglect."

A total of £3m was spent renovating it, which will now be used by a nearby school for performing and training.

Community centres

"It is going back to what medieval churches were like, where the main nave would be used for a whole range of activities during the week," he said.

"If we did this it would bring a whole lot more people who would be committed to the building. It would bring more people into the building who could then seen the benefits of the building."

According to the Church of England the number of closures is set to remain steady, while other places of worship are opening in their place.

In 2003, 34 of the Church of England's 16,000 church buildings were made redundant.

But in the same year, 18 new buildings were established or approved for use as churches, together with a greater number of dedicated multi-purpose and other buildings.

"For several years now, the annual number of redundancies has remained stable in the 25-35 range. The Church of England has no evidence suggesting that number is about to rise," said a spokesman.

"One reason that church buildings close is that the local population may have moved over time, and the church building finds itself no longer in the centre of its community.

"In cases like this the building may close, and reopen closer to the people it serves."

Story from BBC NEWS:

5/20/134:03 PM

Former Member

Another piece of bullshit Islamist mythologizing. Christian Britain is still the ere except it is not bound to the bible but is incorporation of the world view that religion has a place and so does rational secular humanist social life. Who care to be banging their head five times a day for not clear benefit except becoming sheep once more. No where does Islam even in its benign form offer any advantage to people in general than Christianity. The reason there is a thumping of chests as who are flocking to the church is because it is inconceivable for Muslims to believe one can be religious outside ritual. If anything, the world is not aligning itself to dogmatism of any religious creed but to an openness to a plurality of beliefs as is evident that the largest group on the planet are the areligious groups.

5/30/135:03 PM

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