Epigraph:
Is he, then, who knows that what has been revealed to thee (Muhammad) from thy Lord is the truth, like one who is blind? But only those gifted with understanding will reflect. Al Quran 13:18)
Rowan Williams did ceremonize the marriage of Prince Williams and Kate Middleton
The Huffington Post | by Yasmine Hafiz
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron caused controversy last week by calling Britain a “Christian country,” but the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Rowan Williams, has a different take on the matter.
Williams told the Sunday Telegraph that Britain is no longer a “nation of believers,” and the era of widespread worship is over.
He characterized Britain as a “post-Christian” nation, “in the sense that habitual practice for most of the population is not taken for granted,” reports the BBC.
Williams elaborated on his statements by explaining that “the cultural memory is still quite strongly Christian.” However, “It’s a matter of defining terms. A Christian country as a nation of believers? No. A Christian country in the sense of still being very much saturated by this vision of the world and shaped by it? Yes.”
Categories: CHRISTIANITY, Europe and Australia, UK
Archbishop Williams has a point. According to http://www.whychurch.org.uk/trends.php
The percentage of the UK population attending church has dropped from 11% in 1980 to 6% in 2010 and is expected to reach 4.4% in 2020.
The average age of churchgoers was 37 in 1980, was 51 in 2010 and is expected to reach 56 in 2020. The church is evolving into an old-folks burial society.
Among other countries in Europe, only Hungary, France and Denmark had a lower percentage of church attendance seven years ago. That is probably true today.