For The Brits Here:

.... And then while you blokes are at it, why do the Brits put milk in their tea? Or is there a preference for lemon?:wavey:

 

When you say British Isles do you include the Irish Republic or just Northern Ireland?

 

Technically, the only 'Brits' live on the island of Great Britain. Even the people of Northern Ireland, though part of the UK, would be Irish, not British. The Republic of Ireland is totally independent and is not a part of any other nation.

I know the United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland) differ greatly. Northern Ireland is sometimes called 'The Bible Belt' of Europe and still has a very Christian ethos. Scotland would be a little less 'Christian' than NI, and Wales and England are almost totally secular.

The Republic of Ireland is an independent nation and has no political ties to the UK. Even since I came here in 1995 it has gone from being a Roman Catholic state to a strongly secular state. It will be interesting to see how many call themselves any kind of Christian in the last census. In the last census only about 1% considered themselves Christian outside of the Catholic Church, and many of those on called themselves Catholic because of their heritage. There is a move afoot by an atheist organisation to get people who are not Catholics in belief to put down 'no religion' in the next census.

I am sure the specific numbers for the UK and Eire are googleable.

 

The European Baptist Federation lists the number of church members in Great Britain as 135,042. Obviously this does not include all Christians. But it is a data point.

1 959 are the number of Baptist churches reported by the EBF.

http://www.ebf.org/member-unions/member-info.php?country=17

Concerning the decline of Christianity in Europe Christopher Hitchens made gave an interesting comment ... which I believe is to a great extent true.

 

If you count 'evangelical' as being the measure of 'Christian', then the UK has about 7% who self-identify as evangelical, but the evangelicals are most heavily concentrated in the 'Celtic fringe' ie: Wales, Scotland, and 'Norn Iron', with England being the most secularised. Interestingly, Catholics make up around 10% of the population but again are concentrated in the Celtic lands (except Wales) so the UK is now more Catholic than the Republic of Ireland! Overall, 73% of the UK population self-identified as 'Christian' according to the 2001 census.

Make of all that what you will!

Oh, and the reason we have milk in our tea (and we're talking Indian or Ceylon here, not any of that fruit or herbal rubbish) is that we like it strong* and dark, and that sort of tea is pretty much indigestible without a shot of milk.

* Another reason why you guys erroneously think we have bad teeth; we don't, but they do tend to have horrid brown stains due to the amount of strong tea and coffee that we drink.

 

Ah Matt my dear brother. good to hear from you again. :love2: If you saw the money Americans spend on dental work then you would understand:laugh:

while I have you, I have read that Constantine's mother was Welsh. Any truth to it?

I am also viewing a British Export TV Program through National Geographics called "An Idiot Abroad" .....Ricky Gervais (Sp?) is the producer. Have you seen it....very funny.:thumbs:

Blessings mate

 

Well, apparently Constantine's mother, Flavia Julia Helena Augusta, though born in Bithynia in 248, was the daughter of Coel Hen ('Old King Cole') of the British (ie: at the time, Welsh) but there's no way of verifying it (that hasn't stopped me putting it in my family tree!).

 

Ole King Cole....LOL. Wow, then I might be related! Will have to get DNA Tests.

Have a nice w/e brother.

 

Thanks. Supposedly, St Helens in Lancashire is named after her.

 

Rippon, out of curiosity, how much of South Korea claims to be Christian & do you have breakdowns on Denoms?

Thanks

 

Not sure why anyone should take offence at the term "the British Isles", as it is a geographical term, not a political one. It refers to group of islands off the northwest coast of Europe consisting of Great Britain (i.e. England, Scotland and Wales), the whole of Ireland, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Isle of Wight, the Scilly Islands, Lundy Island, the Channel Islands and many other smaller islands. Perhaps people in the Irish Republic (Eire) might not like having "British" applied to them in any way. Was that what you were thinking?

If anyone is confused by terms like Great Britain, United Kingdom, and British Isles, a good explanation is at Know Britain.

As for how many Christians there are in the British Isles, it's very difficult to say. In the last census in the UK (that is, Great Britain and Northern Ireland), over 70% of the population said they were Christians. Yet only 3½% attend any kind of religious service. That 3½% would include cults, non-Christian religions, etc.

 

Catholics and Anglicans share roughly the same in terms of memebrship, each weighing in at around 1.1M. They are the two largest denominations in the UK, with more Catholics in the Celtic areas and more Anglicans in England.