CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN

Who, when and how it started?

The circumstances under which Christianity took root in Britain are not vividly clear. No one is certain about when exactly Christianity started in Britain or when the first missionary got there. Many stories have been put up to try and explain when it started. The most significant one being that it started in 156 AD when one of the British kings wrote a letter which had Christian basis. People then accepted and embraced the religion after this.

Christianity however suffered a major setback at around 303 AD when Christians were being persecuted. The reasons for this have been explained. During that time, religions were like cults and there were several other cults in Britain. No cult was to be considered superior over the other. When Christian activity started taking center stage, Diocletian, who was the emperor at that time, did not like this and started persecuting people who followed the religion. Hundreds were killed. This made people shy away from the cult and those who were faithful enough started practicing Christianity in private and secrecy.

The persecution was however brought to a halt a decade later when a new Constantine took over. Although the organization of the church had been disrupted, there was enough manpower to represent it at the Arles council which decided on what to do with apostates that had survived the persecution era. It was at this time that the religion started to revive and recollect itself. The church looked healthy since then until the World War II which affected Britain. Christians were not able to access churches and as a result, most of them quit while some backslid. Other organized religions were affected too. The trend did not start just during the world war but also in the late 19th century when there was a decline in the number of people associated with organized religion. Just before the world war, the Salvation Army was formed. It was a movement that worked towards reaching out to the poor and those Christians who could not find their way to churches. This was the first attempt to try and restore the popularity of Christianity in Britain.

Christianity now

The Christian religion in the United Kingdom is fast fading away being overtaken by other religions, mostly the Islamic religion. Efforts have been put to revive the Christian popularity but it seems like they are all in vain. The 20th and 21st century has seen meetings and conferences been held in an effort to hold talks and trying to find a way forward to revitalize the dying religion. The major talks held were between the various Christian denominations in Britain just after the World War II.

They started in the late 1950s and continued until 2003. The proposals made during the meetings were however not passed. This made the situation bad. What made it worse is the fact that more Christians kept migrating out of the country. Recent statistics show that the Muslim and other religions such as the Buddhist are taking over Britain.