Creationism in churches in the UK
| Basically four groups account for the bulk of creationist churches in the UK – Baptist, Pentecostal, Independent Evangelical and Brethren. They account for 77%. |
In this section we look at the extent of belief in young earth creationism amongst Britain's many denominations.
It is likely that this will take us many months to complete. We have started on a regional basis with Northern Ireland where our research overlaps with some qualitative background on the Caleb Foundation. Recent related research can be found in our sections on Pastor Gareth Crossley and his connections, the Evangelical Theological College of Wales, the London Theological Seminary and the European Theological Seminary. We also have a separate article on the Seventh Day Adventist Church.
However, our initial look at the UK in total points to creationism largely being a product of independent evangelical churches, over half of which described themselves as "Baptist". Very few, though, were members of the mainstream Baptist Union. Many of the churches we identified as endorsing creationism were members of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) or GraceNet. The second biggest group were Pentecostal (of various Pentecostal denominations, including independent). It also appears common amongst Plymouth Brethren churches.
In general where those that were members of recognised denominations rather than independent, the denominations were mostly small. Creationism appeared to be virtually absent from the mainstream denomination churches such as Anglican, Catholic, Baptist Union, Methodist, United Reformed Church and the Church of Scotland.
We are organising surveys on a regional basis as well as nationwide:
Creationism in Northern Ireland
Creationism in Wales (to follow)
Creationism in Scotland (to follow)
Creationism in England (to follow)
Creationism amongst British churches
January 17th 2007
© 2007 Roger Stanyard
BCSE has undertaken some research to identify the extent of belief in creationism amongst Christian denominations in the UK. We have identified 463 individual churches that endorse young earth creationism in public – given that we calculate that there are 45,300 churches in the UK, this represents 1% of the total. (See notes (1) and (4))
We conclude that belief in young earth creationism is heavily centred on independent Baptist and independent evangelical churches, small splinter Baptist and evangelical denominations and Pentecostal and Brethren churches. The main exception appears to be in mainstream Baptist churches that are members of the four Baptist Union organisations in the UK. However, the mainstream Baptist movement is not strongly creationist (in contrast to the position in the USA with the Southern Baptist Convention).
Table 1: Summary of Creationist Churches
| | | |
| Denomination | Number | Percentage |
|---|
| | | |
| Baptist | 168 | 36% |
| Pentecostal | 80 | 17% |
| Independent Evangelical | 71 | 15% |
| Brethren | 37 | 8% |
| Presbyterian | 24 | 5% |
| Congregational/URC | 14 | 3% |
| Other Independents | 11 | 2% |
| Church of England | 10 | 2% |
| Methodist | 7 | 2% |
| Seventh Day Adventist | 4 | 1% |
| Unknown denominations | 17 | 4% |
| Other denominations | 20 | 4% |
| | | |
| Total | 463 | 100% |
Summary: In what is basically a sampling technique to identify which denominations tend to believe in YEC, BCSE has identified 463 (see note 2) churches in the UK which have endorsed young earth creationism. Of these 168 (36%) describe themselves as Baptist. This was lower than we expected from earlier survey. We identified 41 as members of the mainstream Baptist Union (including the Baptist Union of Scotland and the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland). This represents 24% of creationist Baptist churches and 9% of all the creationist churches we identified.
Table 2: Breakdown of Baptist Churches Identified as YEC
| Denomination | Number Identified as YEC Endorsing |
|---|
| | |
| Baptist Union (all) | 41 |
| Affiliation Unknown | 21 |
| FIEC | 21 |
| Grace Baptist Assembly | 19 |
| Baptist Bible Fellowship | 6 |
| Other Independent | 55 |
| Others | 5 |
| | |
| Total | 168 |
In one sense this should come as not surprise. Of the long established mainstream denominations in the UK, the Baptists are the only one that is predominantly evangelical. Moreover, the Baptist movement is exceedingly fractious, allowing for widespread differences of interpretation between churches calling themselves Baptist. The Baptist Union is understood to have about 2,150 member churches in the UK (including Scotland but partially excluding Wales), representing about 140,000 members (this is a lower figure than those who regularly attend Baptist churches as membership is conditional on adult baptism.) However we have no estimates at all for the number of non-Baptist Union Baptist churches in the UK.
Table 3 Breakdown of Baptist Union Churches
| Affiliation | Number Identified as YEC Endorsing |
|---|
| | |
| Baptist Union | 26 |
| Baptist Union, Ireland | 8 |
| Baptist Union, Scotland | 7 |
| | |
| Total | 41 |
The Baptist Movement: There are four mainstream Baptist organisations in the UK, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, The Baptist Union of Scotland, the Baptist Union of Wales and the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland. Some Baptist churches are affiliated to more than one of these four organisations.
However, there are a number of Baptist movements whose members churches are not members of the Baptist Union. The largest of these is that headed up by the Grace Baptist Assembly. The churches involved are what are commonly called Strict (or Strict and Particular) Baptist Churches.
However, the Strict Baptists themselves are divided between Grace (or Particular) Baptists and Gospel Standard Baptists.
There are also a significant number of Baptist churches that are affiliated to the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) or are wholly independent of any affiliation or are associated with an organisation called GraceNet.
Basically the Grace Baptist churches, Gospel Standard Baptists and Baptist FIEC members, as well as some of the wholly independent Baptist churches, are what we would normally consider as fundamentalist. It is therefore not surprising that we find many YEC endorsing churches amongst these groups.
There are also some 17 churches that are members of the Old Baptist Union. This does not appear to be a fundamentalist organisation.
The Baptist Union of Wales is understood to have around 544 congregations but 146 are members of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. The Baptist Union of Scotland lists 173 member churches. The Association of Baptist Churches claims over a 100 member churches but some of these are in the Republic of Ireland. There is, apparently, a list of independent Baptist churches at http://www.baptist.co.uk but the link looks to be dead. The 2005 Church census counts 2,386 Baptist churches in England but it also counts 2,231 as “independent” which presumably includes both those calling themselves Baptist and others who either don’t practice adult baptism or are not congregational in nature. Our best guess is that there are about 750-1,000 independent Baptist churches (including those affiliated to FIEC and Grace) across the UK. That in turn suggests between 13% and 17% are known to be creationist – a very high percentage indeed compared with any denomination. We count 2569 Baptist Union churches across the UK which suggests only about 1.5% are known to be creationist.)
The tiny Bible Baptist Fellowship (consisting of six churches) actually endorses creationism as part of its statement of faith – see http://www.baptistbiblefellowship.co.uk/Doctrinal_Statement.htm. It is considered to be fundamentalist and is American in origin.
We identified nineteen churches which were members of the Grace Baptist Assembly. It is a denomination of around 10,000 members with 260 churches (according to Wikipedia) and includes churches that were part of the Strict Baptist movement. As far as we can make out the Assembly members are organised through three separate regional operations, the Association of Grace Baptist Churches (SE) (formerly the Metropolitan Association of Strict Baptist churches), the Association of Grace Baptist Churches (East Anglia), and the Association of Grace Baptist Churches (East Midlands), together with the Fellowship of Northern Particular Baptist Churches. It is possible also linked to the GraceNet organisation but we have nothing to confirm this.
(Gospel Standard Strict Baptists have 6,400 members in 156 churches in the British Isles. They are pretty fundamentalists – many members don’t have TV sets or go to the cinema. However, the Gospel Standard Trust claims there are only 115 Gospel Standard churches and some of these are not in the UK – see http://www.gospelstandard.org/aboutus.asp.
The term Strict refers to a practice that was once common amongst Baptist churches of not allowing outsiders who had not been fully baptised by immersion from participating in Holy Communion – a case of Unsaved, Unwelcome. It is believed that the Strict Baptist movement has been in long-term decline.
We are open on this issue at present but the circumstantial evidence suggests that the Grace movement and GraceNet are closely related, if not one and the same organisation.
It’s difficult not to conclude from the website of Grace Magazine (http://www.gracemagazine.org.uk ) that GraceNet is closely associated with the Grace Baptist Association. Grace Magazine endorses young earth creationism (http://www.gracemagazine.org.uk/mainpages/links.htm). One of the main writers for it is the fundamentalist creationist Geoff Thomas. If you have any doubts whether Thomas is a fundamentalist, read this - http://www.gracemagazine.org.uk/geoffthomas/beast.htm . His church is a GraceNet affiliate. The magazine is homophobic as well - http://www.gracemagazine.org.uk/articles/world/gayagenda.htm. Here is a creationist, Chris Boyes, from Bradford on Avon pushing the creationist line - http://www.gracemagazine.org.uk/articles/world/creation.htm. Paul Oliver of the very YEC Old Baptist Church in Bradford on Avon is a sub-editor for Grace Magazine. His church is a GraceNet affiliate Another member of the same church, James Alsop, has written for the magazine. Two further editorial staff are from the Grace Baptist Church in Southport – another GraceNet affiliate. There are others associated with GraceNet churches contributing as well. Yet the magazine is claimed to be primarily targeted at Grace Assembly Churches.
Our best guess is that Grace Baptist Association churches are heavily concentrated in the East Midland, East Anglia and South East England and that GraceNet is intended as a very low cost resource for like-minded churches nationwide. Rural East Anglia, where we identified a number of creationist churches and where the Biblical Creation Society is both based and pretty active, is sometimes known as the Bible Belt of England.
(We have had no difficulty in identify whether a Baptist church is a member, or not, of the Baptist Union. The four regional Unions each have on their web sites comprehensive lists of member churches. However, it is far harder to identify which affiliations non-Union members have. We are completely unable even to find a web site for Gospel Standards Strict Baptists, let alone a contact there. One of the three regional groups of the Grace Baptist Assembly hasn’t got a web site although the other two do. There appears to be no web site for the Fellowship of Northern Particular Baptist Churches. Indeed, there is only one reference to it on the whole of the Internet. To make matters more complex it appears that Baptist churches can be affiliated to the London Baptist Association with is a local association within the Baptist Union but are still not considered to be part of the Union.)
According to the 2005 English Church Census, 8% of regular church-goers described themselves as Baptist (note that the figure of for England – our survey is for the whole of the UK). 88% of Baptists described themselves as Evangelical, the highest proportion of any broadly defined denomination apart from Pentecostal.
Indeed, the percentage of creationist churches that are Baptist may be a bit higher than we suggest as we identified another 71 churches (15% of total) which were “Independent Evangelical”. This may include some churches that are Baptist all but in name. Independent Baptist churches are frequently affiliated to the informal GraceNet organisation (little more than an Internet resource).
Table 4: Breakdown of Baptist Membership, FIEC and GraceNet
| Denomination | Number Identified as YEC Endorsing |
|---|
| | |
| FIEC Only | 13 |
| GraceNet Only | 52 |
| Affiliated to Both | 8 |
| | |
| Total | 75 |
(Note: Table shows YEC endorsing Baptist churches. The circumstantial evidence shows that most that are affiliated to GraceNet are also affiliated to the Assembly of Grace Baptist Churches. Our tables show 17 are affiliated to the two but we do not have any further data to tie the two together.)
Independent Evangelical: On the other hand 43 Independent Evangelical churches identified as creationist were affiliated to the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches – an organisation that is basically a bit hostile towards Baptists. Only 15 Independent Evangelical churches were affiliated with GraceNet. (15 creationist churches were affiliated to both FIEC and GraceNet, 67 were affiliated to FIEC and 79 to GraceNet.) About 100 congregation churches are affiliated to FIEC. (3)
Table: 5: FIEC and GraceNet Affiliations of YEC Endorsing Churches
| Church | Total | Churches in Movement | Percentage |
|---|
| | | | |
| FIEC | 67 | 470 | 14% |
| GraceNet | 79 | 500 | 16% |
| Affiliated to Both | 15 | 970 | 2% |
| | | | |
| Total Affiliated to Either | 146 | 970 | 15% |
The above table shows that 32% (a third) of all YEC endorsing churches identified were either affiliated to FIEC or GraceNet or both.
This actually provides us with a start to make some interesting analysis. Of the 463 creationist churches identified, 286 (62%) had hosted or planned to host speakers from the main creationist organisations – Answers in Genesis (189 or 41%), 37 from the Biblical Creation Society/Ministries (8%) 22 from the Creation Science Movement (5%) with a spattering from other groups.
Table 6: Breadown by Creationist Organisation Influence
| | | |
| | Number | Percentage |
|---|
| | | |
| Total Number of YEC Endorsing Churches | 463 | 100% |
| | | |
| Total Hosting AiG Speakers | 189 | 41% |
| Total Hosting BCS Speakers | 37 | 8% |
| Total Hosting CSM Speakers | 22 | 5% |
| Total Hosting TiS Speakers | 16 | 3% |
| Total Hosting ICR Speakers | 10 | 2% |
| Total Hosting CR Speakers | 9 | 2% |
| Total Hosting CRT Speakers | 5 | 1% |
| Total Hosting Other Speakers | 2 | 1% |
| Total Hosting from more than organisation | (4) | 1% |
| | | |
| Total | 286 | 62% |
Some 146 churches identified as creationists were either affiliated to FIEC or GraceNet or both. This is a staggeringly high number as it represents 15% of the combined membership of both (970 churches). To give an indication of how high this concentration is, we estimated that there are 45,300 churches in the UK and our 463 creationist churches represents just 1% of the total. (See note (4)) In other words churches affiliated to his two groups are thirteen times more likely to be creationist than the national average.
Yet 73 (26%) of the known 286 creationist speaker events were amongst these two groups of churches. In other words the creationists had got round 8% of these churches with a success rate in conversion of 178%.
Thus 970 independent churches account for 26% of the efforts of creationist organisations yet only 2% of churches nationwide. By definition 100% of affiliates to FIEC are evangelical and we suggest the figure for GraceNet is very close to this.
It also seems that independent evangelical churches were in the lead in the UK in moving to a YEC position from the 1970s and 1980s.
Pentecostal: According to the 2005 Church Census, 95% of people who attend Pentecostal Churches describe themselves as evangelical. We identified 80 Pentecostal churches as endorsing creationism. This represented 17% of our total. The creationists had managed to get round 57 of them (73% of them). The Pentecostals were the second largest group in our sample we identified as being creationist – slightly ahead of Independent Evangelicals (71). The Pentecostals include well-known denominations such as Elim (19 endorsing YEC) and Assemblies of God (26 endorsing YEC) as well as smaller movements and independents.
The 2005 Church Census counts 2,227 churches In England as Pentecostal. About half of these are black churches and about half are in London. The new generation of mega-churches looks largely to be Pentecostal (Kensington Temple and Hillsong in London for example). The Pentecostal movement is one of the very few denominations that are growing in the UK. We suspect that a good proportion of the growth is fuelled by recent immigration of some kind. Anecdotal evidence from our research suggests that a very high proportion of pastors and elders in the church have very African names. Hillsong is reported to be very heavily dependent on ex-pat Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans for its congregation. Its controversial parent mega-church in Sydney is the largest Pentecostal church in Australia. The 2005 Church Census suggests a 34% rise in attendance at Pentecostal churches since 1998.
As far as we are aware, no Pentecostal denomination in the UK (as distinct from individual church) is openly endorsing young earth creationism on its web site (although some with US parentage may be endorsing it on their US web sites). However Hillsong in Australia has endorsed Intelligent Design.
Assemblies of God is generally regarded to be YEC. Michael Brass of BCSE explains the position thus: “A friend of mine got caught in the AoG trap for a fairly long time and I have attended one of their gatherings. Their "official" position is deliberately ambiguous. They utilise this strategic policy in order to bring people into the church, get them dependent on them and then attempt to indoctrinate. Having spoken to one of the people fairly high up, the UK leadership (at a national and a local level) is very much YEC.”
This site - http://www.answersincreation.org/doctrine.htm -representing mainstream Christians, states that Assemblies of God is only one of two denominations in the USA that are opposed to Old Earth Creationism and outrightly YEC.
It summarises AoG’s position as follows –“A review of their website (2003) revealed a Creationism statement, which suggests that it is best to view creation in the framework of a young earth. This statement is presented as a “Perspective,” or something that is a commonly held belief of Scripture. It is not one of their sixteen fundamental truths, which one cannot waver from, so there is some room for variance.”
“They also have a position paper on the Doctrine of Creation. The doctrine is clearly young earth, and they expressly rule out theistic evolution. However, no mention of the length of the creation days are given, which may allow the possibility for a progressive creationism belief.”
“As a whole, the AoG appears to lean heavily toward the young-earth position, and is probably not the best option for an old earth believer. However, since it is not one of their sixteen fundamentals that are not to be compromised, there is a possibility that an old-earth believer could fit in.”
There is absolutely no doubt that the Elim Pentecostal church has backed creationism in public. It was behind a 2004 tour (see here) of the UK by Phillip Johnson (Discovery Institute) and Andrew Snelling (Institute for Creation Research) and has an article by Johnson on its web site, here. Whilst this is about Intelligent Design, it is just basically creationism in another name. Amongst its national leaders are well known YECers including Eric McComb. Colin Dye, another senior figure, endorses ID here. His church, the Kensington Temple, hosted presentations by Snelling and Johnson.
Brethren: The Brethren (wrongly but usually called the Plymouth Brethren) accounted for 37 churches or 8%. It’s difficult to pin the Brethren down. Parts of the movement (particularly the Exclusive Brethren) basically don’t like communicating with the rest of the world and/or don’t want anything to do with Internet. We strongly suspect that in terms of number of churches, they are under-represented in our survey. Very few of the Brethren churches we identified had web sites.
The Open Brethren has 1,340 assemblies in the UK, according to Patrick Johnstone "Operation World - 6th edition", Authentic Media (2006), page 371. This BBC web page suggests there are about 15,000 Exclusive Brethren in the UK with congregations in about 98 towns. In other words, there looks to be around 1,500 Brethren churches or assemblies in the UK (they very frequently go by the name of Gospel Hall). Our figures suggest about 2% of Brethren churches are openly endorsing creationism – about double the national average. Peter Vardy of the Emmanuel Schools Foundation is an Open Brethren member.
According to Wikipedia, “Since 2004, some groups of Exclusive Brethren have become politically active. Formerly, they embraced non-involvement 'in the things of the world' because they are 'citizens of heaven'. These Exclusive Brethren have been responsible for the production and distribution of political literature in Australian, United States, Swedish, Canadian and New Zealand national elections.”
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Brethren.)
We’ve not yet seen such activity in the UK (see this report, though - http://www.newstatesman.com/200612040018 about Maxwell Kevin Haughton) but it is worth bearing in mind that the Exclusive Brethren run their own private schools and do not like university level education. It is also widely regarded as a movement in decline.
One of the major Brethren churches backing young earth creationism is the Crescent Church in Belfast – it is in the university district and has a very large congregation.
In researching this article, we also came across a recent application for planning permission for a very large Brethren church just outside of Winchester – it involved seating for 650 people which is on a par with Winchester Cathedral.
Basically four groups account for the bulk of creationist churches in the UK – Baptist, Pentecostal,, Independent Evangelical and Brethren. They accounted for 356 churches in total or 77%.
Presbyterian: Thirty one (6%) of the creationist churches we identified described themselves as Presbyterian. Some care is required though in interpreting this as most (21) are in Northern Ireland and therefore the sample is not typical of the UK in general. The mainstream Presbyterian Church in Ireland accounted for six, the Free Church of Scotland (Continuing), which is closely associated with Truth in Science and, as a denomination, endorses creationism, three; Ian Paisley’s Free Presbyterian Church three; Reformed Presbyterian (another very small denomination) six and Evangelical Presbyterian four. The Church of Scotland accounted for only one. However, the Church of Scotland’s Inverness Presbytery endorses Answers in Genesis - http://www.invernesspresbytery.co.uk/links.htm. It is thus endorsed at a senior level.
The Free Church of Scotland (Continuing) only has about 800 members. It is an offshoot of the Free Church of Scotland (10,000 members or so) which is commonly called the Wee Frees. Both are basically denominations of the Highlands and Islands. Paisley’s Free Presbyterian Church has no connection with another tiny denomination in the Highlands and Islands, the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, also, and, appropriately, named the Wee Wee Frees (it appears to only have about 100 members).
The anecdotal evidence points to creationism being quite widely accepted in the Highlands and Islands. The itineraries of AiG staffers seem to confirm this. The Brethren have a strong presence amongst fishing (or ex-fishing) communities in North East Scotland (and as far away as the Faroe Islands).
According to Wikipedia, the “Western Isles of the region (particularly Lewis) have been described as the last bastion of fundamentalist Calvinism in Britain with large numbers of inhabitants belonging to the Free Church of Scotland or the still more conservative Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland.”
There is also a tiny denomination in Scotland that calls itself the Scottish Reformed Church which may also be described as Presbyterian. Its web site (http://www.scottishreformed.ndo.co.uk) endorses creationism and, it appears, the extremist Chalcedon Foundation.
In general what are usually referred to as Presbyterian churches have, nominally, very little presence in England. This is partly because, in 1972, the Presbyterian Church of England merged with many English Congregationalist churches to form the United Reformed Church. We’ve dealt with Congregationalists and the URC separately.
However, the Presbyterian Church of Wales (the largest single denomination in the principality), also known as the Calvinistic Methodist Church, has two member churches endorsing creationism. It isn’t easy to categorise the church – its origins are in the Anglican church and Methodism and it claims to be the only authentic Presbyterian church in Wales of Welsh origin but it is strongly influenced by congregationalism. It looks to be a Heinz 57, denomination-wise.
Congregationalists and the United Reformed Church: We identified nine churches which described themselves as congregational and which were endorsing creationism. However, the figure may be an understatement if we have a strict definition of congregational – we guess that some churches which described themselves as evangelical and independent could also be considered as congregational.
However, most members of United Reformed Churches do not describe themselves as evangelical. According to the 2005 Church census only 21% did so. Our research identified only 4 such churches which endorsed creationism. The same census states that there are 1,470 URC churches in England and that membership is shrinking fast. Moreover, two of the Congregational churches were members of the Congregational Union of Ireland. Northern Ireland appears to have been heavily penetrated with creationism.
Methodists: The 2005 Church Census claims that there are 5,999 Methodist churches in England, the highest figure after Anglican. Only 18% of Methodists consider themselves to be Evangelical. Membership of the Methodist Church in the UK has been in long-term decline since 1851 and there appears to be a widespread belief that it will in a few years merge with the Anglican Church. It is still, though, about number three amongst the denominations in terms of membership (Anglican and Catholic being ahead).
We are not surprised that we found only three mainstream Methodist churches endorsing creationism. However, another four we found described themselves as Independent Methodist. All four are members of the Fellowship of Independent Methodist Churches in Northern Ireland which endorses Answers in Genesis – see http://www.fimc.org.uk/links.htm. Unfortunately this does not say very much because it appears to only have about 1,000 members.
Seventh Day Adventists: We were not surprised to find four Seventh Day Adventist churches that publicly endorsed creationism as the denomination itself endorses it. We have a separate section discussing the Adventists. It is sufficient to say that it is a small denomination in the UK.
This review of the YEC position of the Seventh Day Adventists in the USA suggests that individual churches (and members) within the denomination are not required to hold to YEC views. However, in 2004 the Adventist hierarchy confirmed that that the denomination was, indeed, YEC.
Others: We identified one Salvation Army church (citadel) as endorsing creationism, one Christadelphian church (in Leicester – its conversion to the dubious cause may be related to the presence of Answers in Genesis in the same city), one identified as part of the Kingdom Faith denomination, one Free Church of England, one Destiny Ministries, one Church of Christ and three churches which were affiliated with Moriel Ministries. This appears to be a Messianic denomination that is Jewish Christian. Most Messianics are YECers.
(We haven’t attempted to look at the acceptance of young earth creationism amongst non-Christian religions but it is understood that many, if not most, Orthodox Jews accept it – see this link and this link for further details. However, most other Jews have no problem in accepting evolutionary theory.)
Waifs and Strays: We were wholly unable to identify seventeen YEC endorsing churches in terms of broad denomination.
Roman Catholic Church: Entirely missing from our list are any Roman Catholic Churches although we are aware that there is a Catholic creationist organisation in the UK and anecdotal evidence suggests a few priests may be young earth creationists.
The Anglican Church: We identified only 10 Anglican churches in the whole of the UK that endorsed creationism. We have also identified All Soul’s Langham Place as pushing creationism but would not go so far as to say it was endorsing it. Form what we understand, a few years back the curate there began pushing it but the Rector then in charge didn’t understand what was going on. The previous rector then got involved and argued for a balance but the outcome was inconclusive. It apparently led to some heated exchanges in the Anglican movement. All Soul’s is, in effect, the church of the BBC and attracts a massive congregation over the space of the typical week. It is just outside the headquarters of the BBC and services are broadcast very frequently on BBC. The Rector of All Souls is still appointed by the Crown Appointments Office at No. 10 Downing Street.
We are told that the affair at All Souls is indicative as the extent to which the evangelical wing of the Anglican Church is getting itself into a mess with creationism and Intelligent design.
However, this appears to mask a much bigger problem in that the Church of England is ambiguous on the issue.
Usually the term Anglican refers to the Church of England (but it also covers sister churches in Ireland, Wales and Scotland) which is an established church. That is to say, 26 of its bishops sit in the Upper House (House of Lords), its titular head, the monarch, is head of state of the UK (and, still, nominally, quite a few other countries) and the government has a say in appointing its bishops. The head of state is required to be a member of that church and not marry a Catholic. Whilst the CofE is basically self governing, Parliament retains the right of veto over decisions agreed by the Church’s own governing body, the General Synod.
However, the Anglican Church is only an established church in England. It is not established in Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales (The position in the Channel Islands is somewhat more complex because they are part of the Diocese of Winchester on the mainland the local churches are supported by taxation. In contrast the Isle of Man has its own bishop but it is only bishops in England that can site in the House of Lords)). In Wales the Anglican church is known as the Church in Wales. The church in Ireland covers both Northern Ireland and the republic and is known as the Church of Ireland. In Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland is a close approximation to an established church there. The Anglican Church in Scotland is known as the Scottish Episcopal Church or the Porvoo Communion (or the English Church).
(For Americans and others, the term Episcopalian is not generally used in the UK.)
Our problem is in establishing how far young earth creationism has been accepted by Anglican clergy. The evidence suggests quite widely. The Anglican movement is a fudge between low, liberal and Anglo-Catholic high church and has a very strong evangelical wing. Two of the four evangelical organisations within the church are openly endorsing young earth creationism – The Christian Institute, and the Church Society (see note (8) about Reform).
The Church Society drips intellectual dishonesty in handling creation. Its web site at http://www.churchsociety.org/links.htm provides links to both Creation Ministries’ and Answers in Genesis’s web sites on the grounds that they “will be of practical help to bible believing Christians” and, at the same time, states that the link “does not imply that Church Society endorses the work or the views of the organization linked to.” Seems like the CofE’s finest tradition at work – being pathologically incapable of making up its own mind about anything. Shades of “here is a link to an online version of the Bible. This does not imply that the Church Society endorses the work….”
We understand that about a quarter of Anglican clergy in England are evangelical. The 2005 English Church Census (see http://www.eauk.org/resources/info/statistics/2005englishchurchcensus.cfm) suggests about 34% of Anglicans consider themselves to be evangelical.
However, our research shows very few individual Anglican clergy openly endorsing young earth creationism. The Rev Michael Roberts believes that about 10% of Anglican clergy either accept young earth creationism or intelligent design (based on a January 2002 survey) and 23% reject evolution but in his own diocese, Blackburn, he knows of only 4 YEC clergy out of a total or around 200. Roberts has undertaken a considerable amount of research on the acceptance (or otherwise) of creationism within the Church of England and points to the fact it was basically wholly and completed rejected throughout the 20th century up until about 1970. That suggests the creationists have made big inroads into the church in the last three decades.
He also points out that there are several YEC lecturers in Anglican theological colleges.
The 1970 date is significant in that the British version of the Morris and Whitcomb book on flood geology (The Genesis Flood) was first published in 1969. More worrying is the fact that the evangelical wing of the church represents a growing proportion of overall membership – helped, no doubt, by the continuing overall long-term decline in Anglican church membership (about 1.2m people attend a CofE church service every week). It seems that the hierarchy maybe unwilling to combat the growth in acceptance of creationism because of fear of damaging the overall success of the evangelicals in keeping church membership numbers from declining even faster.
The evangelicals also hold considerable power and influence within the church hierarchy.
Clearly, too, the top of the hierarchy don’t have much control over bishops, who, in turn, don’t have much control over individual clergy – it’s always been like that. George Jellis of the Leicester Secular Society fairly recently wrote to all Anglican bishops to find out what their position on creationism was. The answers were all over the place and full of prevarication, evasion and non-commitment either way. The author of this report wrote to his local Diocese Education Board about teaching of creationism in CofE schools and didn’t even have the letter acknowledged.
The key concern we have is that 4,700 schools in England are Church of England – that is to say the CofE either owns them or plays a major role in them. The state, though, finances them. To give some idea of the scale of influence, one in four primary schools (basically for 8-11 year olds) is CofE and one in sixteen of secondary schools (for 11 year olds and upwards). The CofE claims that 70% of the population at large believes it plays an important role in educating children. This claim does not surprise us in the least.
Other comments: Four of the 463 creationist churches endorsed the convicted criminal Kent Hovind and one endorsed Intelligent Design rather than the full young earth creationist nonsense. For the most part, the web sites we visited were, quite frankly, scrappy and amateur in comparison with those of churches in the USA. That may reflect small congregations and shortage of finance. The vast majority were also basically very innocuous – they were not screaming extreme fundamentalism at the reader. Indeed, few had much to say at all. We assume that many of the small churches were not that bothered with Internet because their small and ageing congregations are not very computer literate. Over half the churches we attempted to research didn’t have web sites at all.
Letting the Genie of Religious Extremism out of the Bag
A Comparison with the USA
Church attendance and religious belief are far lower in the United Kingdom (with the exception of Northern Ireland) than in the USA. Moreover, both continue to decline in the UK. Basically the British have largely abandoned religion and the Americans have not.
No doubt there will be some Americans who tut tut when they read this but the British probably have never been that much taken with religion or its priests. The TV presenter Jeremy Paxman painted a wonderful anecdotal picture of English attitudes towards religion in his book “The English”. At the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the Normans prayed the night before – the English practised their normal habit instead; they got drunk. Even in the mediaeval period Bishops complained that the English spent all their spare time down the pub.
However, religious practices in the UK are also significantly different from those in the USA – not least because there is no separation of church and state in England. The Episcopalian movement is far more deeply embedded in the English mindset than it is in the USA. Whilst the Southern Baptist Convention (with 16.3m members) is the largest Protestant denomination in the USA, the Baptists are nowhere near that position in the UK. In England they rank fifth.
Indeed, older people still tend to divide the protestant movement in the UK into two camps – Anglican and non-conformist. The latter is any protestant church or denomination that is not Anglican. There is no doubt culturally that the Anglican Church dominates England in a way that no other denomination comes anywhere near.
Then there is the story of the bishop’s palace at Melton Combustible. The local mediaevals got a bit fed up with the bishop and to help him get the point, they burnt his establishment down. Hence the name of the place to this day.
Then there was Henry VIII who every school child is taught was a tyrant who imposed the Protestant religion on England and Wales against its will. The issue wasn’t settled until a civil war over a century later and even then we irreverently chopped off the head of the Anglican Archbishop Laud because he was a first-class ecclesiastical troublemaker. He wasn’t the first one either as readers of Shakespeare might remember from the immortal line “Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?”
It’s never easy to pin down the Anglican movement about what it actually believes in. Perhaps that’s the way English people like it. Paxman reported on a conversation he had with the Bishop of Oxford (almost certainly Richard Harries but he didn’t name him) in which Paxman asked precisely does one have to believe to be an Anglican? The Bishop replied “that’s an interesting question”, went away and came back sometime later and claimed that “it all depends…..”
Still Harries is a friend of Richard Dawkins (or was, maybe given the TV programme The Root of All Evil?) who, in his book, the God Delusion, quotes an Anglican vicar, Giles Fraser, that the CofE has inoculated vast swaths of the country against any belief in Christianity whatsoever (see page 41 of the book). Fraser laments that the CofE has begun to take religion seriously instead of being a pleasant social pastime!
Fraser worries that “we may release the genie of English religious fanaticism from the establishment box in which it has been dormant for centuries.”
Dawkins, brought up an Anglican, is, indeed, well inoculated yet, like so many English people, appears to have a soft spot for the Anglican church.
Religious education in British schools is, of course, still compulsory, and, in England at least, that means, for the most part, the Anglican tradition (likewise with the compulsory religious services in schools). In other words, few are offended and few are convinced by it.
The author’s experience of it is undoubtedly very common. Up until the age of 11 I went through two CofE aided schools and then on to secondary education in what was quite a good grammar school. Well, during the first year when I was about 11, I was given the day off lessons to run errands for the headmaster but still had to do the homework.
Missing the religious Education lesson, I failed to quite grasp what was required in the homework. We had been asked to draw a stained glass window of the Venerable Bede (author of the Ecclesiastical History of the English People -the first book on English history) with his title across the top. Through the naiveness of childhood and misunderstanding of the missed lesson, it came out as The Venereal Bede. Good drawing skills, though, I was told the next day.
Apart from mistakenly believing Saint Bede had a dose of the clap, there is nothing I can ever remember from Religious Education at school (except, as you might guess, getting bottom marks for that piece of homework). I can’t even remember the name of the teacher but he taught me for five years. I think he had given up on me at a very early stage.
In truth the school, though, did take religion fairly seriously (although a lot less so than neighbouring Catholic schools). It was, though, basically on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. No-one bothered if you got low marks in religious education.
Nevertheless, Anglicanism within the state education system is widely perceived as providing children with a moral compass. Teaching religion in schools is popular with parents. No other denomination could achieve this across most state-funded schools either because they are too small or seen by the public as too extreme or both. It takes a peculiar sort of fudging of belief to achieve this in England.
Undoubtedly, despite its much-diminished congregations, the CofE itself remains part of the moral conscience of Britain. Its bishops and archbishops are still people regarded as speaking with authority. It’s a respect that’s earned. They are usually very well educated people, indeed. Not for them theological qualifications from unaccredited or unrecognised seminaries and theological colleges. The hierarchy retains very close links with Britain’s two top universities – Oxford and Cambridge. It is probably the norm that bishops have been educated in these two institutions. Moreover, Anglican bishops sitting in the House of Lords tend to speak for people of all religions and denominations.
Perhaps, though, it has been inevitable that their role as Britain’s moral conscience has declined. It is the author’s opinion that the BBC (also state-owned) has, for many years, probably been the moral conscience of Britains (the author’s professional occupation is largely centred on broadcasting). Basically people believe the BBC and with all such respect, it’s basically earned.
Arguably, too, the universities – essentially reasoning, enquiring and liberal organisations – have also increasingly become part of that moral conscience as they have dramatically expanded over the last 40 years or so.
British universities are probably a lot less influenced by strong left-wing views than many American universities – read up on the Sokal Affair as background. Moreover, we lack the fundamentalist and overtly religious “universities” such as Bob Jones, Liberty, Regent, Biola, Patrick Henry, Wheaton and Loma Linda.
Traditionally the split between Anglican and non-conformist was often described as a social split between church (Anglican) and chapel. Very roughly speaking the Anglican Church was the church of the Middle Classes and Tory (Conservative), whereas the non-conformists were left leaning - Liberal or (particularly the Methodists) Labour.
That old-fashioned split based on class and politics has largely gone; in the industrial revolution non-conformists dominated the new cities and towns. However, as church attendance fell from 1880 and, since, probably, as far back as 1918, economic power and population shifted away from the industrial heartlands of the Midlands, the North (and South Wales and the central lowlands of Scotland), the old-fashioned class system broke down and largely disappeared. There is also no doubt that universal education, especially from the early 60s when university education was opened up, has also played a major part.
Today there is no clear-cut class-base or difference in broad political affiliation between Anglican and non-conformist denominations. The Anglicans are no longer the Tory Party at Prayer. Indeed, it is generally considered to be a bit left of centre on the political spectrum (a position probably true of most of the mainstream denominations). However, the growth (relative) of the evangelical movement has seen an increase in lobbying by Christians for what are undoubtedly conservative causes. Indeed, we are probably not that wrong to say that the Evangelical movement is, generally, right of centre and, in parts, very right of centre.
Most worrying is the rise in what many describe as homophobia amongst evangelicals. There is no doubt that the evangelical Christian Institute is right wing and deeply conservative. It has been campaigning against gay rights for years. Have a look through its recent press releases at http://www.christian.org.uk to get the picture.
Nevertheless, there is not the relatively clear-cut division seen in the USA. There the evangelicals have backed the Republican movement heavily (although it is plain wrong to say that evangelical means right wing – many evangelicals, including black people, are Democrats or are uneasy with the Republicans). The author’s opinion, for what it is worth, is that the British are, generally speaking, basically significantly more liberally-inclined than Americans. It’s a gross generalisation and the reader should not dismiss the major, and stunning, regional differences in the USA.
The UK, too, has its regional differences. Northern Ireland is so exceptional that it needs to be considered on its own. Wales is basically non-conformist. Scotland is clearly dominated by the Presbyterian movement.
There is the peculiar position of the Roman Catholic Church. The British Isles have never been wholly Protestant. John Bull’s Other Island is, and always has been, predominantly Catholic. Through the huge internal immigration in the industrial revolution (and as a result of the Irish famine) and afterwards, the Catholic Church is strong on the mainland of Britain. Indeed, there remains worrying sectarian undertones in the West of the central lowlands of Scotland as a result. It’s basically an issue of nationality (as, indeed, it is in Northern Ireland).
Nevertheless, for years the Roman Catholic Church in the UK has monitored the socio-economic status of its members and it is basically a mirror image of the UK at large. It’s not the church of the socio-economic underdog. It would be very wrong to describe it as a working class denomination dominated by poor(ish) Irish people. Ireland today is an exceedingly prosperous country. Moreover, the Catholic Church in England has never really been the Church wholly of the Irish.
The British got their civil war over relatively early in modern history – in the middle of the 17th century. The outcome is that religious extremism/divisions or fundamentalism have been largely absent for 350 years (John Bull’s Other Island, excepted, perhaps). There isn’t the political legacy seen in the deep South and Bible Belt of the USA that is perhaps, central to fundamentalism there –slavery, the racism predominating until the civil rights movement and the resentment of being on the wrong side in the civil war.
(Those sort of deep seated resentments and ancient enmities do, of course, exist on John Bull’s Other Island, and may well largely account for the rise in belief in creationism amongst Protestants in the North.)
In England at least, people are traditionally somewhat cold towards the word Puritanism (and, indeed, Catholicism). The outcome of our civil war was a preference for compromise. It’s served us well. We went on to create the modern world.
Perhaps this is why so many find Answers in Genesis so abhorrent. Its slogan of “Creation Without Compromise” (read “We are Right, Everybody Else is Wrong”) smacks of religious bigotry and intolerance that comes from the first half of the 17th century. It’s web site name, Evolution The Lie (http://www.evolutionthelie.net) shows its extreme fundamentalist stridency. The Theory of Evolution is not about decent, well educated people lying. Answers in Genesis ought to remember the ninth commandment.
[Continue to Part 2, Creationism in churches]
