Religion and Beliefs — The Christian Church in Britain.docVIP

Religion and Beliefs — The Christian Church in Britain The Church of England, or Anglican Church, is one of the many ‘Protestant’ sects which broke away from the more ancient and more orthodox Roman Catholic Church several centuries ago, during the great religious upheaval called the Reformation. It is an ‘established’ Church, which means that it represents the official state religion, having certain duties towards the state, and receiving certain privileges from it, though no financial support. Its temporal (i. e. non-priestly) head is the Queen, and twenty-six of its highest priests sit in the House of Lords. But the Church of England is not as strong as might at first appear. For one thing, it is ‘established’ only in England, not in Scotland, Ireland or Wales. Scotland has its own established Church, the Church of Scotland, which in organization is Presbyterian. Then too, in spiritual matters the Church of England has no strong central authority. Roman Catholics throughout the world recognise the supreme holy authority of the Pope in Rome and of the Church or priesthood in general (e. g. in personal confession of sins), but the Anglican Church relies more on the Bible, which is not always easy to interpret, and leaves many questions to individual consciences. Certain Roman doctrines have of course been generally rejected by Anglicans. The central one concerns the celebration of Holy Communion, in which there is a symbolic eating of bread and drinking of wine. Roman Catholics believe that the bread and wine actually become the body and blood of Christ, whereas most Anglicans think they are simply representations. But there may be wide differences of opinion within the Anglican Church on such matters as the Virgin Birth, the Miracles, the Resurrection and the Ascension; and some even more difficult questions like everlasting torment in Hell as the punishment of sin, and the imminent coming down to earth of the Kingdom of Heaven, tend to be avoided altogether.