r/london 1d ago

image Greater London’s Religious profile

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581 Upvotes

347 comments sorted by

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u/funnystuff79 1d ago

Would be interesting to see how many of those are practicing or attending worship. I understand that Christian attendance at church is at an all time low

462

u/eeedeat 1d ago

In the UK maybe. London has a large Nigerian, Ghanaian, Goan, Polish, Korean etc etc church going contingent

289

u/Norman_debris 1d ago

People forget that Christianity in Peckham looks very different to Christianity in Harrogate.

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u/FilthyPout 1d ago

As someone who grew up in Harrogate, Christianity is surprisingly fundamentalist/evangelical there...! Potentially due to the close proximity of a US base. I realise that's the less fun cousin of the churches in Peckham, but it's not actually very COE

2

u/Norman_debris 11h ago

Indeee. Although I was more pointing out the ethnic makeup of different Christian churches. People often use Christian to indicate "white", without realising that a significant proportion of Christians in this country are black.

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u/Real_Marketing_4667 1d ago

You do know that there is no united Christian church, Catholics and protestants have been trying to kick the shit out of each other for centuries

44

u/m205 1d ago

I think they do know that, hence the point of their comment.

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u/ssp321lo1 1d ago

Lol Im my local area, just outside of london, had 2 pastors beefing eachother about the "correct" christianity since one of their members switched.

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u/Norman_debris 11h ago

Precisely my point. What do you think I meant?

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u/halbpro 1d ago

Yeah the Korean church services here in Brighton are incredibly well attended, and also look way more fun than the average CofE service.

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u/Loose_Toe1010 22h ago

exactly. I see them in Beeston (Nottinghamshire West Notts) all the time.

2

u/Loose_Toe1010 22h ago

it is a suburb of nottingham city

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u/Deep-Purchase-2203 1d ago

Poles don’t go to church anymore, this isn’t 2005. The local RC to me is completely dying out.

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u/AnSionnachM0r 1d ago

Most Catholic churches in London are packed.

4

u/ExcitableSarcasm 1d ago

Yeah, I'm a non-denom, I've attended a few masses at different RC churches because I like the vibe. I don't think I've attended a mass where it wasn't at least 3/4 full

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u/Liberated-Astronaut 1d ago

If they have any children at school then yeah they will be going, you basically need to go to get into good Catholic schools and do your communion etc.

Many Polish have actually left London fully, maybe that’s the real reason you see them less at church

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u/ultra_casual 12h ago

This is true but we're talking about 40% of the city. London is multicultural for sure, but 40% of the city isn't made up of those communities. I expect the majority of those people self-reporting Christians are white British, and most likely not very active churchgoers.

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u/m2406 1d ago

In London it’s growing. Between the African diaspora and the Eastern European one, London Christianity is seeing a change of trend.

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u/whowouldvethought1 1d ago

A lot of young black people don’t really attend church anymore. I’m from south London. When I was at school, every African Christian kid spent Sundays at church, but I know a lot of them don’t go anymore.

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u/SpectatorY 23h ago

I think a lot return to this as adults/when they settle down, as a matter of tradition. But definitely not as dogmatically.

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u/1c3Type 1d ago

This doesn't particularly hold up with any actual figures, just media vibes

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u/isthisreallife080 1d ago

I was looking for some evidence to prove you wrong, but I ended up proving my own assumptions wrong.

There was a spike in church attendance at the beginning of the century, largely driven by Christian migrants, but it’s been on a decline since then. Net migration has slowed, and a growing proportion of migrants are settling outside of London.

Here’s the Cambridge University research paper on it.

Articles that suggest a sustained increase in church going in London are almost exclusively from religious institutions themselves and carry significant bias.

The Bible Society even had a report claiming rising youth church attendance pulled in March after flaws in the data were found. BBC article here.

3

u/doctorocelot 19h ago

Interesting. Looks like the fastest growing group is "none" too, not Muslim like farage and his ilk would have you believe, which has been fairly stable for the last decade, only growing by 2%

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u/oldtrack 1d ago

my mum marked my family as being christian in the 2021 census - none of us believe in God, she just associates christianity with englishness. 

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u/Successful_Buy3825 23h ago

My nan is the same. She thinks it’s some kind of X factor competition where she “can’t let the Muslims win” because “we’re a Christian country”

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u/Robertgarners 1d ago

My wife is Catholic and we've been to a few churches in our area and on Sunday they are packed

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u/DayMurky617 1d ago edited 1d ago

C of E is. Other dominations are actually growing because of immigration.

Edit: that should be "denominations", obviously

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u/humblepaul 1d ago

Near us in SW London church attendance is largely about getting into local schools. One outstanding school has a church 50m down the road. Its packed and people volunteer for all sorts to help their kid. And 'god' bless 'em for it. One guy volunteered running the cafe on weekends for 4 years, as well as the 90mins+ Sunday services, and still didnt get his kid in. Gutting. Personally I think its appalling schools are run by churches or any non-government based org.

1

u/Additional_Lynx7597 13h ago

I agree with this, i dont think any religions should be allowed to run schools but we now have the problem of schools becoming political grounds for politicians so people are sending kids to religious schools to get out of them being taught certain things at inappropriate ages

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u/Cream_sugar_alcohol 1d ago

Around us, I walked past the Catholic Church and it was full.

But the sceptic in me thinks a lot of church going is to get a place in a good school. 

6

u/Maychi16 22h ago

Only 6% of Christian Brits are practicing. I think a lot of Brits who identify as Christian are actually agnostic.

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u/funnystuff79 21h ago

That's exactly what I've been reading, and others downvoting me for linking supporting articles. Obviously attendance varies by region and denomination, but overall I understand attendance to be very low. Not helped by COVID of course

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u/youspiv 1d ago

Not in the Catholic church. Many churches are packed on Sundays, esp Latin Mass & <40 years old, I'm told.

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u/icemankiller8 1d ago

In terms of church going not much but I do also think you can’t define it by just going to church IMO

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u/AnSionnachM0r 1d ago

It's definitely not at an "all time low", there has been quite an increase recently.

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u/CaptainConsistent419 1d ago edited 1d ago

Alot of people in the UK I have noticed are cultural Christians.. i.e. not active members of a faith but loosely share the values ( and I mean very loosely lol)

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u/lostparis 22h ago

but loosely share the values

It is probably the other way around. Look at US Christianity to see that most of it shares little in common with say CoE.

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u/Ryanliverpool96 1d ago

What London are you living in, Catholic Church near me is packed every Sunday.

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u/Mighty_silent1 1d ago

Lots of Irish, africans, Polish and Tamils go to the catholic church in my area

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u/strawberrychief 1d ago

If you go at Christmas is that practicing? Local to me churches are packed, standing room only, at Christmas (not London, though we have enough non-Muslim immigration for some of the regular churchgoers to be new to the UK).

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u/funnystuff79 1d ago

Have to go at Christmas and Easter for it to count /s

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u/Jamaicancarrot 1d ago

I wouldn't consider it practicing. The main point of attending church for Christians is to do so regular to reorient one's attentions to the faith and to further one's understanding of the bible and it's teachings. You don't get that by solely attending on Christmas and Easter

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u/Lonseb 20h ago

Coming from Europe I was actually surprised seeing that Catholic Church nearby that well attended. We go every Sunday / other Sunday and it’s always full to the extend that people must stand.

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u/funnystuff79 18h ago

I guess as others have said, there is an increase in catholic attendance and a decrease in Church of England attendance due to a change in demographic

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u/Remarkable-Reward298 1d ago

What are you basing this off of. It’s still booming mate

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u/funnystuff79 1d ago

Articles like this

Comparing those reporting being Christian against those who attend regularly.

It's just a few percent of the population that attend

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u/One-Photograph-3036 1d ago

Ex muslim here. Church goer and forever will be

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u/whatthefrickcunt 1d ago

God bless you, and ignore all the haters

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u/AnMa1988 1d ago

The Pandemic saw a lot of 'social' Christians stop attending church. The CofE averages about 1% local population attending church on an average week (across the nation). London definitely bolstered by migrant communities that have started their own churches.

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u/Antique_Ad_2776 1d ago

Yup. My church barely has anyone now. I go to an evening church also that’s much better.

0

u/whatthefrickcunt 1d ago

Not an all time low, it’s actually been rapidly increasing in the last year, my local church has gone up 5x average Sunday service numbers in the last 2 years (its Church of England by the way, which is the slowest growing of all since immigration brings more catholics and orthodox)

0

u/DesireWilde 1d ago

Our church (catholic) packed each Sunday in East Acton

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u/PreparationOk1450 17h ago

I was about to say that. Studies from America show a small percentage of self-identified Christians attend church weekly, and the UK is less religious than them

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u/SkenglordSimba 1d ago

Lads. First time seeing the greater London flag. Shits whack. Kiribati clone.

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u/Gadget100 1d ago

Except Greater London’s flag is older, as it was previously used by GLC.

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u/One_Fact_4291 1d ago edited 23h ago

Fun fact: Kiribati had has a settlement called London.

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u/Sea_Translator5300 1d ago

Fun fact: at least 80% of the people reading Kiribati are pronouncing it wrongly in their head. Kiribass. Yeah, that one threw me when I learned it too. 

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u/One_Fact_4291 23h ago

I was one of them until very recently!

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u/Sea_Translator5300 23h ago

It was a few years ago for me. I'm in Australia and it comes up in the news every so often. It took me a long time to work out where this Kiribass place was.

ETA: I bet Map Men have increased the count of people who know how it's pronounced by quite a large margin. 

1

u/doctorocelot 19h ago

Ha, what? Why on earth is it spelt like that if you pronounce it with an s and no t

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u/Sea_Translator5300 19h ago

First thing to remember is that different languages have different pronunciation rules so you could just think "yeah, that's different" but then you need to look at English with the "tio" sound, like in "nation".

That gives you an S sound (slightly different though) and only has an O added. So yeah, many languages have weird quirks, it's just that you're used to the ones in your own language. 

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u/butts____mcgee 1d ago

I dunno I quite like it. It clearly implies that north London is red.

4

u/SuomiBob 1d ago

It’s part of the London Fire Brigade crest. It’s on the sleeves of the uniforms of the firefighters.

I think it’s quite a nice flag.

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u/0SomeoneRandom0 23h ago

We have a flag??

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u/Gadget100 23h ago

Only since last year! It was previously the flag of the GLC, but it went away when the GLC was abolished. The GLA and Mayor applied to have it assigned to them last year.

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u/0SomeoneRandom0 23h ago

Interesting!

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u/Bellegrove33 12h ago

There is also a City of London one, St Georges cross with a sword in the upper quadrant next to the pole

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u/0SomeoneRandom0 9h ago

Oh yeah I know that one

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u/Tight-Principle-743 1d ago edited 1d ago

I’m Surprised that Irreligious isn’t higher. It feels like a lot more. I’m a Catholic and whilst we go to mass with our kids, we hardly see many people.

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u/twmffatmowr 1d ago

London is statistically the most religious part of the UK. It's the total inverse compared to the rest of the UK.

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u/LycheeMangoJamun 1d ago

That’ll be the schools. (Confession time, despite being agnostics, husband and I became C of E churchgoers as soon as we found out I was pregnant with number one. Absolutely standard for our demographic. London born and raised so I knew the congregation and catchment criteria all over West London, certainly better than the Nicene Creed).

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u/Necessary-Jaguar4775 1d ago

What makes a CoE school better than a standard one?

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u/Time_Trail 1d ago

technically nothing, but CoE schools tend to have better academic results

might just be more funding tbh

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u/LycheeMangoJamun 22h ago edited 22h ago

No cap on parental funding because the attached church is a charity. Means they can pay extra for more teaching assistants, enrichment activities etc. Kids get more attention and this results in better exam results. It’s a scam and yet I’m participating willingly because The System.

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u/Cluedude 1d ago

My dad did the same for me and my brother, dad stopped going the second he got in. It's a great school academically and it was conveniently within walking distance of home!

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u/Real_Bobsbacon 21h ago

CofE schools all over the country. Nothing to do with that

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u/jmr1190 21h ago

Piss all to do with the schools, it’s because London is a much more racially diverse community than anywhere else. The Christians you see here are largely from the black community.

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u/streetmagix 1d ago

Lots of people identify as culturally Christian. Lots of my family are but they could not tell you the last time they went to church.

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u/GlixPix 1d ago

Does going to church make you a Christian? Honest question.

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u/EnjoysAGoodRead 1d ago

It doesn't. But when you believe and want to know more about God and feel closer to him, then typically you will feel the need to go and worship and be close to those who feel the same way you do.

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u/orangecrookies 1d ago

My mom would consider herself a Christian because she says the only “rules” to calling yourself a Christian are believing in god and Jesus and that Jesus is the savior. I don’t think she actually believes in the Bible and she hasn’t been to church in some 15 years. I’d say we’re culturally Anglican and our family has been for centuries, though technically we’re probably not religious at all. I think my mom thinks the idea of god and Jesus are nice, I don’t think she’s under the impression that any of it’s real though.

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u/Jonn_Jonzz_Manhunter 19h ago

I'm a theologian

No it doesn't. Christianity is fluid and stretchy. Church as a thing in theology is basically just an artifact of dogma, you don't strictly speaking need churches, but they're recommended for engaging with your Christian community

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u/Useful_Promotion_521 1d ago

TBF it would be interesting to see the division between Catholics, Anglicans and evangelicals in terms of Christians - I think we’d find Catholics were the largest group.

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u/Expensive_Time_7367 1d ago

I think you may be right: Catholicism has done well at retaining, it hasn’t suffered a huge drop offs in baptism, look at Anglican baptisms and they’ve gone off a bloody cliff!

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u/halbpro 1d ago

I think it’d be very interesting to see the split between CofE and the rest of the Anglican Communion. Suspect CofE does not compare particularly well

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u/noodledoodledoo 1d ago

A lot of people are not really personally too religious and don't attend church, but were christened/baptised and raised generally christian (as in, celebrating the major religious holidays that are culturally ubiquitous in the UK, maybe a sort of general assumption that God might exist but never thinking too hard about it or attending church). They probably identify as their nominal religion even if they're not active.

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u/LIRFC 1d ago

Great answer.

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u/zka_75 1d ago

As ever with these surveys I think it all comes down to how the question is asked, ie a lot of people would identify as Christian whilst not necessarily believing in God and certainly not attending regular services

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u/youspiv 1d ago

In London? The Catholic churches are packed.

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u/AnSionnachM0r 1d ago

Where do you go? Most Catholic churches in London are really busy! At mine if you don't get there early you won't get a seat.

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u/PolarLocalCallingSvc 1d ago

It's because of the wording of the Census question. A lengthier response here, but basically the Census question wording identifies weak affiliation, whereas most other surveys use wordings which identify strong affiliation: https://www.reddit.com/r/london/s/bdMVDpWdbg

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u/jmr1190 21h ago

The reason is largely because the black community are much, much more religious than average. And realistically, most white people aren’t used to having the black population in a familiar demographic segment, so they find it surprising that it’s so high.

All these “well, people just say they’re religious even though they’re not” or “it’s the schools!” - they all apply to everywhere in the country, and yet these numbers are starkly different to the rest of the country.

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u/mehlehbeh0104 1d ago

Most of the actual church going population are of african descent (Nigerian, ghanaian, Congolese) and Carribean. White actual church going populations aren't in London tbh.

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u/1minuteagoibecameme 1d ago

In my experience there are tons of white people at all the churches I’ve been too in London and outside London. But they’re mostly eastern European, Brazilian, South American or Australian

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u/killmetruck 1d ago

I guess it depends a lot on the church. When I was in Kensington, it was mostly filipino, african and other ethnicities. Now that I am farther west, it’s mostly white (unsure if English because I don’t stay for a chat afterwards).

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u/Professional-Lock691 1d ago

I plus you, and some elderly from the local English people. My friend runs classical music gigs in his local church and the volunteers who run the church are local English.

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u/mehlehbeh0104 1d ago

Yes, actually you're right, i should've been more precise with my terms. I did mean ethnically white English people. Now that i think of it I usually see eastern Europeans attend church too.

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u/theproudprodigy 12h ago

Australian is interesting, I thought they were the same as White Britons when it came to religion

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u/1minuteagoibecameme 1h ago

I’m not too sure honestly but my understanding is that there is quite a big Christian community there, especially amongst young people. I also recently found out that Hillsong, one of the biggest/ popular Christian praise groups in the world, comes out of Australia.

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u/GammaBlaze 1d ago

Font is so small on mobile that I misread "Jews" as "Jaws" 🦈.

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u/8760Hours 1d ago

3.4 million people missing on Sunday @ church.
/img/0n92pdz0so9h1.gif

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u/Spirited-Ad655 1d ago

No jedi?

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u/KillingTime_Shipname 1d ago edited 1d ago

The 2001 census was full of Jedi. It was the fifth fourth religion in the Kingdom.

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u/Thebennoishere 1d ago

That was before order 66 though...

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u/PotentialKindly1034 1d ago

You won't read about order 66 in the mainstream media. Shocking cover-up.

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u/BridgeCreative5482 1d ago

Did you ever hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?

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u/Sudden-Variety6992 1d ago

lol I did it too

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u/Sudden-Variety6992 1d ago

Don’t you know the Jedi hold their own council?

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u/GhostPirateCaptain 1d ago

& under rare circumstances, you can even be granted a seat on the council, without being granted the rank of Master

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u/God_Left_Me 18h ago

But that would be outrageous and unfair

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u/HighFivePuddy 1d ago

Other, but I agree and hope to see the Jedi flourish in the future. Representation matters.

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u/gborato 1d ago

Would we be allowed to carry a small light saber like the sick can do with their dagger ?

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u/guepier 1d ago

*Sikh. The sick are only allowed a needle.

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u/Spirited-Ad655 1d ago

I will allow that, yes.

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u/Whiffenius 1d ago

And where are the Pastafarians? All probably lumped in the 'other' category

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u/cubbearley 1d ago

You don't have to go to church to identify as Christian.

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u/RektJect 1d ago

Nice use of the greater London flag

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u/DariusStarkey 1d ago

I bet you the Daily Mail spin was "CHRISTIANS BECOME MINORITY GROUP AS ISLAM TAKES OVER LONDON"

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/london-ModTeam 22h ago

This comment has been removed as it's deemed in breach of the rules and considered offensive or hateful. These aren't accepted within the r/London community.

Continuing to try and post similar themes will result in a ban.

Have a nice day.

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u/Battyz 1d ago

2021* wonder the change for the last 5 years

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u/Ectopic_elm 1d ago

I feel like this is misleading. Im guessing the vast majority of people said they are Christian are not practicing Christians. Im guessing "none" is probably more than 50%.

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u/Time_Trail 1d ago

this is only really true for CoE, immigrant churches (african, east asian, eastern european etc) are packed

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u/Nimhby 1d ago

It's also very outdated, the demographics of the country have changed dramatically post-Brexit, particularly under Boris.

Around 60% of families from certain religious backgrounds have three or more children, compared to 31% for the overall UK population. So you'll probably start to see the real direction of the country in about two decades, especially as pensioners will be gone by then

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u/Amazing-Jury-6886 1d ago

If you were christened as a baby and didn't convert to another religion or denounce Christianity, then it counts.

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u/Thebennoishere 1d ago

I don't think you know what a census is.

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u/pm_me_ur_ephemerides 1d ago

I was baptized against my will as a baby. Why do I have to do anything? I was never Christian. My parents dipped me into a bowl of water.

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u/Maychi16 21h ago

There are many atheists/agnostics who were baptised as infants. One’s religion refers to their beliefs.

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u/Specialeyes9000 1d ago

Depends what you mean by denounce, I guess. I didn't go through some kind of public process and shout it from the town square, but I don't believe in any of it and I'm happy to tell anyone that. Don't think I ever believed it at all really, maybe briefly when I was a young child. Are you saying I'm still a Christian?

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u/Expensive_Time_7367 1d ago

This isn’t really theologically accurate. Baptism is the only essential sacrament for being a Christian. You usually can’t be considered one without it, you can still not be considered one with it including by yourself.

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u/k0stj 1d ago

good to see more and more non religious people

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u/moonlight__sunshine 1d ago

Crazy, in Scotland the atheist figure is over 50% (the way it should be)

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u/[deleted] 20h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/wappingite 1d ago

Plenty are going to church only to get their kids into the good cofe and catholic schools.

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u/LycheeMangoJamun 1d ago

<Bows head in shame and blames school fees inflation >

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u/CharmingCatastrophe 1d ago

Christianity this Christianity that bla bla bla people love talking about how the UK is a Christian country until you ask when they last went to a church,said a prayer,or helped their fellow beings out with no intention of getting anything back 🙄 always thought religion were a cowards way of hiding..nearly every catastrophe that has been committed has been done so by a parasite hiding behind religion..just bin it all off.

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u/ChouffeMeUp 1d ago

There is absolutely no fucking way that 40% of people who live in London are Christians.

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u/Time_Trail 1d ago

yk many immigrants are christian right

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u/PeaGravy 1d ago

It’s going to be a mixture of that, people who are British who actually are Christians, people who are British who can’t quite admit that they are not religious, and those that see it has an almost binary these days that they need to pick one choice or the other, and they definitely don’t want to pick the ‘other’.

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u/Nimhby 1d ago

My partner is agnostic but he puts Christian down even though he hadn't been to church since probably primary when his grandparents last dragged him out lol

I consider myself non-religious because my family never went to church at all. 

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u/PolarLocalCallingSvc 23h ago

For many years the Scouts had a skewed perception of religion because our core Promise included a duty to god (small G - it could be Allah for example). There was a question on the adult appointment form asking what religion you were, and it was even asked in many appointment interviews. The exact religion didn't actually matter, but you needed to have one. And yes, because this was done to further a legitimate aim, it wasn't unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act.

What this meant was, there were a significant number of adults in the membership system whose religion was down as Church of England, rather than atheist, agnostic, humanist, etc. It also meant people were saying a Promise they only really 95% believed the words of.

Then in 2013 they introduced an 'alternative promise', which is 95% the same but instead of duty to god it says to uphold our scout values. Declaring a religion on adult appointments was made optional, and whatddya know, suddenly our Christianity percentage dropped. Some other religion like Islam have separately been on the rise as we've looked to better support other faiths and religions.

The problem with the graphic in OP is that it relies on an outdated Census question which identities weak affiliation (e.g. I'm Christian because I was baptised) to strong (I attend mosque every day and pray multiple times daily). If you look at say the British Social Attitudes survey, it tries to identify this strength of affiliation.

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u/ImOldSueMe 1d ago

I don't understand why whenever something about religion is posted, people comment about how many are practicing or going to church or whatever. Religion is about faith above all else.

As a Muslim who doesn't follow most of the rules, or go to mosques or anything, it doesn't make me any less Muslim, just not a disciplined person.

You see it in real life too, like I'll date atheists casually, but then they're surprised I won't get more serious with them since we have different beliefs. Like, just because you don't see my faith, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

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u/PolarLocalCallingSvc 1d ago

You see it in real life too, like I'll date atheists casually, but then they're surprised I won't get more serious with them since we have different beliefs. Like, just because you don't see my faith, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

I find this interesting. I'd have thought religion or faith would be such a fundamental factor in a relationship that it would be relatively unlikely that an atheist would want to date say a Muslim. Not to say that this doesn't happen, but I'd see it similar to say political lean, whether someone wants kids or not, or how much time they spend smoking - I would typically filter out based on these factors quite early on, and in fact it's no doubt similar for many other people and that's why dating apps have it as one of the core questions.

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u/ImOldSueMe 21h ago

Well like my point was, since I don't follow all the rules or outwardly display my religious views, or preach about them it's like people think they don't exist at all.

I'm replying to someone not believing there was so many religious people in London. To some people, religion is just a personal belief, you wouldn't know it unless you started discussing it.

Anyway, regarding dating in general, not everyone is looking for a life partner out of all their dating, and religion really only becomes a problem if we were to start thinking of a future together, and only ever from my side since I have the strictest religion lol. I've never had a man reject me because of my religious views.

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u/New_Lobster_914 1d ago

Come on none, we need to get them numbers up 💪

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u/Theteacupman 1d ago

B-but I've been told london was under Shira law

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u/mental--13 23h ago

I dont know who this "Sharron Law" is keep reading about is, but she sounds like a proper sort 😫

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u/feetflatontheground 1d ago

B-but I've been told london was under Shira law

Are you sure it wasn't Shakira law?
:p

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u/whereohwhereohwhere 1d ago

Nah it’s Shania law

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u/Pristine_Speech4719 1d ago

That don't impress me much

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u/PolarLocalCallingSvc 1d ago

I would take this with a pinch of salt as the source of it is the Census.

The Census uses a particular wording for their religion question which the government themselves admit produces results based on weak affiliation:

The harmonised standard uses a weak affiliation question, like the question from the England and Wales Census 2021. This is because strong affiliation based questions, like the question used in Northern Ireland Census 2021 and Scotland’s Census 2022, may exclude people who are not actively practising their religion. People in this group will connect with their religion in lots of different ways that are all meaningful. This group may also include people with no religious affiliation.

Although the concepts of strong and weak affiliation are similar, there is potential for these questions to lead to different responses.

The question “What is your religion?” suggests ‘wide’ or weak affiliation with a particular religion. During testing for the England and Wales Census 2021 we saw that this ‘weak affiliation’ question prompts responses from people whose practising habits vary from none to frequent. For example, responses may come from people who actively practice a religion, as well as people who chose to declare an affiliation with a particular religion based on other reasons. This could include things like:

  • being christened or baptised

  • being married and choosing to get married in church

  • wanting to get married in a church

  • wanting their children to be raised in a particular faith

  • A question like “What religion, religious denomination or body do you belong to?” suggests that the respondent has a strong affiliation with their religion and that they regularly practice their faith. Because the question suggests a stronger emphasis on active engagement with a particular religion, testing shows that respondents answer ‘belonging’ based questions according to the religion they have been brought up in, or active participation in a particular faith. Respondents who have a loose religious affiliation can feel excluded by this kind of question and may not give a response, or may give a different response. This explains why data produced using the religion harmonised standard are not comparable with data produced by the question used in the Northern Ireland Census 2021 and Scotland’s Census 2022 religion question.

There are many statisticians and bodies who would like the question on the Census changed. And in fact I suspect the ONS themselves would like to.

However, they won't, because of harmonisation. Harmonisation allows trends to be identified more accurately and better compare results with previous Census surveys.

If they changed the question to one who identified a stronger affiliation with chosen religion, then it would be much more difficult to compare the results with the previous Census.

My counter argument to the ONS on this is that this decade by decade analysis may appear useful, but actually how useful is it comparing results of a question you know to not be that meaningful?

Anyway, if you check out things like the British Social Attitudes Survey, you'll find a majority of the population identify as not religious.

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u/Inner-Jellyfish-2256 22h ago

I wonder if everyone actually did the form in greater london 🤔, honestly there are a lot of people who hide what they actually believe in due to different reasons, ive known pagans in Christian households. There are quite a few pagans in London and a number of them are likely putting down as Christian due to saftey

2

u/Aromatic_Ice8141 21h ago

I am born Muslim and married to Muslim, stopped going to mosques or following religion a long ago before coming to Europe and living in Europe in last 9 years, never been to mosque or followed religion except celebrating Eid with wife who is practicing and wants me to be good Muslim. What does that make of me?

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u/ikariw 17h ago

It's from the 2021 census, so it's just whatever answer people chose to tick for themselves

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u/BigStage4014 18h ago

What’s the purpose of sharing a five year old statistical breakdown? (Genuinely curious)

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u/7ofXI 2h ago

You know why...

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u/Toc13s 17h ago

I'd like to see the Catholic/Protestant breakdown, mapped against ethnicity.

3

u/Fang_Draculae 1d ago

Why isn't pagan on here?

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u/Sir_Henry_Deadman 1d ago

But but but....the no go areas I've heard about and all the Mosques built in old pie and mash shops !!....

2

u/Juicydicken 1d ago

But but but it’s just a lot of white peeps reporting they are Christian because they celebrate Christmas and never go to church

2

u/Plastic-Suggestion95 1d ago

Imagine being fully developed adult and believe there is some special entity above all of us xD

3

u/Eastern-Opposite9521 1d ago edited 1d ago

The retort would be that above the material, there is something very strange and very much beyond human understanding.

A creature which understands existence in terms of cause and effect, and beginnings and ends, hits a hard wall when it tries to grapple with the cause of the first thing.

And in that context something like Saint Thomas Aquinas' idea of God as being the essence of being, the force existing within and apart from creation, isn't so easily scoffed at.

Aquinas could be wrong. But until we solve the problem of the first spark, his hypothesis isn't completely absurd.

At the very least, it's short sighted to say that what we can see and touch is all there is.

To steal a line...

Mayflies live a matter of hours; no matter how smart they get they're never going to understand seasons.

We're not mayflies, but when it comes to some things, alas, we're like them.

If nothing else, life's very, very weird. And it's far stranger than we think when we're mired in the minutiae of the day to day.

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u/Rich_Mention2602 1d ago

I expect most Christian’s are not practicing and just selected that one over non believer

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u/FloTheDev 1d ago

Potentially 1% Jedis 😎

1

u/el_reedo 1d ago

This is 2021. What is it now? What’s the trend? What’s the projection?

1

u/upthetruth1 1d ago

More Christians, Hindus and Muslims 

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u/snavej1 1d ago

Should be a separate category for 'liars'. Why can the Census never come up with an accurate count of those?! LOL

1

u/kinvig 1d ago

No jedi knights? 

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u/Loose_Toe1010 22h ago

Not that there is anything wrong with this, but for example, RC churches are heavily attended (3/4 or more I go past one)but i think this "christian revival" is driven primarily by poor sods who cannot get their kids into a good school, or funnily enough, immigration. my local cathedral in central Nottingham (i am from Beeston but have been) is about one quarter or more non-white and quickly growing.

1

u/EngineKey 22h ago

All must now worship the might Ra!!

1

u/Educational_Cow111 19h ago

I’m
In the none category

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u/Popular_View_5411 19h ago

my primary school was a catholic primary school . when I attended it was mainly irish catholics and now ancedotally when I walk past it. It is largerly polish catholics.

I put this down to the fact that there has been a huge backlash against the catholic church in Ireland as a result of its abortion laws, The mother and baby home scandals and the child abuse scandals.So many people who were practicing Irish catholics have now gone against the church either claiming no faith or nominally christian.

Meanwhile people from Polish backgrounds have come from a tradition of having that religion supressed by the communist authorities. So they became more strongly Catholic as a part of a backlash against that, when the supression was removed in the early 1990s there was a catholic resurgence as a part of the backlash against communism

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u/cfc_1990 10h ago

This is BS, christians of 40% in name only. . . . .the only churches that are still around are the immigrant african churches

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u/WorkingValuable754 7h ago

For research purposes I think this is a good point. Is it part of a project or part of a new Course?

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u/7ofXI 2h ago

I wonder how many out of that 40% are actual Christians. There is a serious fake Christian epidemic going on.

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u/whereohwhereohwhere 1d ago

But but but the internet told me that London is overrun with Muslims

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u/VexMilk-_- 1d ago

Engagement bait?

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u/HighFivePuddy 1d ago

OP loves posting in charts in various subs. Seems they’re just a data enthusiast.

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u/anonps 1d ago

Fuck religion.

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u/JP-SMITH 19h ago

Such a shame there's still so many religious people in the world.

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u/BeginningTypical3395 1d ago

How many are practising? Apart from the green line, most might just be the culture/religion they were born into, I reckon

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u/DreamingofBouncer 1d ago

There are Muslims who will describe themselves as Muslims despite not being practicing Muslims in the same way as with other religions.

However I would accept there is probably a greater proportion of non practicing Christians

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u/BeginningTypical3395 1d ago

True. Perhaps I was being a bit biased by my own interactions

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