Statistics show evangelical influence growing throughout United Kingdom
allie martin
May 1, 2007
Evangelicals appear to be thriving throughout the United Kingdom as traditional churches struggle. According to a recent census, 72 percent of people in England identified themselves as Christian; however, the Church of England says that less than 10 percent of its members are regular churchgoers. On the other hand, evangelicals account for about 40 percent of the nation's regular churchgoers.
Pastor Joel Edwards is general director of the Evangelical Alliance. Founded in 1846, that group is the oldest alliance of evangelical Christians in the world. Edwards says the strength of the evangelical movement in the U.K. lies in its diversity. "There are evangelicals right across the Protestant spectrum as well as evangelicals within some pockets of Catholicism itself," he notes.
"When one sees evangelicalism developing and growing within the United Kingdom," the pastor notes, "one has to think first and foremost of its ability to reinvigorate and energize all denominational groups as well as independent charismatic churches and many of the old Pentecostal churches." And another large factor in the evangelical explosion, he says, is due to immigration.
Thanks to the broad appeal of the gospel message to diverse groups of people, Edwards says evangelical churches in the U.K. are thriving.
"Anywhere where one sees that kind of combination of people who have confidence in the cross, confidence in the Bible, and confidence in our mission to the world, the church remembers why it's here," he says, "and very often that leads to an explosion of life in our liturgy and worship, our evangelism, our personal witness, and our commitment to the poor and the marginalized."
The Evangelical Alliance U.K. is one of a worldwide network of national alliances constituting the World Evangelical Alliance and is a member of the European Evangelical Alliance.
Statistics show evangelical influence growing throughout United Kingdom
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