'Christianity as default is gone': the rise of a non-Christian Europe

From The Guardian-

Europe’s march towards a post-Christian society has been starkly illustrated by research showing a majority of young people in a dozen countries do not follow a religion.

The survey of 16- to 29-year-olds found the Czech Republic is the least religious country in Europe, with 91% of that age group saying they have no religious affiliation. Between 70% and 80% of young adults in Estonia, Sweden and the Netherlands also categorise themselves as non-religious.

The most religious country is Poland, where 17% of young adults define themselves as non-religious, followed by Lithuania with 25%.

In the UK, only 7% of young adults identify as Anglican, fewer than the 10% who categorise themselves as Catholic. Young Muslims, at 6%, are on the brink of overtaking those who consider themselves part of the country’s established church.

More here-

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/21/christianity-non-christian-europe-young-people-survey-religion

MEN WITHOUT CONVICTION, CHURCHES WITHOUT PEOPLE

From First Things-

Europe’s wholesale abandonment of its Christian faith is often explained as the inevitable by-product of modern social, economic, and political life. But there is far more to the story of Euro-secularization than that, as three ecclesiastics—a Presbyterian minister and two Italian priests—demonstrated this past Christmas.

The minister in question was the Moderator of the Church of Scotland, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Derek Browning. In his Yuletide message to his disappearing flock, Dr. Browning confessed that in his “darker moments,” he sometimes wondered whether “the world [would] have been a better place without [Jesus]. If there was no Jesus, and therefore no Christianity, would there have been no Crusades? Would there have been no Spanish Inquisition?” (Dr. Browning didn’t contemplate the possibility that, without Jesus, there would have been no iconoclastic destruction of Scotland’s ancient and beautiful Catholic churches, or no mass burnings of “witches” by his forebears in the kirk; but that, perhaps, would have been cutting a bit too close to the bone.)

More here-

https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2018/02/men-without-conviction-churches-without-people

Refugees missing from European media reports on migration crisis

From ACNS-

A detailed study by an ecumenical group accuses European media of maintaining a “pattern of invisibility” for refugees and migrants. The 12-month study, Changing the Narrative: Media Representation of Refugees and Migrants in Europe, by the Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe (CCME) and the World Association for Christian Communication – Europe region (WACC Europe), found that individual references to a refugee or migrant only appear in one fifth of news items on asylum and migration. “This points to a pattern of invisibility that creates a clear divide between the policies being discussed at the political level and the effects of those policies on people,” the report says.

The research involved media monitoring in seven European countries: Greece, Italy, Spain, Serbia, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway. It said that, of the 21 per cent of the news items that reference migrants or refugees, less than half (40 per cent) of the articles quoted them directly.

More here-

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2017/11/refugees-missing-from-european-media-reports-on-migration-crisis.aspx

Converts to “religion of freedom” are boosting church attendance in Europe

From Patheos-

The Muslim immigrants converting to Christianity are having a noticeable affect on church growth and church attendance in Europe.  (See this, this, and this.)

For the last few decades, churches have been almost empty on Sunday mornings. But congregations that have evangelized Muslims are coming back to life.  For example, theTrinity Lutheran Church in Berlin, which we have blogged about, used to have 150 parishioners.  Now they have 700.

The phenomenon has spread to England.  One Anglican bishop says that one out of four of the confirmations he performs are for Muslims converting to Christianity.

Two stories from British sources after the jump.  They give some inspiring testimonies about how some of these immigrants came to Christ.  A common theme:  the realization that Christianity is “the religion of freedom.”

More here-

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2017/03/converts-to-religion-of-freedom-are-boosting-church-attendance-in-europe/

"It's the toughest job since St Paul's" - incoming Bishop in Europe

From Anglican News-

The incoming Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe said he is looking forward to visiting his diocese which stretches many thousands of miles from Iceland to Mongolia.

Canon Dr Robert Innes, who is being consecrated on Sunday at Canterbury Cathedral, joked his new role was “the toughest job since St Paul's”.

Certainly in terms of travel, the new bishop is facing a diocese covering some one-sixth of the Earth's landmass, including Morocco, Europe (excluding the British Isles), Turkey and the territory of the former Soviet Union.

More here-

http://www.anglicannews.org/news/2014/07/its-the-toughest-job-since-st-pauls-incoming-bishop-in-europe.aspx

Christians Claim Workplace Discrimination in Landmark Case

From The New York Times-

One of Europe’s highest courts is considering a landmark decision on the employment rights of Christians, including two British women who were disciplined for wearing crucifix necklaces at work.

They were among four Christians who this week took their cases to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg claiming workplace discrimination that a former Archbishop of Canterbury says has turned them into victims of a new secular orthodoxy.

The four, all Britons who claim national laws failed to protect them, argue that their employers contravened European human rights legislation that bans religious discrimination and allows “freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”

A lawyer for the British government argued at a hearing in Strasbourg on Tuesday that these rights were only protected in the private sphere and not in the workplace.

The cases include those of Nadia Eweida, a British Airways employee who was sent home in 2006 after refusing to remove or conceal a cross that she was wearing on a chain around her neck, and Shirley Chaplin, a nurse who was taken off ward duties after her hospital decided that her crucifix necklace posed a health and safety threat to patients.

More here-

http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/05/christians-claim-workplace-discrimination-in-landmark-case/

Strasbourg to hear religious-discrimination cases

From The Church Times-

THE European Court of Human Rights, in Strasbourg, will next week hear the cases of four British people who claim that they lost their jobs as a result of discrimination against their Christian beliefs.

Two of the cases concern the right to manifest religious belief, and whether this extends to wearing a cross or crucifix in the workplace. The other two concern the "clash of rights" that occurs when legislation and rules designed to ensure equality for gay men and lesbians is said to conflict with other people's rights to manifest their religious belief that homosexual practice is sinful.

Shirley Chaplin, who worked as a nurse with the Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Trust ( News, 9 April 2010), and Nadia Eweida, who worked at a check-in desk for British Airways at Heathrow Airport ( News, 11 January 2008), both lost their jobs over their refusal to remove a cross worn around the neck. The pair both claim that they had worn their crosses for years, and that their jewellery became apparent only when their respective employers changed the design of their uniforms.

More here-

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2012/31-august/news/uk/strasbourg-to-hear-religious-discrimination-cases

Episcopal and European churches seek to fortify ecumenical bonds

From The Christian Century-

Two Christian denominations in Europe -- one in full communion with the Episcopal Church and the other exploring the potential for such a relationship -- welcomed Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori for key talks and a keynote address.

Following a three-day visit to the (Lutheran) Church of Sweden, with which the Episcopal Church is hoping to formalize a full-communion partnership, Jefferts Schori traveled to Utrecht in the Netherlands to deliver the annual Quasimodo Lecture, hosted by the Old Catholic Church, Episcopal News Service reports.

The Episcopal Church entered into full communion with the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht on the basis of the Bonn Agreement in 1934. The Old Catholic Church consists of several national churches in Europe -- located in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Poland -- that could not accept the definition of papal infallibility presented by the first Vatican Council in 1870.

Archbishop Joris Vercammen of the Old Catholic Church told ENS that cooperation between his church, the Episcopal Church and the Church of England -- all of which have a presence in Europe -- is "essential for contributing to the gospel" on the continent.

More here-

http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-05/episcopal-and-european-churches-seek-fortify-ecumenical-bonds

Convocation a home for Europe's Christians

From Episcopal Life Online-

In Europe, there's no such thing as an average Episcopalian, and it may not be the most obvious place you'd expect to find a group of Episcopal congregations. But the Convocation of American Churches in Europe ministers to a unique and culturally diverse demographic of Christians throughout Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.
Charité Nrusi, for example, fled from Rwanda during the genocide in the mid-1990s. She since has settled in western France, where she joins other Rwandan refugees at the Mission Saint Emmanuel in Rennes.

The Rev. Dorothee Hahn, a German native and former lawyer, is assistant rector at Church of the Ascension in Munich and vicar of mission congregations in Augsburg and Nuremburg.

Most of her pastoral work is bilingual, and her ministry takes her 174 miles round trip, covering terrain that is almost exclusively Protestant.

Denis le Mollac, a lifelong Parisian, fi rst experienced the community at the American Cathedral in Paris in 1977 and was so impressed by the hospitality that he's been a member ever since.

http://www.episcopalchurch.org/81799_104878_ENG_HTM.htm