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Christianity has nothing to worry about, says CareyBy Thomas Harding (Filed: 07/09/2001)
DR GEORGE CAREY, the Archbishop of Canterbury, gave an upbeat assessment of the challenges facing Christianity yesterday, in contrast to his Catholic counterpart's view that religion was close to being "vanquished".
Asked about the speech made by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Dr Carey said there was "nothing to frighten us or worry us".
He added: "It's an exhilarating time to be alive and to be a Christian. There are many opportunities and many doors that are opening up. The challenges and opportunities are equally new."
But the Archbishop, who declared last year that "tacit atheism" prevailed in Britain, believed the Cardinal's views were worthy of serious study, and echoed some of his own concerns.
The Catholic church, like the Anglicans, is experiencing a drop in the number of priests and congregation. Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor told priests on Wednesday: "Christianity as a background to people's lives and moral decisions, and to the Government and to the social life of Britain, has almost been vanquished."
But the mosques and temples of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs are thriving in comparison. There has been a dramatic growth of Islam in the past 40 years, with the number of mosques rising from 10 to 1,600, and the Muslim population increasing to 2.5 million.
Sher Azam, 60, president of the Council of Mosques, said: "Every Friday most mosques are full and they are full of young adult people."
Islam appealed to more people because, despite being "very close" to Judaism and Christianity, it is the more modern religion, he said.
"Our numbers are rising but we are not pushing people to accept Islam. When you see there is a generally apathy about something you do get concerned. I think that the modern Western world needs spiritual guidance and Islam can provide that."
Hindu leaders said warning young people of the effects of drink, tobacco and drugs had left the close-knit community of 600,000 in good health.
Hindus have more than 140 temples, mainly in the Midlands and London, and there is no sign of a decline in attendance, according to Dullabhbhai Patel, vice-president of the National Council of Hindu Temples.
"I think Christianity has experienced too much freedom in the past century and especially the last 50 years. Their situaion is going in the wrong direction," he said.
"If people are not right-thinking, through drink and drugs, then how can they go to church to worship. We teach our youngsters that drink and drugs are not the right thing and they understand this."
Indarjit Singh, director of the Network of Sikh Organisations, sympathised with the Cardinal's comments. He said: "Some of the things he said are true about the community in general. People do think they can get a short cut to happiness through drink and drugs.
"Sikhs have had their difficulties. The older generation had their hands full with looking for jobs, houses and educating their children, and did not pay as much attention to the religious needs of their children.
"Christianity has been experiencing major difficulties, with people moving away from it, as has happened to some extent with other religions. But these things are a challenge for all of us to look at the role religion can play in society." |