Europe’s Christian revolution – and why the UK isn’t part of it
by Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack, The Conservative Woman:
Whenever you hear ‘everybody knows’, beware: it is almost invariably wrong.
‘Everybody knows’ that Christianity in Europe is dwindling away, merely a few old codgers clinging to the beliefs of their childhood like overgrown infants with a comfort blanket.
The reality is very different. Christianity is resurgent throughout Europe.
In Spain the growth in church attendance is remarkable. Between 2011 and 2012 the proportion of the population attending Mass grew by nearly a quarter from 12.1 per cent to 15 per cent. The number attending on a weekly basis grew by 23 per cent between 2012 and 2013. The number of Spaniards voluntarily contributing part of their taxes to the Church is on the rise.
It’s not only Catholics. Spain’s Evangelical churches are growing. According to a report from the Spanish government’s Justice Ministry, in 2016 a new Evangelical church opened in Spain every two and a half days. This does not include the many unregistered house churches or Bible study/prayer groups.
We see the same in Germany where there was a 6 per cent growth in Protestant churches in 2016.
France repeats the pattern. Despite its strong tradition of laïcité, or secularism, there is a growth of evangelical Christianity in France. According to a report by the National Council of Evangelicals, in France a new Evangelical church opened every ten days that year. In the last 60 years the number of evangelicals has increased tenfold.
As well as the increasing number of churches, the report added, many congregations are experiencing growth. More than thirty evangelical churches in France have congregations of 1,000-plus. The Lille Metropole church recently increased its seating capacity from 800 to 2,000. The French are still 34 per cent atheist. However, as in Germany and Spain, the spiritual ‘tectonic plates’ are shifting.
The same shift is seen in Eastern Europe. Ground down by atheistic communism for decades, freedom has brought growth to Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox churches.
Hungary is experiencing a political revolution which is pro-family and pro-life. Part of this is a rediscovery of its Christian roots, although church attendance is still low. Following his re-election this year, prime minister Viktor Orban defined the main tasks of his new government as preserving Hungary’s security and Christian culture.
The Croats declared their independence from communist Yugoslavia in 1991 and also rediscovered their Christian identity. The proportion of Croats believing in God has risen from 39 per cent in 1989 to 75 per cent in 1996 and 82 per cent in 2004.
The strength of Croatia’s Christians was seen in 2014 after 700,000 people – one-fifth of the adult population – signed a petition demanding a referendum on amending the national constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman. Croatia’s president Ivo Josipović, Prime Minister Zoran Milanović and Minister of Foreign Affairs Vesna Pusić campaigned against a restrictive definition of marriage. Nevertheless, the vote was 65 per cent in favour, and the constitution was altered.
Poland’s church attendance is growing and now exceeds 40 per cent of the population. In November 2016, at a ceremony at the Church of Divine Mercy in Krakow, the bishops of Poland in the presence of President Andrzei Duda officially recognised Jesus Christ as the King of Poland and called upon Him to rule over their nation, its people and their political leaders.
Similar growth can be seen in Russia, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania, Armenia, Moldova and Georgia. It is clear that in the ex-Soviet dominated countries the cool thing to be is a Christian.
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