Morning View: Decline of a faith that has been key to our history

A striking new detail from the latest census of the United Kingdom has emerged, as the findings of that huge haul of data are gradually released.The proportion of people in England and Wales who consider themselves 'Christian' is now below 50% for the first time in the era of reliable records.

Some 46% of respondents said they were 'Christian' compared to 59% in 2011.

The more surprising aspect of the findings is not the fact that the number of self-designating Christians is under half, but that the decline in a decade has been so steep.

Many people who answer that they are Christian are only nominally so. For swathes of the population it is a cultural tag in the same way that even irreligious Northern Ireland folk often use Protestant and Catholic as cultural tags.

A few years ago weekly church attendance in England fell below 5% of the population. Even in Northern Ireland, which still has significantly higher churchgoing rates, weekly attendance among Anglicans and Methodists was under 50% as long ago as 1968, and has declined steadily since then.

For many people who cherish the history and culture of Britain these are troubling findings – not because there are no alternatives to a Christian faith but because a past pillar of civic life is crumbling.

Many children now have little knowledge of the Bible or the origins of holidays such as Christmas. Meanwhile, some religions are growing such as Islam, edging its way up towards 10%.

Christianity is inextricably linked to the growth of civilisation on these islands over the last 1,000 years.

The rapid decline of that is already leading to ignorance of that past and resulting moral confusion, such as prosecutors saying that verses in the Bible are no longer appropriate to modern society.