Immigration brings with it new ways of thinking and new cultural trends. Just as European cultures for centuries influenced the rest of the world through imperialism and the work of missionaries now the tide has turned.

The British Isles have for thousands of years absorbed and homogenised wave after wave of people from the Celts to the Romans, Saxons and Vikings and the Normans. In the modern era it is the migrant who is the vehicle of change. Islam may well become the main religion of the UK. The issue is not when this will be but rather how? Will this be a British Islam unified with a British identity or a fractured and sectarian Islam?

Angelina Cupola, London, England

simply a sign of the times, the stage we're AT now.
society,morality, church's LACK of teaching---how many believe it's all one and the same at the end of the day ?
how many are converting to islam because of their moral ABSOLUTES ?
......remember when .....you heard a sermon and teaching about morality ?
heard any recently ?

of course no one should put human failure(poor leadership,preaching etc) as their reason for NOT attending and supporting their church...but this was spoken of by Christ as a sign of the "times."

catroina, ny ny, usa

do not forget, there is only One True Church founded by Christ and that is the Catholic Church.

The word "Christian" is meaningless today.

Stick with the facts of history. Catholic, Catholic, and still Catholic.

How can so many people be so dumb?

richard zelonis, southaven, MS, USA

Dear Editor, Once known as Our Lady's Dowry England is now a spiritual wasteland thanks to the widespread indifference and ignorance of her people who justify turning their backs on Christ and His Mother because of the shortcomings of other mortals. There has been a range of excuses from 'I don't go to church because only hypocrites go' 'The church is too wealthy, they are always after my money' ' I don't like the priest or vicar' ' The congregation didn't make me feel welcome.' To these I say take the moat out of your own eye first .The priest or vicar puts his shoes on one at a time like everyone else and will have to answer for what he has done and failed to do like everyone else.The fact that people sin has nothing to do with Christ and His Blessed Mother.He gave his life for that fact so why are you ignoring Him?You can't love Christ without the church he founded.It is as simple as that.Being goodness itself He will no doubt salvage something out of the mess but heaven knows we don't deserve it. God Bless - An ex- patriot who will always love Mother England

Patricia Halligan, Mandurah, Western Australia

Sorry, but the church deserves what is coming. They have let their flocks down badly, while other religions instill a sense pf pride and purpose in their followers, Christianity has put down their own, and praised the effort of other faiths. Perhaps instead of constantly ramming down the message that caucasians are somehow responsible for all the worlds ills, from slavery to pollution, and instead sending out the message that as a civilised society we had brought much to the world, their pews would not now be empty. Being a do gooder is commendable, but not when facing the onslaught from other competitive religions.

D Morrison, Glasgow,

So there we are folks - bottom of the pile when it comes to the welfare of our children in a country which is reapidly losing its traditional Christian faith. O Brave New World!




England lost "the traditional Christian faith" when it left the Catholic Church. Protestantism has within itself the seeds of its own destruction, which is why the C of E is a meaningless shell.

The Catholic Church will survive the current onslaught, although She will undergo persecution in order to do so.

Dennis, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Sorry Angie, Worcester UK. Nowhere in the bible I read every day, is God refered to, or implied to be the "man in the sky" kind or otherwise. That's the trouble with those who dip into scripture & don't study it - they mistake God's descrition of His relationship with us as a Father relationship, as an old man sat on a cloud.

As to believing in fairy tales if you think that, the sordid, degenerate state of affairs that passes for life in the UK today is better & more grown up -then give me fairy tales!!

Moral relativism will never be a subsitute for a sound faith, focused on our creator and the sooner we all realise this the better.

michael, london,

So there we are folks - bottom of the pile when it comes to the welfare of our children in a country which is reapidly losing its traditional Christian faith. O Brave New World!

Margarita, London, UK

Has anyone looked into whether the covenants would be valid if they discrimiate against other religions.

Peter Causton, Birmingham, UK

So more than 70 per cent consider themselves Christian? What do we mean by 'consider' (the census, I suppose, is where this figure came from)? I remember my brother saying to me in a conversation, 'Well, I'm a Christian.' If I'd thought about it (but such is <i>esprit d'escalier</i>) I'd have said, 'How do you know?' He admits to not knowing much about it, and I'm pretty sure that I as a nontheist know a damn sight more than he does, and yet he was happy to send his daughters to be indoctrinated into these strange beliefs by people he didn't, as far as I am aware, know, when he sent them both to Sunday School. No, people are default Christians. They'll do the hatch, match and dispatch in church - maybe not even those. They don't understand religion, but it is instilled into them that this is a Christian country, so they must be Christians. I beg to differ.

Andrew Armitage, West Wales, United Kingdom

"The homogenised, Christian landscape is in retreat." Ceri Peach should try walking round Oxford some Sunday morning.

Along 200 yards of one streeet alone, from the hundreds spilling out of Latin High Mass, through the scores in the Quaker Meeting House and half a dozen other variants of Reformed Christianity to the crowds of young Poles gossipping after the Polish Mass, he'd see England's urban Christian landscape is far from homogenised.

And if that's retreat, Heaven alone knows what advance must look like.

Michael Flanagan, Charlbury, Oxfordshire

The most cursory of glances at the materialistic and secular culture that has come to replace the "old thinking" will reveal a debilitated society in the final stages of decay.
A belief in supposing such a thing to be "grown up" is closer to a belief in fairy tales than the practise of any religion.

Mark Lyndon, London, UK

It would be idle to suppose that the establishment is not quite happy with this state of affairs -- on the contrary. Since the same people have been appointing utterly unfit men to bishoprics, what else was to be expected? While Christian-baiting is part of church appointments, Christians may be expected to go elsewhere, and take their cheque-books with them. Cause and effect, surely; although, as ever, it takes the establishment by surprise. But perhaps their approach to the collapsing transport system could be adopted here. Why not TAX successful congregations? That should get rid of them!

Roger Pearse, Ipswich, United Kingdom

Having recently become a Christian, I can assure you that the church I attend is growing by the day. We are in the process of converting a building to a centre for young people. Great things are happening out there!

Bill Morrison, Sandbach, Cheshire

Good. Let's keep churches as monuments to our old thinking in the belief of a man in the sky who made us (I was going to say "kind" man, but then I HAVE actually read the bible, something which most christians haven't).

It's time to grow up and stop believing in fairy tales.

Angie, Worcester, UK

Perhaps the C of E should return the churches, monestaries, convents, and schools to the Catholic Church, and relieve itself of the financial burden it's suffering. Considering the dramatic decline in attendance over the past 40 years, and the parallel rise in liberal thought and practice in the C of E (and I include American Anglicanism), one would be hard-pressed not to make a connection. Now that the C of E has become nothing more than a liberal branch of Protestantism, a return to the Catholic Church may be exactly what the imam ordered!

Sam, Plantation, Florida/USA

I was looking in a second hand book recently and out fell a piece from the Times in 1972 proving as a mathematical cert that there'd be nothing at all left of organised Christianity in England in 35 years time, = 2007!

So what goes around comes around, as they say...

Alan, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire

One of the biggest problems, at least for the Church of England, is the extent of our financial responsibility for many of the most significant listed buildings in England. Church buildings, be they mediaeval or Victorian, are very expensive to maintain - and the amount of funding from all public sources is very small. Even a congregation of over 100 people can be forgiven for being overwhelmed by the prospect of finding £400,000 to repair a Victorian church built of poor quality, crumbling brick and with a worn-out and inaccessible roof.

Tim Barker, Spalding,

'Just one tenth of the nation's Christians attend church'. Well not exactly. This percentage rises when weddings, baptisms and funerals are added, and indeed school services. The demand for a church to be available cannot be evaluated by only considering Sunday worship. Huge numbers of people enter a church each year, if not very often.

David Gould, Brighton, Uk

My Mum used to live near to the Mosque in Totterdown, Bristol. It was previously St Katherine's Church from 1889 to 1963. Her neighbours parents were married there and said that it was an Anglican Church. It was intersting to read that no Anglican Church had beeb turned into a Mosque. Is this the exception or had the neighbours got it wrong?

stella tratt, bristol,

With only an estimated 10% of the country`s Christians attending fomal services it seems only logical that less churches are needed.

I suggest any of the 90% non practicing Christians that are reading this should visit the British Humanist Association`s web site. Next time there is a survey perhaps they will not automatically tick Christian when asked their faith, and we may then get a more realistic result.

S. Collie, Montpellier, France