Religion — denominations, leaders, and patron saints
Christian denominations across the UK, the title of the most senior cleric in each one (the trap), and the four patron saints with the dates and the holiday rules that go with them.
The religion section is one of the densest disambiguation traps in Chapter 4. The facts are not hard, but the leader titles sit one sentence apart in the handbook and are very easy to swap. Get the four titles straight and most of the rest is straightforward.
The numbers
In the 2009 Citizenship Survey (the figures the handbook uses):
- Christian — 70%
- Muslim — 4%
- Hindu — 2%
- Sikh — 1%
- Jewish and Buddhist — both less than 0.5%
- Other religion — 2%
- No religion — 21%
Everyone has the legal right to choose a religion or to choose not to practise one. Buildings for the major faiths — mosques (Islamic), temples (Hindu and Buddhist), synagogues (Jewish), gurdwaras (Sikh) — exist throughout the UK.
The Church of England (Anglican)
The Church of England is the established Church in England. It dates to the Reformation in the 1530s under Henry VIII. Three structural facts are testable:
- The monarch is the head of the Church of England.
- The Archbishop of Canterbury is the spiritual leader.
- Church of England bishops sit in the House of Lords (constitutional link between Church and state).
Outside England the Church of England is known as the Anglican Church, and in Scotland and the United States it is called the Episcopal Church.
The Church of Scotland (Presbyterian)
Scotland has its own national Church — the Church of Scotland — which is Presbyterian, not Anglican. The structure is different and so is the leader’s title:
- The General Assembly is the governing body.
- The chairperson is called the Moderator, appointed for one year only.
The single most-asked Church of Scotland fact: the leader is the Moderator — not an archbishop, not a bishop. Presbyterian churches are governed by ministers and elders, not bishops.
No established Church in Wales or Northern Ireland
This is a stand-alone fact. Wales has no established Church. Northern Ireland has no established Church. Only England has one.
Other Christian denominations
The handbook lists Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Quakers as other Protestant Christian groups in the UK. The largest non-Protestant Christian denomination is Roman Catholic.
For Catholics in England and Wales, the senior figure is the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster.
The four religious-leader-title trap. All four of these titles sit close together in your memory and they are often given as wrong-but-plausible distractors:
Body Title Church of England Archbishop of Canterbury Catholic Church in England and Wales Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster Church of Scotland Moderator of the General Assembly Worldwide Catholic Church Pope The Pope is the head of the worldwide Catholic Church — he is not the head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales specifically. That is the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. This is one of the most commonly missed test questions in the whole exam.
The patron saints
Each of the four nations has a patron saint and a saint’s day:
| Nation | Saint | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Wales | St David | 1 March |
| Northern Ireland | St Patrick | 17 March |
| England | St George | 23 April |
| Scotland | St Andrew | 30 November |
Only Scotland and Northern Ireland have their patron saint’s day as an official public holiday. (And in Scotland, not all businesses and offices close.) England and Wales still celebrate, but the day is not a holiday. This holiday/non-holiday split is testable in its own right.
A common mnemonic for the dates: D-P-G-A by month — David (March 1st), Patrick (March 17th), George (April 23rd), Andrew (November 30th). The two March dates are the trap that catches people who only remember “spring.”
What to take from this section
- 70% Christian in the 2009 survey, 21% no religion.
- Reformation in the 1530s — that’s where the Church of England starts.
- Monarch is head of CofE; Archbishop of Canterbury is its spiritual leader; bishops sit in the Lords.
- Church of Scotland is Presbyterian; its leader is the Moderator.
- Catholic Church in England and Wales — Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster. Not the Pope.
- Patron saints — David / Patrick / George / Andrew — 1 Mar / 17 Mar / 23 Apr / 30 Nov.
- Only Scotland and Northern Ireland get the public holiday.