Berkley Center

This past Easter Break I was lucky enough to take a road trip around the island of Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales). The journey brought me to other major cities on the island, including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle, and Cardiff, and to villages where the official populations were two-digit figures. This was my first major excursion to other parts of the island and ultimately offered me much greater insight into Britain. Although I lauded the diversity of London in my first letter, my overall conclusion after the trip was that London is simply an amazing metropolis that does not adequately represent Great Britain as a whole. That is not to say that religions other than Christianity are not present in other parts of the island, but they do not exist at the same level of intensity as one finds in London.

Another reflection I had after the trip related to the history of religion in Great Britain. Above the city of Newcastle lies Lindisfarne or Holy Island, where one can see the remains of the monastery of Lindisfarne, established by Saint Aidan of Ireland in 635 CE. From that point on, Christianity played a significant role on the island, despite a Viking invasion in 793 CE and a long period of oppression under the rule of Henry VIII in the 1500s. In contrast to the mosques and temples which seem to spring up around London quite frequently, Lindisfarne made it completely obvious to me just how long and tumultuous a history Christianity has had in Great Britain. Although I was always aware of the ancient and complex role of Christianity in British history, it took a physical experience for it to completely sink in.

Throughout the trip, I saw church after church, even in the most remote communities. Ultimately, the experience helped me understand certain aspects of the relationship between religion and politics in Great Britain. Specifically, I was initially puzzled by the fact that the monarch was the supreme governor of the Church of England, and that she, in this case, was responsible for appointing high-ranking church leaders with advice of the prime minister. Coming from the United States, where we practice a “separation of church and state,” at least in theory, this explicit relationship was surprising, especially when considering the diversity of religions that exist, at least in London. However, when one considers the fact that the supreme governor of the Church of England has been the monarch since Henry VIII in the 1500s, and that Christianity has existed for centuries before that, it is understandable that church and state will be linked.

Although the Queen’'s role as head of the Church of England is more symbolic today, I admire the respect the British have for the role Christianity played in their history and the role it continues to play in the country today. With such a strong link between politics and religion, I find it even more remarkable that the country can be so tolerant of other religions and feel that the United States can learn a lesson or two from the example of Great Britain.