Pointer One: Dodgy Data<\/p>\n
Before anything can be said about Christianity in Britain, there is one key caveat; many of the data are seriously dodgy. A good example is the national data of the Church of England. Recent research commissioned by the Church of England on its \u201d\u02dcgreater churches\u2019 had to discount two-thirds of the statistical data due to its poor quality. Overall, Anglican data contain flaws that are serious, widespread, systemic and long-standing.[2] A different example is wider data-sets such as large-scale opinion polls. These have a habit of producing contradictory results \u201d\u201c such as the national survey which purported to show a dramatic rise in the number of those espousing \u201d\u02dcno religion\u2019, which also showed that many who now espouse \u201d\u02dcno religion\u2019 also like to pray from time to time.[3] All is not lost. We can say some things. But we need to be keenly alert to the limits of what can be said. Any picture of religion in Britain which treats uncritically such surveys or the national data of major denominations, will be substantially incorrect. Multiple measures and data taken from local studies as well as national datasets are essential to obtain a meaningful picture.<\/p>\n
Pointer Two: Ethnic Diversity<\/p>\n
The ethnic diversification of Britain is one of the key shifts in recent British Christianity. It is often assumed that as Britain gets more ethnically diverse, it gets less \u201d\u02dcChristian\u2019. But the reverse is the case. Around 500,000 people are members of black majority churches. Roman Catholicism is being significantly boosted due to migration. The Christian communities in key centres, such as London, are now predominantly outside the \u201d\u02dcwhite British\u2019 sector of the population.[4] Ethnic diversity has provided a marked boost for British Christianity. By contrast, that segment of the population who, in census terminology, are most secular, the \u201d\u02dcwhite British\u2019, are also a decreasing proportion of the population. This shift is likely to become more marked in coming years.<\/p>\n