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Beyond Belief

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Beyond Belief: Immigration and the Church

05/12/2016

Immigration and the Church

BBC Radio 4 - Beyond Belief, Immigration and the Church

Ernie Rea and guests discuss the impact of immigration on the church in Britain.

What impact is immigration having on the churches in Britain? What opportunities and challenges does it pose to them? Ernie Rea and guests discuss.

Churchgoing in the UK is in steep decline, but between 2005 and 2012 attendance rose by 14% and that is down to immigration. One in seven church services in London are not conducted in English. Many of the new worshippers are Poles and other Eastern Europeans who took the opportunity which the enlargement of the European Union offered to come to Britain. Others are fleeing conflict in places like Somalia and Syria. What impact is immigration having on the Churches in Britain? What opportunities and challenges does it pose to them?

Ernie Rea is joined by Francis Davies Professor of Religion, Communities and Public Policy at Birmingham University, Dr Fiona McCallum, Lecturer at the School of International Relations at the University of St Andrews, Pouya Heideri, an Iranian Christian who has been living in Britain for the last seven years and is training for ministry in the Church of England, and Rev Sally Smith from Stoke on Trent. 

Producer: Rosie Dawson.

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