Early Christianity in Britain.

Christianity came at the pagan Anglo-Saxons from two directions. The Celtic Church, from the first century, pushed back into Wales, Cornwall and particularly Ireland, made in roads in the north from an early dase on Lindisfarne. The Roman Catholic Church approached from the south, beginning with the mission of St Augustine to Aethelbert, King of Kent, in 597.

St Augustine’s Mission.

Aethelbert was chosen because he was married to bertha, a Frankish Christian princess, whose support was essential, St. Augustine’s original intent was to establish an archbishopric in London, but this ignored the political fact that London was in the realm of decidedly pagan tribes, so Canterbury, the capital of the Kentish kingdom, became the seat of the preminent archbishop in England.

Saxon Churches.

The Celtic and Roman Churches, though not incompatible, certainly enjoyed differences of opinion and practice. The Celtic church was ascetic, fervent, based on monastic life, and more loosely organised. The Roman church was more conscious of structure, discipline and moderation. They also celebrated Easter on different days. To resolve their differences they met at the Synod in Whitby 664, where the Roman caused triumphed.The church was a very important force in society; the only truth national entity tying together the different Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The early monasteries of Northumberland were vital centres of learning and the arts until the Viking raids scourged them in the 9^th century.

The Venerable Bede.

Anglo Saxon England’s most famous writer, the monk Bede, lived most of his life at the monastery of Jarrow, in Northumbria. Nearby, the monastery of Lindisfarne is famous for its glorious illustrated bible, an 8^th century masterpiece of Celtic inspired art, which is now in the British Library.

Church education.

Churches were almost the only forums for education. Under the Alfred the Great church schools were encouraged, and many Latin works were translated into English. The higher church officials also played important secular roles; advising the king, witnessing charters, and administering estates of the church, which could be exceedingly large.

Travelling monks.

Most of the early work of spreading the Christian gospel was done from monasteries. The early monks were unlike the medieval ideal with which readers of the popular Brother Cadfael mysteries by Ellis Peters are familiar. The monks of the 7^th and 8^th centuries were not confines to a closed monastic community, but carried the responsibility of travelling usually on foot, throughout the surrounding countryside to preach and convert in the villages. This was especially true of monks from the Celtic monasteries. Regional or district monasteries were established to better serve an area. These were designated “ministers”, and the term lives on in many place names, such as Warminster, and Axminister.

The Development of the British Church.

Of the religions practiced in modern Britain, Christianity is the most long established and widely observed. It was first brought to Britain during the days of the Roman Empire. With the departure of the legions and the Anglo-Saxon invasions the fifth century Christianity was reduced to pockets of support in Wales, Scotland and Ireland. This situation changed with the arrival of missionaries sent by the Pope led by Saint Augustine in 597. The next few centuries saw Christianity established throughout Britain. Augustine, meanwhile, became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, the holder of which position remains the most important figure of the Church of England.

Lambeth Palace, occupied by His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury since the end of the 12th century

The Church of England.

Bishops were also established in a number of other centers, and by the end of the eleventh century, a system of diocese and parishes had been established across much of England. This system, with the creation of additional parishes and dioceses in the nineteenth century to cope with population growth and urban development, remains the basis of the structure of the Church of England. The Reformation of the Sixteenth century did not disturb this structure. It did, however, fracture the Christian community in the British Isles. Links with Rome were broken and an established church owing its allegiance to the English crown replaced the medieval Church in England, Wales and Ireland. In Scotland, it was replaced by the established Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Roman Catholicism survived in strength only in Ireland.

Freedom of Religion.

The Reformation was followed by further divisions, Conflicts over theology, church order and freedom of conscience led to a series of sessions from the Church of England in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These Free Churches, as they are now called, were joined in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries by the Methodist products of the Evangelical Revival. This and the resurgence of Roam Catholicism throughout Britain in the course of the nineteenth century, largely as a result of immigration, particularly from Ireland, produced an increasingly diverse religious scene. Further immigration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has added to this diversity. There are now over 200 different Christian denominations in Britain.

Autocephalous Catholic Bishops and Churches.

Arnold Harris Mathew, the first Old Catholic bishop for Great Britain, is usually counted as the first of the modern day independent Catholic bishops. He studied to become an Anglican priest and converted to the Roman Catholic Church, he was ordained to the priesthood in 1877. After serving several parishes, he left the Roman Catholic priesthood and became a Unitarian. During the time between when he left Roman Catholic priesthood and when he was to become an Old Catholic bishop he was to become associated with a number of disgruntled ex-Catholics in England, In 1907 he began to correspond with the famous Swiss Old Catholic prelate, Bishop Eduard Herzog.With support of Richard O’Halloran, he was elected as bishop and was consecrated by Geraldus Gul, Old Catholic Archbishop of Utrecht, 1908. On January 6, 1911 Bishop Mathew withdraw from union with Utrecht. On June 24, 1911 he sought and gained sacramental recognition and canonical inter communion with the Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch and all East, Metropolitan – Archbishop Mesarra. On December 31, 1915, Mathew returned to the Roman Catholic Church. Bishop Mathew died December 21, 1919 Due to Bishop Mathews consecrating other bishops before returning to Rome, other bishops that he consecrated continued to consecrate.

XArchbishop Carlos Duarte Costa.X