Crumbs from the Table

Christianity in Britain may date back to before the year 200  (e.g. bishop Thean of London). Certainly, Christianity had reached Britain by the year 208. The church father Tertullian mentions this fact as an example of the geographical spread of Christianity in his time, "In all parts of Spain, among the various nations of Gaul, in districts of Britain inaccessible to the Romans but subdued to Christ, in all these the kingdom and name of Christ are venerated." Another church father, Origen, writing about 239, likewise refers to Christianity among the Britons, "The power of the Saviour is felt even among those who are divided from our world, in Britain," although he is also careful to qualify that "very many have not yet heard the word of the Gospel." The first known martyr for the Christian faith in Britain was Alban , who during the Great Persecution (303-311) was killed at Verulam in about 305 for the crime of harbouring a Christian cleric. Following th...

Part of my childhood, going back to 1979, are Place Dumon (Stockel, Brussels) and the number 39 tram. Between 1979 and 1983, our family lived on a street in Woluwe-St-Pierre off avenue Grandchamp called avenue de Wavrans. I recently discovered that the the street didn't have any houses built on it until between 1953 and 1961. Within walking distance of our home was the stop for the 39 tram (photo).  A little further from our home was Place Dumon with its market and shops such as "Club". Even after moving to Wezembeek in 1983, we used to come back to Place Dumon for haircuts, and from 1988, the 39 tram line was extended from Place Dumon along the disused railway line to Ban-Eik.  It turns out that Place Dumon , previously Campagne Dumon , was purchased by the municipality in 1924, and served as the turning circle for the number 39 tram line, inaugurated in 1925, and originally joining Stockel (Place Dumon) and St Catherine in the city centre. Place Dumon has hosted a marke...

Bury is a market and former mill town in the historic county of Lancashire. It now comes under "Greater Manchester" and is situated to the north west of the metropolis, about 30 minutes drive by car from the city centre.  Bury's origins go back to before 1066. The name, originally Bury, Buri, or Byri, is a Saxon name meaning “a stronghold.”  Bury Castle manor house was built in 1469 by Sir Thomas Pilkington; its ruins near the parish church are a minor tourist feature.   Up until the 1700s, the town was served by a single parish church. The first non-conformist Christian place of worship was established in the town in 1719: what was the Presbyterian church on Silver Street (now a Unitarian Chapel). A second Church of England place of worship, St. John's church, was established in 1770. (The town is now served by about 30 Christian churches, 8 mosques, and a synagogue.)  The industrial revolution took hold in Bury from 1773 with calico printing works set up by th...

In 1830, at the time of Belgian independence, the city of Brussels was confined to the historic "pentagon", circumscribed by the old city ramparts which were dismantled between 1812 and 1840, and replaced by wide Parisian-style boulevards. (See also History of Brussels - part 1 )  In 1853, the city expanded beyond the "pentagon" to include Schaerbeek, Etterbeek (part), and Saint-Josse-ten-Noode - what became the Leopold Quarter, and the Quarter of the Squares. In 1864, the city expanded southwards to encompass what became Avenue Louise and Bois de la Cambre. In 1907, the "Jardin du Roi" and "Abbaye de la Cambre" were added (see map below).  An example of this expansion was rue Belliard, which stretches from Avenue des Arts (inner ring) to the Cinquantenaire park. The first section of this road was opened in 1855 (up to Rue van Maerlant ), followed by a second section, completed in 1869 (up to what is now the Cinquantenaire park, previously a mil...

The earliest settlement of what is now Brussels goes back to the year 580 and the island (Saint-Géry island) between two branches of the river Senne which ran through Brussels, on which Gaugericus (Géry), Christian bishop of Cambrai, built a chapel (Saint-Géry Chapel), which remained the oldest place of worship in the city until the building was demolished in the 1790s. (See also  History of Brussels - part 2 ) Brussels is mentioned in the historical record again in 695.  In the year 979, Lambert the Duke of Louvain, fortified the settlement on Saint-Géry Island - this is the traditional date of the founding of Brussels. What is now the Cathedral of Saints Michael and Gudula dates back to a parish church in 1047. In the 1100s, the Dukes of Brabant transformed the fortress on Saint-Géry Island into a inhabitable castle. The city was enclosed by the first city walls ( première enceinte - see shaded region on map to the right) in the 1200s. Brussels had developed into a subs...

It is a fact that in most societies of the global north, such as the United Kingdom and France, church attendance has dropped significantly since the 1800s and in places now represents a tiny minority of something like 1-2%.  The term "secularisation" refers to the process by which religious faith is increasingly marginalised from society, and limited to the private lives of a small number of individual believers. A major contemporary expert on secularisation is Professor Hugh McLeod  of the University of Birmingham, who is himself a Quaker.   Hugh McLeod's work offers lots of statistical data and insights into the phenomenon of secularisation.  The process of secularisation goes back at least as far as the 1600s, and a major contributing factor was co-existence and belligerence between rival forms of Christianity during that century. There appears to be a certain typical chronological sequence for secularisation in "Christian" countries, beginning with the co-e...