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宗教

A multi-faith society

英国国教为strong基督教新教/strong，由英国圣公会教堂进行传播。 Followers of this branch of Christianity are known as Protestants and make up the majority of the population, although there are also many Catholics.

Christians constitute about 71% of the population, but Britain is a multi-faith society and all other religions, including; Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam and Sikhism are freely practised. 约23%的英国人没有特定的宗教信仰。

英国天主教徒

Credit: hjjanisch

Before the reign of King Henry VIII, Britain was once a Roman Catholic country guided in religious matters by the Vatican in Rome. 1533年当时梵蒂冈拒绝给予国王亨利八世与第一任妻子离婚的许可，于是亨利八世便建造了圣公会大教堂。

圣公会大教堂的发展

Henry was desperate for a male heir, and up until then his first wife had only borne daughters. When the Vatican refused to allow him to divorce his wife, he was infuriated and decided to established his own faith – Church of England – and appointed himself leader.

今日国教

Catholicism had a short resurgence during the reign of Queen Mary (1553), but the Anglican Church was reinstated by Queen Elizabeth in 1558 and has been the official religion ever since. Today, every sovereign must swear to uphold and protect the Anglican faith and is expected to marry a protestant.

To find out more about Religion in Britain, visit National Statistics Online - Religion.