Christianity

Christianity is the worlds most popular religion with over two billion followers divided mainly amongst three main traditions: the Orthodox churches of Russia and Eastern Europe, the Protestant Churches in Europe and North America and the Roman Catholic Church worldwide. Followers of the Christian faith also include Jehovah's Witnesses. 

In Britain it is the largest religion with approx 30 million people who describe themselves as Christian and around 6 million who are actively committed to the faith.

According to the 2001 census, 58.8% of Lambeth’s residents describe themselves as Christians including Catholics.

Main beliefs

• Christians believe that everything was created by God.
• Christians believe that Jesus Christ was the son of God and that he was sent to earth by God, 2000 years ago to save humanity from the consequences of its sins. Jesus was tortured by the roman authorities in Palestine and gave his life on the cross and rose on the third day after his crucifixion.
  
• Christianity arose from the life and teachings of Jesus Christ who appeared before his disciples after his death and told them to go out into the world and spread the word of his teaching.
  
• Christians believe that there is only one god, but worship him as three persons – The Trinity - God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
• The Bible is the Christian scripture containing the Old and the New Testaments.

Holy Days/Festivals

Christmas

Christmas is celebrated on the 25th December each year  and celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.

Ash Wednesday

The start of Lent. Lent is the 40 days that comes before Easter. It is observed by fasting, frequent worship and acts of charity.

Palm Sunday

Begins Holy Week – the week in which Jesus entered Jerusalem - and is the week in which Christians remember the last week of Jesus’s life.

Easter

Easter commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the most important festival in the Christian calendar.

Good Friday

Good Friday marks the remembrance of the crucifixion of Jesus.

Feast of Ascension

Feast of Ascension is the 40th day after Jesus’s death when he entered heaven.

The Catholic Church

The Catholic Church includes approximately half of all Christians in the world and is the oldest branch of Christianity in the western world. It is led by the Pope, who Catholics believe is the successor to Saint Peter who Christ appointed as the First Head of the Church.

The Orthodox Churches are independently governed with their own leaders. They see themselves as continuing an unbroken line from the first days of the Apostles.

The Protestant Church varies and contains a number of different denominations – Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Reformed, Salvationist, Congregationalist, Quakers and Anglican. 

Eastern Orthodox Church

The two most widely known Orthodox traditions are the Greek and Russian Orthodox. Along with Greece and Russia, however there are other communities around the world, principally in Australia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and Cyprus and the UK. There are Orthodox communities in the Far East, notably Japan and Korea.

The Eastern Orthodox Church is a self-governing body of Christians adhering to a pure and unbroken line from first days of the apostles and the disciples of Jesus.
The historical line is maintained by the unbroken succession of bishops from the apostles until the present day (known as the apostolic succession) from each generation of priests to the next. The holy spirit is seen as present in and as the guide to the church working through the whole body of the church, as well as through priests and bishops.

Essentially the Orthodox Church shares much with the other Christian churches in the belief that God revealed himself in Jesus Christ, and a belief in the incarnation of Christ, his crucifixion and resurrection. The Orthodox Church differs substantially in the way of life and worship.

Life and worship

Eastern Christianity stresses a way of life and belief that is expressed particularly through worship. By maintaining the correct form of worshipping God, passed on from the very beginnings of Christianity. Eastern Christians believe that they confess the true doctrine of God in the right (orthodox) way.

The bible of the Orthodox Church is the same as that of most western churches, except that its Old Testament is based not on the Hebrew, but on the ancient Jewish translation into Greek called the Septuagint.

The wisdom of the fathers of the church is central to the Orthodox way of life as today's inheritors of the "true faith and church" passed on in its purest form. By maintaining the purity of the inherited teachings of the apostles, believers are made more aware of the inspiration of the holy spirit being present both in history and at the present day.

A life of prayer

At the centre of worship and belief is the Eucharist surrounded by the divine offices or the cycle of prayer. These prayers are sung particularly at sunset and dawn and at certain other times during the day and night.

Personal prayer plays an important part in the life of an Orthodox Christian. For many Orthodox Christians an important form of prayer is the Jesus Prayer. This is a sentence which is repeated many times; for example: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner." The aim of this repetition is to enable the person to concentrate solely on God.

The strict life of a monk or nun is seen as an important expression of faith.

Fasting and prayer

Fasting and prayer play an important part of the Orthodox Christian life. Orthodox Christians believe that fasting can be the 'foundation of all good'. The discipline of training the body can enable a believer to concentrate the mind totally on preparation for prayer and things spiritual.

There are four main fasting periods:

• The great fast or the period of Lent
• The fast of the apostles: eight days after Pentecost until 28 June. The fast ends with the feast of Saint Peter and Saint Paul.
• The Dormition fast which begins on 1 August and ends on 14 August
• The Christmas fast from 15 November to 24 December

Also all Wednesdays and Fridays are expected to be days of fasting.

Icons

Of great importance to the Orthodox Christians are the paintings of icons. These beautiful and elaborate paintings are described as "windows into the kingdom of God". They are used in worship both in the decoration of the church and for private homes. The icon is seen as both a form of prayer and a means to prayer.

An icon is usually an elaborate, two dimensional painting. Often with a gold leaf background, they are usually on wood. They depict Christ, his all-holy mother, the saints, scenes from the bible and the lives of the saints.

Holy days

Today, many Orthodox churches (with the exception of Jerusalem, Russia, Serbia, and Mount Athos) use the new, Gregorian calendar for fixed feasts and holy days but the Julian calendar for Easter and movable feasts. In this way all the Orthodox celebrate Easter together.

The Orthodox Church calendar begins on 1 September and ends on 31 August. Each day is sacred: each is a saint's day, so at least one saint is venerated daily.

Orthodox Christmas

Christmas is celebrated by Orthodox Christians in Central and Eastern Europe and throughout the world on 7 January in the Gregorian calendar - 13 days after other Christians.

In the East, Christmas is preceded by a 40 day fast beginning on 15 November. This is a time of reflection, self-restraint and inner healing in the sacrament of confession.

Usually, on Christmas Eve, observant Orthodox Christians fast till late evening, until the first star appears. When the star is seen, people lay the table ready for the Christmas supper.
On Christmas Day people taks part in divine liturgy after which many walk in procession to seas, rivers and lakes.

Jehovah’s Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses are members of a Christian-based religious movement.

The denomination was founded in the USA towards the end of the 19th century, under the leadership of Charles Taze Russell. The headquarters of the movement is in New York.
There are about 6.5 million active members in 235 countries in the world (2005), including 1 million in the USA and 125,000 in the UK.

Members of the movement are probably best known for their door-to-door evangelical work; going from house to house, offering bible literature and recruiting and converting people.
Although Christian-based, the group believes that the traditional Christian Churches have deviated from the true teachings of the bible, and do not work in full harmony with God.

The traditional Christian Churches, for their part, do not regard the movement as a mainstream Christian denomination because it rejects the Christian doctrine of the trinity, which it regards as both irrational and unbiblical.
Beliefs

Jehovah's Witnesses base their beliefs only on the text of the bible and ignore "mere human speculations or religious creeds." They believe that the bible is the word of God and consider its 66 books to be divinely inspired and historically accurate. They reject the sinful values of the secular world and maintain a degree of separation from non-believers - they are "in the world" but not "of the world".

Witnesses do not believe in celebrating Christmas or Easter because they believe that these festivals are based on or have been greatly influenced by pagan customs and religions. They point out that Jesus did not ask his followers to mark his birthday.

The church is strongly millennial and believes that humanity is now in the 'last days' and that the final battle between good and evil will happen soon.

Holy Days

The most important religious event of the year for Jehovah's Witnesses is the commemoration of the memorial of Christ's death, which takes place on the anniversary of the last supper, calculated according to the lunar calendar in use in Christ's time. They believe that this is the only observance commanded by Christ.

Witnesses do not celebrate birthdays or other secular festivals that originate in other religions.