Ruadhán Jones
‘Distinct’ role of faith must be respected in policy
The distinct role faith plays in the North must be respected in policy bishops and experts have said as a new poll shows that 80% of people in the North identify as Christian – compared with just 46% in England and Wales and 74% in the Republic.
The poll also shows an overwhelming majority of Northerners (65%) believe faith should have an impact on public life, while 57% strongly believe faith plays an important role in education. This comes at a time when Westminster is seeking to impose teaching about access to abortion on Catholic schools and parties in the North push for state-run education in place of ethos-based schooling.
“It’s important to recognise the distinct place that Northern Ireland is,” Bishop Donal McKeown told The Irish Catholic in response to the figures from the Evangelical Alliance’s poll.
“Education needs to reflect who we are as a society not driven by ideologies imposed on us with the assumption that everywhere should be like this.
“The role attributed to faith and values is important, even for people who are not churchgoers themselves,” the bishop of Derry continued. “There is a desire for education that doesn’t avoid talking about morality and faith issues.”
Some 50% of Northerners describe themselves as practicing Christians, the poll conducted by Savanta ComRes shows, with an estimated 450,000 people attending church weekly in the North including 28% of Catholics.
Just over a third of people surveyed (35%) said they pray weekly, while 13% read the Bible weekly.
These figures “remind us that those seeking to understand Northern Ireland must not neglect the role of religion – either in politics or in everyday life”, according to sociologist Dr Gladys Ganiel.
The Professor in the Sociology of Religion at Queen’s University Belfast expressed surprise at “such high rates of religious practice”.
Catholics were significantly more likely to consider themselves to be practising Christians (62%) than Protestants (46%), while 38% of Protestants have never considered themselves to be a practising Christian, compared to just 22% of Catholics.
The report says it is “clear that religious identification is much higher in Northern Ireland than in other parts of the UK”, while in the South the numbers identifying as Christian hover around 70%.
All Christians agreed or strongly agreed that more effort is needed to encourage peace and reconciliation in NI (82%) and that the assembly must be reformed to bring more stability and accountability (81%).
Some 77% of Catholics believe there is an urgent need for “radical action” on climate change, compared with 64% of Protestants, while 64% of Catholics believe that asylum seekers, refugees and other newcomers should be supported in practical ways and made to feel welcome in our communities, compared with 47% of Protestants.