title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: While the acting prime minister must be a Knesset member to meet the requirements, the interim prime minister must be a member of the prime minister's party as well. Until the 2001 basic law: the government, both the acting and interim prime ministers were only required to be a Knesset member in addition to being a member of the Government. However, before and after the 2001 law, an interim prime minister would not be appointed unless the government would be voting on one of their members (either the acting prime minister or else) to be the interim prime minister until a new government is placed in power.


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: In 2006, Ehud Olmert, after standing in for Prime Minister Sharon for 100 consecutive days, as acting prime minister, did not automatically assume office as an interim prime minister. The government voted to appoint him, and in addition, he was also a member of prime minister's party, which enabled them to appoint him to the role.


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: An interim prime minister does not have to form a majority coalition in the Knesset, in order to get their approval vote (as a prime minister is required to do), and can assume office immediately, until a new government is placed in power.


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: Shimon Peres was the foreign minister when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, and was voted unanimously to assume office as an interim prime minister until a new Government would be placed in power (that he later formed by himself). Yigal Allon was also voted to be the interim prime minister after Prime Minister Levi Eshkol suddenly died and served until Golda Meir formed her government.


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: Both the interim and acting prime ministers' authorities are identical to those of a prime minister, with the exception of not having the authority to dissolve the Knesset.


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: There are other cases (all other), not pending the situation of the incumbent prime minister's ability to continue to serve, where the Government becomes an interim government, while the incumbent prime minister is in office. In these cases, the incumbent prime minister is commonly referred as an "interim" prime minister, as a reference to change of the legal status only of the government under him. However, legally he is the prime minister, and only the government under him is legally an interim government (see interim government below).


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: An 'interim government' (, "Memshelet Ma'avar" lit. "transitional government") is the same government, having been changed in their legal status, after the death, resignation, permanent incapacitation, or criminal conviction of the prime minister, as well as after the prime minister's request to dissolve the Knesset (Israeli parliament) was published through the president's decree, or after it was defeated by a motion of no confidence (these actions are regarded by the law as "the Government shall be deemed to have resigned"), or after election and before the forming of a new government (legally, "Newly elected Knesset" period), and in all the cases above, it continues to govern as an interim government, until a new government is placed in power, accordingly to the principle of "government continuity", in order to prevent a government void.


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: If the incumbent prime minister can no longer serve (died, permanent incapacitation or criminal conviction), when the government is "deemed to have resigned" to become an interim government, they appoint a different person from their own government to the role of an "interim prime minister" (either the acting prime minister or else) until a new government is placed in power. This is a legal reference both to the change of a prime minister in office and in same government, a change in their legal status.


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: In all other cases, when the government becomes an interim government, and the incumbent prime minister is able to continue to serve also until a new government is placed in power, the prime minister is commonly referred also as an "interim" prime minister, as a reference only to the change of the legal status of the same government under him. However, legally, he is the prime minister, and only the government under him is legally an interim government.


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: An incumbent prime minister running an interim government occurs either if the government is "deemed to have resigned" to become an interim government, but the incumbent is able to continue to serve also until a new government is placed in power; if the incumbent resigned, government was defeated in motion of no confidence, the prime minister's request to dissolve the Knesset was published through the president's decree; Or else, during the period of time after elections were held and before the forming of a new government, as defined by the law as the period of time of a "newly elected Knesset", and if they have not become one already, the elections will turn them into an interim government as well, as in the cases of the end of a full Knesset term (or after extension term), or after the Knesset has dissolved itself (but not until election day).


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: A resignation of the government or elections, consequentially, turning the Cabinet into an interim government (i.e. the interim Cabinet), legally requires to start the process of forming a new government, through the only single elected branch in the general elections, the Knesset, to have an approval "vote of confidence" of the majority on an official prime minister and the government he formed there. If elections were held, the process goes through the newly Knesset designated, but if it occurred during the four years term of the existing Knesset, the process will go back to the existing elected branch and will take place there, and only should that fail, as a result, the existing elected branch, the Knesset, will be "deemed" to have dissolved itself, and early elections will be held. In all cases above, the interim government will continue to govern until one of those processes is successful.


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: An official prime minister is or was always voted, along with the government he formed in the parliament, in an approval "vote of confidence" by the majority of this elected branch, the Knesset, with the expectation to serve, along with his government, until the end of the Knesset full term, either if he began serving after a newly elected Knesset or in the midst of the Knesset term, unless his government later became an "interim government", that is legally "deemed" to have lost that vote, and as opposed to an "interim prime minister", appointed by such a government, and without the approval vote of the Knesset, to serve along only until a new government will be placed in power.


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: If the elected branch, the Knesset, decides on its own to dissolve itself, or is legally "deemed" to have dissolved itself separately, necessarily, leading to early elections, the cabinet is regarded not to have changed in their legal status. However, once elections were held, they automatically become an interim government.


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: An acting prime minister, standing in for the incumbent, while he is temporarily incapacitated, does not turn the government into an interim government (nor does the incumbent's temporary situation). However, if the incumbent became temporarily incapacitated, while already running an interim government, the acting Prime minister will be filling in for the incumbent as well.


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: The law does not impose any impediments on an interim government (except that in the past ministers were banned from resigning and today it has turned into a privilege, were they may resign and a successor may be appointed without the approval vote of the Knesset), but rather addresses the definition of "government continuity" for the purpose of preventing a government void situation. However, a Supreme Court ruling on the matter, that stipulated that such a government that does not enjoy the approval vote of the Knesset must act in "restraint in using its authorities, in all matters that do not bear any particular urgency or necessity to act upon them", has opened the door for legal controversies at times, as to what exactly does this legal determination mean.


title: Prime Minister of Israel

text: During his term of office, the prime minister lives in Jerusalem. Since 1974, the official residence of the prime minister is Beit Aghion, at the corner of Balfour and Smolenskin streets in Rehavia.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Religion in the United Kingdom, and in the countries that preceded it, has been dominated for over 1,000 years by various forms of Christianity, replacing Romano-British religions, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon paganism as the primary religion. Religious affiliations of United Kingdom citizens are recorded by regular surveys, the four major ones being the national decennial census, the Labour Force Survey, the British Social Attitudes survey and the European Social Survey.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Results of the 2021 Census for England and Wales (that is, not including Scotland and Northern Ireland), which asked the question "What is your religion?", showed that Christianity is the largest religion, followed by Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism in terms of number of adherents. Among Christians, Anglicans are the most common denomination, followed by Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists. This, and the relatively large number of individuals with nominal or no religious affiliations, has led commentators to variously describe the United Kingdom as a multi-faith and secularised society. Other major surveys which ask a differently worded question find a majority of people in the UK do not belong to a religion, with Christianity the largest religion.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: British society is one of the most secularised in the world and in many surveys determining religious beliefs of the population Agnosticism, nontheism, atheism, secular humanism, and non-affiliation are views shared by large percentages of Britons. The official religion of the United Kingdom is Christianity, with the Church of England being the state church of its largest constituent region, England. The Church of England defines itself as neither fully Reformed (Protestant) nor fully Catholic. The Monarch of the United Kingdom is the Supreme Governor of the Church. Some British people and organisations in the United Kingdom, such as Humanists UK, hold the view that the UK should become a secular state, with no official or established religion. A survey published in April 2022 also revealed that whereas a fifth of those polled thought that Anglican bishops should remain in the House of Lords, three-fifths thought they (as unelected clerics) did not have a place in a modern legislature and another fifth were "don't knows." Commenting on this, Martyn Percy, former dean of Christ Church College, noted that "To the extent that the Church [of England] retains unique privileges in comparison with any other religious organizations, it can be said that the UK has religious freedom – but, embarrassingly, not religious equality."


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The United Kingdom was formed by the union of previously independent countries in 1707, and consequently most of the largest religious groups do not have UK-wide organisational structures. While some groups have separate structures for the individual countries of the United Kingdom, others have a single structure covering England and Wales or Great Britain. Similarly, due to the relatively recent creation of Northern Ireland in 1921, most major religious groups in Northern Ireland are organised on an all-Ireland basis.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Pre-Roman forms of religion in Britain included various forms of ancestor worship and paganism. Little is known about the details of such religions (see British paganism). Forms of Christianity have influenced religious life in what is now the United Kingdom for over 1,400 years. It was introduced by the Romans to what is now England, Wales, and Southern Scotland. The doctrine of Pelagianism, declared heretical in the Council of Carthage (418), originated with a British-born ascetic, Pelagius.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: During the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries, paganism was re-established; Christianity was again brought to Great Britain by Catholic Church and Irish-Scottish missionaries in the course of the 7th century (see Anglo-Saxon Christianity). In 601 AD, Pope Gregory I ordered images of pagan gods in England to be destroyed, but not the temples, which should instead be used as places of worship of the Christian God. England was nominally Christianised by the end of the 7th century, during which paganism was banned by the Church. Despite this, pagan practices such as leaving votive offerings at standing stones, trees and wells, persisted at least into the 11th century, prompting new penitential laws across England that aimed to suppress the surviving folk beliefs. Insular Christianity as it stood between the 6th and 8th centuries retained some idiosyncrasies in terms of liturgy and calendar, but it had been nominally united with Roman Christianity since at least the Synod of Whitby of 664. Still in the Anglo-Saxon period, the archbishops of Canterbury established a tradition of receiving their pallium from Rome to symbolize the authority of the Pope. Paganism was re-introduced to regions of the British Isles in the 9th century by Scandinavian settlers who established the Kingdom of the Isles and the Danelaw. The timeline for the conversion of the settlers varies, with the Danish leader Guthrum baptised in 878 AD in accordance with the Treaty of Wedmore. Orkney, on other hand, was not nominally Christianised until 995 AD when Olaf Tryggvason ordered that if the earl and his subjects did not convert, he would be killed and the islands ravaged.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Roman Catholic Church remained the dominant form of Western Christianity in Britain throughout the Middle Ages, but the (Anglican) Church of England became the independent established church in England and Wales in 1534 as a result of the English Reformation. It retains a representation in the UK Parliament and the British monarch is its Supreme Governor.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In Scotland, the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, established in a separate Scottish Reformation in the sixteenth century, is recognized as the national church. It is not subject to state control and the British monarch is an ordinary member, required to swear an oath to "maintain and preserve the Protestant Religion and Presbyterian Church Government" upon his or her accession.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The adherence to the Catholic Church continued at various levels in different parts of Britain, especially among recusants and in the north of England, but most strongly in Ireland. This would expand in Great Britain, partly due to Irish immigration in the nineteenth century, the Catholic emancipation and the Restoration of the English hierarchy.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Particularly from the mid-seventeenth century, forms of Protestant nonconformity, including Congregationalists, Baptists, Quakers and, later, Methodists, grew outside of the established church. The (Anglican) Church in Wales was disestablished in 1920 and, as the (Anglican) Church of Ireland was disestablished in 1870 before the partition of Ireland, there is no established church in Northern Ireland.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Jews in England were expelled in 1290 and only emancipated in the 19th century. British Jews had numbered fewer than 10,000 in 1800 but around 120,000 after 1881 when Russian Jews settled permanently in Britain.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The substantial immigration to the United Kingdom after World War II has contributed to the growth of foreign faiths, especially of Islam, Hinduism and Sikhism. Buddhism in the United Kingdom experienced growth partly due to immigration and partly due to conversion (especially when including Secular Buddhism).


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: As elsewhere in the western world, religious demographics have become part of the discourse on multiculturalism, with Britain variously described as a post-Christian society, as "multi-faith", or as secularised. Scholars have suggested multiple possible reasons for the decline, but have not agreed on their relative importance. Martin Wellings lays out the "classical model" of secularisation, while noting that it has been challenged by some scholars.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The familiar starting-point, a classical model of secularisation, argues that religious faith becomes less plausible and religious practice more difficult in advanced industrial and urbanized societies. The breakdown or disruption of traditional communities and norms of behaviour; the spread of a scientific world-view diminishing the scope of the supernatural and the role of God; increasing material affluence promoting self-reliance and this-worldly optimism; and greater awareness and toleration of different creeds and ideas, encouraging religious pluralism and eviscerating commitment to a particular faith, all form components of the case for secularisation. Applied to the British churches in general by Steve Bruce and to Methodism in particular by Robert Currie, this model traces decline back to the Victorian era and charts in the twentieth century a steady ebbing of the sea of faith.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In the 2011 census, Christianity was the largest religion, stated as their affiliation by 60% of the total population.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Although there was no UK-wide data in the 2001 or the 2011 census on adherence to individual Christian denominations, since they are asked only in the Scottish and in the Northern Irish Censuses, using the same principle as applied in the 2001 census, a survey carried out in the end of 2008 by Ipsos MORI and based on a scientifically robust sample, found the population of England and Wales to be 47.0% Anglican, 9.6% Catholic and 8.7% other Christians; 4.8% were Muslim, 3.4% were members of other religions. 5.3% were Agnostics, 6.8% were Atheists and 15.0% were not sure about their religious affiliation or refused to answer to the question.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The 2009 British Social Attitudes Survey, which covers Great Britain but not Northern Ireland, indicated that over 50 per cent would self-classify as not religious at all, 19.9 per cent were part of the Church of England, 9.3% non-denominational Christian, 8.6% Catholic, 2.2% Presbyterian/Church of Scotland, 1.3% Methodist, 0.53% Baptist, 1.17% other Protestant, 0.23% United Reformed Church/Congregational, 0.06% Free Presbyterian, 0.03% Brethren Christian and 0.41% other Christian.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In a 2016 survey conducted by BSA (British Social Attitudes) on religious affiliation; 53% of respondents indicated 'no religion' and 41% indicated they were Christians, while 6% affiliated with non-Christian religions (Islam, Hinduism, Judaism etc.)


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Eurostat's Eurobarometer survey in December 2018 found that 53.6% of UK's population is Christian, while 6.2% belong to other religions and 40.2% are atheists (30.3% Agnostics, 9.9% Anti-theists). The May 2019 Special Eurobarometer found that 50% were Christians (14% Protestants, 13% Catholics, 7% Orthodox and 16% other Christians), 37% atheist (9% anti-theists, 28% 'nonbelievers and agnostics'), 5% Muslims (3% Sunnis, 1% Shias, 1% other Muslims), 1% Sikhs, 1% Hindus, fewer than 1% Jews, fewer than 1% Buddhists, 4% other religions, 1% didn't know, and 1% refused to answer. The same year Pew Research center estimated that 73% of people in UK were Christian while 23% were unaffiliated and 4% were other religion or did not know.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The wording of the question affects the outcome of polls as is apparent when comparing the results of the Scottish census with that of the English and Welsh census. An ICM poll for "The Guardian" in 2006 asked the question "Which religion do you yourself belong to?" with a response of 64% stating "Christian" and 26% stating "none". In the same survey, 63% claimed they are not religious with just 33% claiming they are.<ref name="ICM/Gaudian 2006">  Retrieved on 7 May 2012</ref> This suggests that the religious UK population identify themselves as having Christian beliefs, but maybe not as active "church-goers".


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Religions other than Christianity, such as Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism and Judaism, have established a presence in the United Kingdom, both through immigration and by attracting converts. Others that have done so include the Baháʼí Faith, Modern paganism, and the Rastafari movement -which has 5000 followers in the UK as of a 2001 census.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The European Social Survey, carried out between 2014 and 2016, found that 70% of people between 16 and 29 were not religious.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The 2022 Talking Jesus report (a partnership between Alpha, the Evangelical Alliance, HOPE Together, Luis Palau Association and Kingsgate Community Church) describes the current state of faith in the UK: 48% of the population described themselves as ‘Christian’ of which 6% described themselves as ‘practising Christians’.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The statistics for current religion (not religion of upbringing where also asked) from the 2011 census and the corresponding statistics from the 2001 census are set out in the tables below.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Religious affiliations of UK citizens are recorded by regular surveys, the four major ones being the UK Census, the Labour Force Survey, the British Social Attitudes survey and the European Social Survey. The different questions asked by these surveys produced different results:


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The British Social Attitudes surveys and the European Social Surveys are fielded to adult individuals. In contrast, the United Kingdom Census and the Labour Force Surveys are household surveys; the respondent completes the questionnaire on behalf of each member of the household, including children, as well as for themselves. The 2010 Labour Force Survey claimed that 54% of children aged from birth to four years were Christian, rising to 59% for children aged between 5 and 9 and 65% for children aged between 10 and 14. The inclusion of children with adult-imposed religions influences the results of the polls.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Other major polls agree with the British Social Attitudes surveys and the European Social Surveys, with a YouGov survey fielded in February 2012 indicating that 43% of respondents claimed to belong to a religion and 76% claimed they were not very religious or not religious at all. An Ipsos MORI survey fielded in August 2003 indicated that 18% of respondents claimed to be "a practising member of an organised religion" and 25% claimed "I am a non-practising member of an organised religion". A 2015 study estimated some 25,000 believers in Christ from a Muslim background, most of whom belong to an evangelical or Pentecostal community.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Annual Population Survey is a combined statistical survey of households in Great Britain which is conducted quarterly by the Office for National Statistics and combines results from the Labour Force Survey and the English, Welsh and Scottish Labour Force Survey, gathers information about the religious affiliation, reported in the table below. The change in the religious affiliation between the 2010 APS and the 2011 APS is due to a question change, which significantly influenced the final results.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Society in the United Kingdom is markedly more secular than it was in the past and the number of churchgoers fell over the second half of the 20th century. The Ipsos MORI poll in 2003 reported that 18% were "a practising member of an organised religion". The Tearfund Survey in 2007 found that only 7% of the population considered themselves as practising Christians. Some 10% attended church weekly and two-thirds had not gone to church in the past year. The Tearfund Survey also found that two-thirds of UK adults (66%) or 32.2 million people had no connection with the Church at present (nor with another religion). These people were evenly divided between those who have been in the past but have since left (16 million) and those who have never been in their lives (16.2 million).


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: A survey in 2002 found Christmas attendance at Anglican churches in England varied between 10.19% of the population in the diocese of Hereford, down to just 2.16% in Manchester. Church attendance at Christmas in some dioceses was up to three times the average for the rest of the year. Overall church attendance at Christmas has been steadily increasing in recent years; a 2005 poll found that 43 per cent expected to attend a church service over the Christmas period, in comparison with 39% and 33% for corresponding polls taken in 2003 and 2001 respectively.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: A December 2007 report by Christian Research showed that the services of the Catholic Church had become the best-attended services of Christian denominations in England, with average attendance at Sunday Mass of 861,000, compared to 852,000 attending Anglican services. Attendance at Anglican services had declined by 20% between 2000 and 2006, while attendance at Catholic services, boosted by large-scale immigration from Poland and Lithuania, had declined by only 13%. In Scotland, attendance at Church of Scotland services declined by 19% and attendance at Catholic services fell by 25%. British Social Attitudes Surveys have shown the proportion of those in Great Britain who consider they "belong to" Christianity to have fallen from 66% in 1983 to 43% in 2009.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In 2012 about 6% of the population of the United Kingdom regularly attended church, with the average age of attendees being 51; in contrast, in 1980, 11% had regularly attended, with an average age of 37. It is predicted that by 2020 attendance will be around 4%, with an average age of 56. This decline in church attendance has forced many churches to close down across the United Kingdom, with the Church of England alone closing 1,500 churches between 1969 and 2002. Their fates include dereliction, demolition, and residential, artistic and commercial conversion. In October 2014 weekly attendance at Church of England services dropped below 1 million for the first time. At Christmas 2014, 2.4 million attended. For that year baptisms were 130,000, down 12% since 2004; marriages were 50,000, down 19%; and funerals 146,000, down 29%. The Church estimated that about 1% of churchgoers were lost to death each year; the Church's age profile suggested that attendances would continue to decline.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: One study showed that in 2004 at least 930,000 Muslims attended a mosque at least once a week, just outnumbering the 916,000 regular churchgoers in the Church of England. Muslim sources claim the number of practising Muslims is underestimated as nearly all of them pray at home.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: There is a disparity between the figures for those identifying themselves with a particular religion and for those proclaiming a belief in a God:


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In the 2001 census, 390,127 individuals (0.7 per cent of total respondents) in England and Wales self-identified as followers of the Jedi faith. This Jedi census phenomenon followed an internet campaign that claimed, incorrectly, that the Jedi belief system would receive official government recognition as a religion if it received enough support in the census. An email in support of the campaign, quoted by BBC News, invited people to "do it because you love Star Wars ... or just to annoy people". The Office for National Statistics revealed the total figure in a press release entitled "390,000 Jedi there are".


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Forms of Christianity have dominated religious life in what is now the United Kingdom for over 1,400 years. The United Kingdom was formed by the union of previously autonomous states in 1707, and consequently most of the largest religious groups do not have UK-wide organisational structures. While some groups have separate structures for the individual countries of the United Kingdom, others have a single structure covering England and Wales or Great Britain. Similarly, due to the relatively recent creation of Northern Ireland in 1921, most major religious groups in Northern Ireland are organised on an all-Ireland basis.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Church of England is the established church in England. Its most senior bishops sit in the national parliament and the Monarch is its supreme governor. It is also the "mother church" of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Church of England separated from the Catholic Church in 1534 and became the established church by Parliament in the Act of Supremacy, beginning a series of events known as the English Reformation. Historically it has been the predominant Christian denomination in England and Wales, in terms of both influence and number of adherents.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Scottish Episcopal Church, which is part of the Anglican Communion (but not a "daughter church" of the Church of England), dates from the final establishment of Presbyterianism in Scotland in 1690, when it split from the Church of Scotland. In the 1920s, the Church in Wales became disestablished and independent from the Church of England, but remains in the Anglican Communion.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: During the years 2012 to 2014 the number of members of the Church of England dropped by around 1.7 million.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In 2018, 12% of the population of Great Britain identify as Anglicans, a sharp decline from 1983 when 40% of the population identified as Anglicans.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Baptist Union of Great Britain, despite its name, covers just England and Wales. There is a separate Baptist Union of Scotland and the Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland is an all-Ireland organisation. Other Baptist associations also exist in England, such as the Grace Baptist association and the Gospel Standard Baptists.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Assemblies of God in Great Britain are part of the World Assemblies of God Fellowship with over 600 churches in Great Britain. Assemblies of God Ireland cover the whole of the island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland. The Apostolic Church commenced in the early part of the 20th century in South Wales and now has over 110 churches across the United Kingdom. Elim Pentecostal Church had over 500 churches across the United Kingdom.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: There is also a growing number of independent, charismatic churches that encourage Pentecostal practices as part of their worship. These are broadly grouped together as the British New Church Movement and could number up to 400,000 members. The phenomenon of immigrant churches and congregations that began with the arrival of the HMT "Empire Windrush" from the West Indies in 1948 stands as a unique trend. West Indian congregations that started from this time include the Church of God, New Testament Assembly and New Testament Church of God.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Africans began to arrive in the early 1980s and established their own congregations. Foremost among these are Matthew Ashimolowo from Nigeria and his Kingsway International Christian Centre in London that may be the largest church in Western Europe.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Methodist movement traces its origin to John Wesley and the evangelical revival in the 18th century. The British Methodist Church, which has congregations throughout the nation, has around 188,000 members, and 4,110 churches (), though only around 3,000 members in 50 congregations are in Scotland. In the 1960s, the Methodist Church made ecumenical overtures to the Church of England, aimed at church unity. Formally, these failed when they were rejected by the Church of England's General Synod in 1972. However, conversations and co-operation continued, leading on 1 November 2003 to the signing of a covenant between the two churches.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Methodist Church in Ireland covers the whole of the island of Ireland, including Northern Ireland where it is the fourth-largest denomination.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Other Methodist denominations in Britain include the Salvation Army, founded in 1865; the Free Methodist Church, a holiness church; and the Church of the Nazarene.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Reformation of 1560, when it split from the Catholic Church and established itself as a church in the reformed tradition. The church is Calvinist Presbyterian, having no head of faith or leadership group and believing that God invited the church's adherents to worship Jesus. The annual meeting of its general assembly is chaired by the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The Church of Scotland celebrates two sacraments, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, as well as five other rites, such as Confirmation and Matrimony. The church adheres to the Bible and the Westminster Confession of Faith, and is a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Presbyterian Church of Wales seceded from the Church of England in 1811 and formally formed itself into a separate body in 1823. The Non-subscribing Presbyterian Church of Ireland has 31 congregations in Northern Ireland, with the first Presbytery being formed in Antrim in 1725.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: With its origins in the 16th century, English Presbyterianism, was initially contained with the Church of England until the Great Ejection of 1662. During the 18th century there were few Presbyterian congregations in England until they were revived by Scots who had moved south. In time, this led to the creation of Presbyterian Church of England in 1876. Its successor, the United Reformed Church (URC), a union of Presbyterian and Congregational churches, consists of about 1383 congregations in England, Scotland and Wales. There are about 600 Congregational churches in the United Kingdom. In England there are three main groups, the Congregational Federation, the Evangelical Fellowship of Congregational Churches, and about 100 Congregational churches that are loosely federated with other congregations in the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, or are unaffiliated. In Scotland the churches are mostly members of the Congregational Federation and in Wales which traditionally has a larger number of Congregationalists, most are members of the Union of Welsh Independents.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Britain Yearly Meeting is the umbrella body for the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Great Britain, the Channel Isles and the Isle of Man. It has 14,260 adult members. Northern Ireland comes under the umbrella of the Ireland Yearly Meeting.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Catholic Church has separate national organisations for England, Wales, and Scotland, which means there is no single hierarchy for the Catholic Church in the United Kingdom. Catholicism is the second largest denomination in England and Wales, with around five million members, mainly in England. There is, however, a single apostolic nuncio to Great Britain, presently Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti. Catholicism is also Scotland's second largest Christian denomination, representing a fifth of the population. In 2021, for the first time since the establishment of the exclave, the Catholic Church attained a plurality of the Northern Irish population. The apostolic nuncio to the whole of Ireland (both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) is Jude Thaddeus Okolo. Members of the Eastern Catholic Churches in the United Kingdom are served by their own clergy and do not belong to the Latin Church dioceses but are still in full communion with the Bishop of Rome.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The number of adherents to the Catholic Church as a percentage of overall population has remained stable. In 2018, 7% of the population identified as Catholics.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Orthodox Christianity is a relatively minor faith in the United Kingdom when compared to Protestantism and Catholicism; most Orthodox churches cater to immigrants from Eastern Europe, the Balkans and The Middle East.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: It is a relatively minor faith among Britons themselves. In 2013 there were roughly 464,000 members of Orthodox churches in the UK.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Adherents of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in the United Kingdom are traditionally organized in accordance with patrimonial ecclesiastical jurisdictions. The Russian Orthodox Church has a Diocese of Sourozh, which covers Great Britain and Ireland, and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia also has a diocese of Great Britain and Western Europe. The Greek Orthodox Church is represented by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which has established the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, that covers England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland as well as Malta. The Patriarchate of Antioch has several parishes and missions within the Diocese of the British Isles and Ireland. Other Eastern Orthodox Churches represented in the United Kingdom include the Georgian Orthodox Church, the Romanian Orthodox Church, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the Serbian Orthodox Church.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Adherents of Oriental Orthodox Christianity in the United Kingdom are also traditionally organized in accordance with their patrimonial ecclesiastical jurisdictions, each community having its own parishes and priests. The Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria has two regional Dioceses in the United Kingdom: the Diocese of Ireland, Scotland, North East England, and the Diocese of the Midlands. Other Oriental Orthodox Churches represented in the United Kingdom include the Syriac Orthodox Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. The homegrown British Orthodox Church and Celtic Orthodox Church, although both minor, are also represented.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Other denominations and groups include the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Seventh Day Baptists, the Plymouth Brethren, and Newfrontiers.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The first missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to proselytise in the British Isles arrived in 1837. By 1900 as many as 100,000 converts had joined the faith, but most of these early members soon emigrated to the United States to join the main body of the church. From the 1950s emigration to the United States began to be discouraged and local congregations grew more rapidly. Today the church claims just over 186,000 members across the United Kingdom, in over 330 local congregations, known as 'wards' or 'branches'. The church also maintains two temples in England, the first opening in the London area in 1958, and the second completed in 1998 in Preston and known as the Preston England Temple. Preston is also the site of the first preaching by LDS missionaries in 1837, and is home to the oldest continually existing Latter Day Saint congregation anywhere in the world. Restored 1994–2000, the Gadfield Elm Chapel in Worcestershire is the oldest extant chapel of the LDS Church.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Jehovah's Witnesses had 137,631 "publishers" (a term referring to members actively involved in preaching) in the United Kingdom in 2015. The Church of Christ, Scientist is also represented in the UK.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches is the umbrella organisation for Unitarian, Free Christian and other liberal religious congregations in the United Kingdom. The Unitarian Christian Association was formed in 1991.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Estimates in 2009 suggested a total of about 2.4 million Muslims over all the United Kingdom. According to Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life, the number of Muslims in Britain could be up to 3 million. The vast majority of Muslims in the United Kingdom live in England and Wales: of 1,591,126 Muslims recorded at the 2001 Census, 1,546,626 were living in England and Wales, where they form 3 per cent of the population; 42,557 were living in Scotland, forming 0.8 per cent of the population; and 1,943 were living in Northern Ireland. Between 2001 and 2009 the Muslim population increased roughly 10 times faster than the rest of society.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Most Muslim immigrants to the United Kingdom came from former colonies. The biggest groups of Muslims are of Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Indian and Arab origins, with the remainder coming from Muslim-dominated areas such as Southwest Asia, Somalia, Malaysia, and Indonesia. During the 18th century, "lascars" (sailors) who worked for the British East India Company settled in port towns with local wives. These numbered only 24,037 in 1891 but 51,616 on the eve of World War I. Naval cooks, including Sake Dean Mahomet, also came from what is now the Sylhet Division of Bangladesh. From the 1950s onwards, the growing Muslim population has led to a number of notable Mosques being established, including East London Mosque, London Central Mosque, Manchester Central Mosque, London Markaz, Baitul Futuh of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community and Cambridge Central Mosque. According to Kevin Brice, a researcher at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, thousands convert to Islam annually and there are approximately 100,000 converts to Islam in Britain, where they run two mosques.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: According to a Labour Force Survey estimate, the total number of Muslims in Great Britain in 2008 was 2,422,000, around 4 per cent of the total population. Between 2004 and 2008, the Muslim population grew by more than 500,000. In 2010, The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life estimated 2,869,000 Muslims in Great Britain.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The largest age-bracket within the British Muslim population were those under the age of 4, at 301,000 in September 2008. The Muslim Council of Britain and the Islamic Forum of Europe are the umbrellas organisations for many local, regional and specialist Islamic organisations in the United Kingdom, although it is disputed how representative this organisation is of British Muslims as a whole.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Hinduism in the United Kingdom resulted from the British rule in India. There are 835,394 Hindus in Great Britain according to the 2011 census constituting 1.32% of the population. About half of all British Hindus live in London metropolitan area. Small Hindu Communities are also found in Scotland (0.31%) and in Wales (0.34%).


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: According to United Kingdom's Office of National Statistics, of all ethnic minorities in Britain, the British Hindus had the highest rate of economic activity. Hindus are more likely than the general population to have higher education and Hindu men are more likely than the general population to be entrepreneurs. British Hindus also have the third highest poverty level and the lowest rates of arrest, trial or imprisonment. Hindus constitute less than 0.5% of the total Prison population in Britain. The current PM of Britain is a Hindu.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: There are 432,429 Sikhs in the United Kingdom constituting 0.7% of the population, according to the 2011 Census. While England is home to the majority of Sikhs in the United Kingdom, small communities also exist in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The first recorded Sikh settler in the United Kingdom was Maharaja Duleep Singh, dethroned and exiled in 1849 at the age of 14, after the Anglo-Sikh wars. During the reign of King Edward VII the first Sikh society in the UK was founded in 1908, it was called The Khalsa Jatha.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The first Sikh Gurdwara was established in 1911, in Shepherd's Bush, Putney, London. The first wave of Sikh migration came in the 1940s, mostly of men from the Punjab seeking work in industries such as foundries and textiles. These new arrivals mostly settled in London, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, the Midlands and West Yorkshire. Thousands of Sikhs from East Africa followed later.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Jewish Naturalisation Act, enacted in 1753, permitted the naturalisation of foreign Jews, but was repealed the next year. The first graduate from the University of Glasgow who was openly known to be Jewish was in 1787. Unlike their English contemporaries, Scottish students were not required to take a religious oath. In 1841 Isaac Lyon Goldsmid was made baronet, the first Jew to receive a hereditary title. The first Jewish Lord Mayor of the City of London, Sir David Salomons, was elected in 1855, followed by the 1858 emancipation of the Jews. On 26 July 1858, Lionel de Rothschild was finally allowed to sit in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom when the law restricting the oath of office to Christians was changed. (Benjamin Disraeli, a baptised, teenage convert to Christianity of Jewish parentage, was already an MP at this time and rose to become Prime Minister in 1874.) In 1884 Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild became the first Jewish member of the British House of Lords; again Disraeli was already a member.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: British Jews number around 300,000 with the United Kingdom having the fifth largest Jewish community worldwide. However, this figure did not include Jews who identified 'by ethnicity only' in England and Wales or Scottish Jews who identified as Jewish by upbringing but held no current religion. A report in August 2007 by University of Manchester historian Dr Yaakov Wise stated that 75 per cent of all births in the Jewish community were to ultra-orthodox, Haredi parents, and that the increase of ultra-orthodox Jewry has led to a significant rise in the proportion of British Jews who are ultra-orthodox.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In the UK census for 2011, there were about 178,000 people who registered their religion as Buddhism. The earliest Buddhist influence on Britain came through its imperial connections with Southeast Asia, and as a result the early connections were with the Theravada traditions of Burma, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. The tradition of study resulted in the foundation of the Pali Text Society, which undertook the task of translating the Pali Canon of Theravāda Buddhist Tradition into English. Buddhism as a path of practise was pioneered by the Theosophists, Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott, and in 1880 they became the first Westerners to receive the Three refuges and Five precepts, the formal conversion ceremony by which one traditionally accepted and becomes a Buddhist.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In 1924 London's Buddhist Society was founded, and in 1926 the Theravadin London Buddhist Vihara. The rate of growth was slow but steady through the century, and the 1950s saw the development of interest in Zen Buddhism. In 1967 Kagyu Samyé Ling Monastery and Tibetan Centre, now the largest Tibetan Buddhist centre in Western Europe, was founded in Scotland. The first home-grown Buddhist movement was also founded in 1967, the Friends of the Western Buddhist Order (now the Triratna Buddhist Community). Thai Forest Tradition of Ajahn Chah was also established at Chithurst Buddhist Monastery in West Sussex in 1979, giving rise to branch monasteries, including Amaravati Buddhist Monastery and Aruna Ratanagiri.There are also other groups like Order of Interbeing and Soka Gakkai in the United Kingdom.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In the United Kingdom, census figures do not allow an accurate breakdown of traditions within the Pagan heading, as a campaign by the Pagan Federation before the 2001 Census encouraged Wiccans, Heathens, Druids and others all to use the same write-in term 'Pagan' in order to maximise the numbers reported. For the first time, respondents were able to write in an affiliation not covered by the checklist of common religions, and a total of 42,262 people from England, Scotland and Wales declared themselves to be Pagans by this method. These figures were not immediately analysed by the Office for National Statistics, but were released after an application by the Pagan Federation of Scotland.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In the 2001 Census, a total of 42,262 people from England, Scotland, and Wales declared themselves to be pagans or adherents of Wicca. However, other surveys have led to estimates of around 250,000 or even higher.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: According to the 2011 UK Census, there are roughly 53,172 people who identify as Pagan in England, and 3,448 in Wales,


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Modern Druidry grew out of the Celtic revival in 18th century Romanticism. A 2012 Druid analysis estimates that there are roughly 11,000 Druids in Britain.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Heathenry consists of a variety of modern movements attempting to revive Germanic paganism, such as that practiced in the British Isles by the Anglo-Saxon and Norse peoples prior to Christianisation. In the 2011 UK Census 2,108 people identified as Heathens. As in other countries, Heathen movements are broadly divided into two groups. Asatru UK was founded in 2013 and operates as a country-wide group for all inclusive Heathens. As of May 2021, Asatru UK had 2,903 members of its Facebook group. The group currently does not own land and thus is in the process of carving portable god posts that can be used in a vé. The first of these was of the god Woden and was consecrated at a gathering in 2021.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: As of 2011, there are around 20,288 Jains in the United Kingdom.Leicester houses one of the world's few Jain temples outside of India. There is an Institute of Jainology at Greenford, London.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: One of the first Jain settlers, Champat Rai Jain, was in England during 1892–1897 to study law. He established the Rishabh Jain Lending Library in 1930. Later, he translated several Jain texts into English.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Baháʼí Faith in the United Kingdom has a historical connection with the earliest phases of the Baháʼí Faith starting in 1845 and has had a major effect on the development of communities of the religion in far flung nations around the world. It is estimated that between 1951 and 1993, Baháʼís from the United Kingdom settled in 138 countries. At the 2011 UK Census, there were 5,021 Baháʼís in just England and Wales.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Though the main political parties are secular, the formation of the Labour Party was influenced by Christian socialism, Ethical humanism, and by leaders from a nonconformist backgrounds, such as Keir Hardie. Labour's early development was also markedly influenced by non-religious philosophies such as humanism through Ethical movement, which gave rise to the Fabian Society and incubated prominent Labour people such as its first Prime Minister, Ramsay Macdonald. On the other hand, the Church of England was once nicknamed "the Conservative Party at prayer", though this has changed since the 1980s as the Church has moved to the left of the Conservative Party on social and economic issues.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Some minor parties are explicitly 'religious' in ideology: two 'Christian' parties – the Christian Party and the Christian Peoples Alliance, fielded joint candidates at the 2009 European Parliament elections and increased their share of the vote to come eighth, with 249,493 votes (1.6% of total votes cast), and in London, where the CPA had three councillors, the Christian parties picked up 51,336 votes (2.9% of the vote), up slightly from the 45,038 gained in 2004.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Church of England is represented in the UK Parliament by 26 bishops (the Lords Spiritual) and the British monarch is a member of the church (required under Article 2 of the Treaty of Union) as well as its Supreme Governor. The Lords Spiritual have seats in the House of Lords and debate government policies affecting the whole of the United Kingdom. The Church of England also has the right to draft legislative measures (related to religious administration) through the General Synod that can then be passed into law by Parliament. The Prime Minister, regardless of personal beliefs, plays a key role in the appointment of Church of England bishops, although in July 2007 Gordon Brown proposed reforms of the Prime Minister's ability to affect Church of England appointments.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Religious education and Collective Worship are compulsory in many state schools in England and Wales by virtue of clauses 69 and 70 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998. Clause 71 of the act gives parents the right to withdraw their children from Religious Education and Collective Worship and parents should be informed of their right in accordance with guidelines published by the Department for Education; "a school should ensure parents or carers are informed of this right". The content of the religious education is decided locally by the Standing Advisory Council on Religious Education.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In England and Wales, a significant number of state funded schools are faith schools with the vast majority Christian (mainly either of Church of England or Catholic) though there are also Jewish, Muslim and Sikh faith schools. Faith schools follow the same national curriculum as state schools, though with the added ethos of the host religion. Until 1944 there was no requirement for state schools to provide religious education or worship, although most did so. The Education Act 1944 introduced a requirement for a daily act of collective worship and for religious education but did not define what was allowable under these terms. The act contained provisions to allow parents to withdraw their children from these activities and for teachers to refuse to participate. The Education Reform Act 1988 introduced a further requirement that the majority of collective worship be "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character". According to a 2003 report from the Office for Standards in Education, a "third of governing bodies do not fulfil their statutory duties adequately, sometimes because of a failure to pursue thoroughly enough such matters as arranging a daily act of collective worship".


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In Scotland, the majority of schools are non-denominational, but separate Catholic schools, with an element of control by the Catholic Church, are provided within the state system. The Education (Scotland) Act 1980 imposes a statutory duty on all local authorities to provide religious education and religious observance in Scottish schools. These are currently defined by the Scottish Government's Curriculum for Excellence (2005).


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Prisoners are given religious freedom and privileges while in prison. This includes access to a chaplain or religious advisor, authorised religious reading materials, ability to change faith, as well as other privileges. Several faith-based outreach programmes provide faith promoting guidance and counselling.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Every three months, the Ministry of Justice collects data, including religious affiliation, of all UK prisoners and is published as the Offender Management Caseload Statistics. This data is then compiled into reports and published in the House of Commons library.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: On 31 March 2015 the prison population of England and Wales was recorded as 49% Christian, 14% Muslim, 2% Buddhist, 2% other religions and 31% no religion. In this statistics, Muslims happen to be the most disproportionately represented religious group facing arrest, trial and imprisonment, with 13.1% of prisoners being Muslims while the community represents 4% of those aged 15 years or older within the general population. The Prison Officers' Association has put that down to thousands of prisoners becoming so-called "convenience Muslims" – converting to the religion to deliberately play the system. [ ...] It added they were also being made even more vulnerable to radicalisation."


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Communications Act 2003 requires certain broadcasters in the United Kingdom to carry a "suitable quantity and range of programmes" dealing with religion and other beliefs, as part of their public service broadcasting. Prominent examples of religious programming include the BBC television programme "Songs of Praise", aired on a Sunday evening with an average weekly audience of 2.5 million, and the "Thought for the Day" slot on BBC Radio 4. Channels also offer documentaries on, or from the perspective of a criticism of organised religion. A significant example is Richard Dawkins' two-part Channel 4 documentary, "The Root of all Evil?". Open disbelief of, or even mockery of organised religion, is not regarded as a taboo in the British media, though it has occasionally provoked controversy – for example, the movie "Monty Python's Life of Brian", the poem "The Love That Dares to Speak Its Name", and the musical "", all of which involved characters based on Jesus, were subject to public outcry and blasphemy allegations, while "The Satanic Verses", a novel by British Indian author Salman Rushdie which includes a fantasy sequence about Muhammed, caused global protests including several by British Muslims.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Interfaith Network for the United Kingdom encompasses the main faith organisations of the United Kingdom, either directly with denominational important representatives or through joint bodies for these denominations, promotes local interfaith cooperation, promotes understanding between faiths and convenes meetings and conferences where social and religious questions of concern to the different faith communities can be examined together, including meetings of the Network's 'Faith Communities Consultative Forum'.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Ecumenical friendship and cooperation has gradually developed between Christian denominations and where inter-sect prejudice exists this has via education and employment policy been made a pressing public matter in dealing with its two prominent examples – sectarianism in Glasgow and Northern Ireland – where segregation is declining.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In the early 21st century, the Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006 made it an offence in England and Wales to incite hatred against a person on the grounds of their religion. The common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel were abolished with the coming into effect of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008 on 8 July 2008.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: 2005–2010 polls have shown that public opinion in the United Kingdom generally tends towards a suspicion or outright disapproval of radical or evangelical religiosity, though moderate groups and individuals are rarely subject to less favourable treatment from society or employers.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: The Equality Act 2010 prohibits discrimination against people on the basis of religion, in the supply of goods and services and selection for employment, subject to very limited exceptions (such as the right of schools and religious institutions to appoint paid ministers).


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: There is no strict separation of church and state in the United Kingdom. Accordingly, most public officials may display the most common identifiers of a major religion in the course of their duties – for example, rosary beads. Chaplains are provided in the armed forces (see Royal Army Chaplains' Department, RAF Chaplains Branch) and in prisons.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Although school uniform codes are generally drawn up flexibly enough to accommodate compulsory items of religious dress, some schools have banned wearing the crucifix in a necklace, arguing that to do so is not a requirement of Christianity where they prohibit all other necklaces. Post-adolescence, the wearing of a necklace is permitted in some F.E. colleges who permit religious insignia necklaces on a wider basis, which are without exception permitted at universities.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Some churches have warned that the Equality Act 2010 could force them to go against their faith when hiring staff.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In 2011, judges ruled that the European Convention on Human Rights required bed-and-breakfast owners to rent rooms to same-sex couples.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In 2011, Clive Bone sued Bideford Town Council for opening meetings with prayer. The High Court ruled in Bone's favor but, soon afterward, the government passed new laws permitting prayer at town meetings.


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: In 2011, two judges of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales upheld previous statements in the country's jurisprudence that the (non-canon) laws of the United Kingdom 'do not include Christianity'. Therefore, a local authority was acting lawfully in denying a Christian married couple the right to foster care because of stated negative views on homosexuality. In terms of the rights recognised "in the case of fostering arrangements at least, the right of homosexuals to equality should take precedence over the right of Christians to manifest their beliefs and moral values".


title: Religion in the United Kingdom

text: Levels of affiliation vary between different part of the UK, particularly between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The percentages declaring themselves Christians in the 2011 Census are 59.4 in England, 57.6 in Wales and 53.8 in Scotland, which decreased by 12.3, 14.3, and 11.3 percentage points respectively from the census of 2001. Northern Ireland remains one of the most religious nations in western Europe with 82.3% of the population claiming Christian affiliation, with a decline of only 3.5% by the 2011 census, while "other religions" have increased in membership. Religion has been seen as both a product and a cause of political divisions in Northern Ireland.


title: Wa alaykumu s-salam

text: Wa ʿalaykumu s-salam () is an Arabic greeting often used by Muslims around the world translating to "may peace be upon you". It is a blessing given to another. It is the standard response to the As-salamu alaykum () greeting. The greetings are intentional communications to acknowledge someone's presence or to make someone feel welcomed. They are used prior to a conversation and are said to be good manners. The greeting is considered an important Islamic duty and obligation. "Salam" has been a standard salutation among Muslims. The greeting is regularly exchanged during Muslim lectures and sermons. The complete form is "Wa ʿalaykumu s-salāmu wa-raḥmatu -llāhi wa-barakātuh" (, "And upon you be peace, as well as the mercy of God and his blessings").


title: Wa alaykumu s-salam

text: "Salam" literally means "peace". The word "Islam" is also derived from it. In a wider sense "salam" means harmlessness, safety and protection from evil and from faults. As-Salaam is also one of the Names of Allah.


title: Wa alaykumu s-salam

text: The greeting should be used both when arriving and when leaving. It was reported that Abu Hurayrah said "When one of you joins a gathering, let him say "salaam". When he wants to get up and leave, let him say "salaam". The former is not more important than the latter." (Hasan hadith reported in Jāmi` al-Tirmidhi.)


title: Wa alaykumu s-salam

text: The one who is riding should greet the one who is walking and the one who is walking should greet the one who is sitting and the smaller group should greet the larger group.


title: Wa alaykumu s-salam

text: It is also stated that one should give the Salam greeting upon entering a house. This is based upon the verse of the Qur'an:


title: Wa alaykumu s-salam

text: But when you enter the houses, greet one another with a greeting from Allah (i.e. say: Assalaamu ‘Aleykum—peace be on you), blessed and good.


title: Wa alaykumu s-salam

text: Religious scholars differ as to whether Muslims may initiate the saying of salaam to members of other faiths. The Qur'an says: "When you are greeted with a greeting, greet in return with what is better than it, or (at least) return it equally" (al-Nisa’ 4:86).


title: Mainland China

text: "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. By convention, the territories that fall outside of the Chinese mainland include:


title: Mainland China

text: Overseas Chinese, especially Malaysian Chinese and Chinese Singaporeans, use this term to describe people from the "ancestral land".


title: Mainland China

text: In the year 1949, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Liberation Army had largely defeated the Kuomintang (KMT)'s National Revolutionary Army in the Chinese Civil War. This forced the Kuomintang to relocate the Government and institutions of the Republic of China to the relative safety of Taiwan, an island which was placed under its control after the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II in 1945. With the establishment of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949, the CCP-controlled government saw itself as the sole legitimate government of China, competing with the claims of the Republic of China, whose authority is now limited to Taiwan and other islands. This resulted in a situation in which two co-existing governments competed for international legitimacy and recognition as the "government of China". With the democratisation of Taiwan in the 1990s and the rise of the Taiwanese independence movement, some people began simply using the term "China" instead.


title: Mainland China

text: Due to their status as colonies of foreign states during the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the phrase "mainland China" excludes Hong Kong and Macau. Since the return of Hong Kong and Macau to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 and 1999, respectively, the two territories have retained their legal, political, and economic systems. The territories also have their distinct identities. Therefore, "mainland China" generally continues to exclude these territories, because of the "One country, two systems" policy adopted by the PRC central government towards the regions. The term is also used in economic indicators, such as the IMD Competitiveness Report. International news media often use "China" to refer only to mainland China or the People's Republic of China.


title: Mainland China

text: The Exit and Entry Administration Law of the People's Republic of China () defines two terms in Chinese that are translated to "mainland":


title: Mainland China

text: In the People's Republic of China, the usage of the two terms is strictly speaking not interchangeable. To emphasise the One-China principle and not give the Republic of China (ROC) "equal footing" in Cross-Strait relations, the term must be used in PRC's official contexts with reference to Taiwan (with the PRC referring to itself as the "mainland side" dealing with the "Taiwan side"). But in terms of Hong Kong and Macau, the PRC government refers to itself as "the Central People's Government".


title: Mainland China

text: In the People's Republic of China, the term ('inland') is often contrasted with the term ('outside the border') for things outside the mainland region. Examples include "Administration of Foreign-funded Banks" () or the "Measures on Administration of Representative Offices of Foreign Insurance Institutions" ().


title: Mainland China

text: Hainan is an offshore island, therefore geographically not part of the continental mainland. Nevertheless, politically it is common practice to consider it part of the mainland because its government, legal and political systems do not differ from the rest of the People's Republic within the geographical mainland. Nonetheless, Hainanese people still refer to the geographic mainland as "the mainland" and call its residents "mainlanders".


title: Mainland China

text: Before 1949, Fujian Province (ROC), consisting of the islands of Kinmen and Matsu, was jointly governed alongside Fujian Province (PRC) as a unified Fujian Province under successive Chinese governments. The two territories are generally considered to belong to the same historical region, Fujian Province, which has been divided since 1949 as a result of the Chinese Civil War. However, because they are not controlled by the PRC, they are not included as part of "mainland China."


title: Mainland China

text: Hong Kong and Macau are both sovereign territories of the People's Republic of China. However, due to the One Country, Two Systems policy, the two regions maintain a high degree of autonomy, hence they are not governed as part of mainland China.


title: Mainland China

text: Geologically speaking, Hong Kong and Macau are both connected to mainland China in certain areas (e.g. the north of the New Territories). Additionally, the islands contained within Hong Kong (e.g. Hong Kong Island) and Macau are much closer to mainland China than Taiwan and Hainan, and are much smaller.


title: Mainland China

text: In Hong Kong and Macau, the terms "mainland China" and "mainlander" are frequently used for people from PRC-governed areas (i.e. not Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau). The Chinese term "Neidi" (), meaning the "inland" but still translated "mainland" in English, is commonly applied by SAR governments to represent non-SAR areas of PRC, including Hainan province and coastal regions of mainland China, such as "Constitutional and Mainland Affairs" () and Immigration Departments. In the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (as well as the Mainland and Macau Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement) the CPG also uses the Chinese characters "inner land", with the note that they refer to the "customs territory of China".


title: Mainland China

text: In Taiwan (the Republic of China), "mainland area" is a legal term used in the 1991 Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China, though the constitution does not define the geographical boundaries of the mainland area. In the corresponding Cross-Strait Act, the "people of the mainland area" are defined to be those under the jurisdiction of the PRC, excluding Hong Kong and Macau. By contrast, Taiwan and its offshore islands are defined as part of the "free area of the Republic of China".


title: Mainland China

text: Views of the term "mainland China" (中國大陸) vary on Taiwan. The KMT had previously referred to the territories under the control of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) by several different names, e.g. "(territory controlled by the) Communist bandits", "occupied/unfree area (of China)", "Communist China" (as opposed to either "Nationalist China" or "Democratic China"), "Red China" (as opposed to "Blue China"), and "mainland China (area)". In modern times, many of these terms have fallen out of use. The terms "mainland China" (中國大陸) or "the mainland" (大陸) still remain in popular use, but some also simply use the term "China" (中國). The former term is generally preferred by the Pan-Blue Coalition led by the KMT, while the latter term is preferred by the Pan-Green Coalition led by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which opposes the term "mainland" and its suggestion that Taiwan is part of China. This has caused many political debates.


title: Mainland China

text: Other geography-related terms which are used to avoid mentioning the political status of the PRC and ROC.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden, Duchess of Västergötland (Victoria Ingrid Alice Désirée; born 14 July 1977) is the heir apparent to the Swedish throne, as the eldest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf. If she ascends to the throne as expected, she would be Sweden's fourth queen regnant (after Margaret, Christina and Ulrika Eleonora) and the first since 1720. Her inheritance is secured by Sweden's 1979 Act of Succession, the first law in Western Europe to adopt royal absolute primogeniture.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: Victoria was born on 14 July 1977 at 21:45 CET at the Karolinska Hospital in Solna, Stockholm County, Sweden, and is the oldest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. She is a member of the House of Bernadotte. Born as a princess of Sweden, she was designated crown princess in 1979 (SFS 1979:932) ahead of her younger brother. Her place as first in the line of succession formally went into effect on 1 January 1980 with the parliamentary change to the Act of Succession that introduced absolute primogeniture.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: Her given name, Victoria Ingrid Alice Désirée, honours various relatives. Her first name comes primarily from her great-great-grandmother Victoria of Baden, queen consort of Sweden. Her other names honour her great-aunt Ingrid of Sweden; her maternal grandmother, Alice Soares de Toledo; her ancestor Désirée Clary, queen consort of Sweden; and her paternal aunt and godmother, Princess Désirée.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: She was baptised at the Royal Palace Church on 27 September 1977. Her godparents were Crown Prince Harald of Norway (later king of Norway), her maternal uncle, Ralf Sommerlath, Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands (later queen of the Netherlands, 1980–2013), and her aunt Princess Désirée, Baroness Silfverschiöld. The Crown Princess was confirmed in the summer of 1992 at Räpplinge church on the island of Öland.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: Victoria studied for a year (1996–97) at the Catholic University of the West at Angers in France, and in the fall term of 1997 participated in a special program following the work of the "Riksdag". From 1998 to 2000, Victoria resided in the United States, where she studied various subjects at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: In May 1999, she was an intern at the Swedish Embassy in Washington, D.C. Victoria completed a study program at the Government Offices in 2001. In 2003, Victoria's education continued with visits to Swedish businesses, a study and intern program in agriculture and forestry, as well as completion of the basic soldier training at SWEDINT (the Swedish Armed Forces International Centre).


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: In 2006, Victoria enrolled in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs' Diplomat Program, running from September 2006 to June 2007. The program is a training program for young future diplomats and gives an insight to the ministry's work, Swedish foreign and security policies and Sweden's relations with the rest of the world. In June 2009, she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from Uppsala University.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: Victoria was made crown princess on 1 January 1980 by the 1979 amendment to the Act of Succession of 1810 ("Successionsordningen"). This constitutional amendment introduced absolute primogeniture, meaning that the throne would be inherited by the monarch's eldest child without regard to gender. King Carl XVI Gustaf objected to the reform after it occurred—not because he objected to women entering the line of succession, but because he was upset about his son being stripped of the crown prince status he had held since birth.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: When she became heir, she also was made Duchess of Västergötland, one of the historical provinces of Sweden. Prior to this constitutional change, the heir apparent to the throne was her younger brother, Carl Philip. He is now fourth in line to the throne, behind Victoria and her children.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: Victoria's declaration of majority took place in the Hall of State at the Royal Palace of Stockholm on 14 July 1995. As of the day she turned 18, she became eligible to act as Head of State when the King is not in country. Victoria made her first public speech on this occasion. Located on the dais in the background was the same silver throne on which her father was seated at his enthronement, in actual use from 1650 and up until this ceremony.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: As heir apparent to the throne, Victoria is a working member of the Swedish Royal Family with her own agenda of official engagements. Victoria attends the regular Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs and the information councils with Government ministers headed by the King, and steps in as a temporary regent ("Riksföreståndare") when needed.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: Victoria has made many official trips abroad as a representative of Sweden. Her first major official visit on her own was to Japan in 2001, where she promoted Swedish tourism, design, music, gastronomy and environmental sustainability during the "Swedish Style" event. That same year, Victoria also travelled to the West Coast of the United States, where she participated in the celebrations of the Nobel centenary.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: In 2002, she paid official visits to United States, Spain, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Kosovo where she visited Camp Victoria. In 2003, she made official visits to Egypt and the United States. In early 2004, she paid an official visit to Saudi Arabia, as a part of a large official business delegation from Sweden, and in October 2004, she travelled to Hungary.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: Crown Princess Victoria was given her own household in October 2004. It is headed by the Marshal of the Court, and serves to coordinate the official engagements of The Crown Princess.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: In January 2005, Victoria made a long official visit to Australia, promoting Swedish style and businesses, and in April she visited Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to follow aid work and become informed about the work in the aftermath of the tsunami. In April 2005, Victoria made an official visit to Japan where she visited the Expo 2005 in Aichi, laid the foundation for a new IKEA store in Yokohama together with Princess Takamado and met with Emperor Akihito, Empress Michiko, Crown Prince Naruhito and Sayako Kuroda. In June 2005, Victoria travelled to Turkey on an official visit where she participated in the Swedish Business Seminar and Sweden Day celebrations in Ankara during a historic visit, which was organised by the Swedish Embassy in Ankara and Swedish Trade Council in Istanbul. Victoria also visited the historic sights such as the Blue Mosque, Topkapı Palace and Hagia Sophia. This was the first official Royal visit from Sweden to Turkey since 1934. In September 2005, she made an official visit to China.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: In March 2006, Victoria made an official visit to Brazil where she followed the Volvo Ocean Race and visited projects supported by the World Childhood Foundation, such as the Abrigo Rainha Sílvia. In December, she paid a four-day official visit to Paris where she attended a French-Swedish soirée arranged by the Swedish Chamber of Commerce, the Swedish Trade Council and the Swedish Embassy, during which she also awarded the Prix d’Excellence 2006. The visit to Paris also included events with the Swedish Club in Paris, attendance at a church service in the Sofia Church (the Swedish church in Paris), a study visit to the OECD headquarters and meetings with the Secretary-General José Ángel Gurría, the Swedish Ambassador to the OECD, Gun-Britt Andersson, and other senior officials. She also attended a gala dinner hosted by La Fondation Pour L’Enfance at Versailles.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: In 2011, it was announced that Victoria would continue working throughout her pregnancy. In 2012, she took her maternity leave one day prior to the birth of her daughter Estelle and her husband Daniel revealed that he would take his paternity leave and switch parental roles with Victoria when Estelle began preschool.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: In January 2016, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed The Crown Princess as a member of Sustainable Development Goals Advocates for Agenda 2030. The Crown Princess is therefore one of 16 ambassadors in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocacy Group. The group's task is to promote the UN's Sustainable Development Goals – Agenda 2030 – in various ways. The Crown Princess primarily works with issues concerning water and health.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: The Crown Princess Victoria's Fund was set up in 1997 and is run as a part of Radiohjälpen, the fundraising branch of Sveriges Television and Sveriges Radio. The fund's aim is to provide support for leisure and recreational activities for children and young people with functional disabilities or chronic illnesses.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: The Crown Princess Victoria Fund's means mainly derive from donations by the public, but large companies such as Arla Foods, Swedbank and AB Svenska Returpack are constant sponsor partners. Additional support comes from The Association of Swedish Bakers & Confectioners who every year arrange a national “princess cake week” during which the participating cafés and bakeries give 2.50 SEK per sold princess pastry and 10 SEK per sold princess cake to the fund. The result of this fund-raising drive is usually presented to Victoria herself on her name day on 12 March every year; in 2007, the total amount was 200,000 SEK. Congratulatory and memorial cards are also issued by Radiohjälpen benefitting the fund, a simple way to pay respects and do a good deed in one act. In 2006, The Crown Princess Victoria Fund raised a total of 5.5 million SEK.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: Every year Victoria visits one or several clubs or projects that have been granted money. These visits are not announced via the official royal diary but kept private; instead Sveriges Television often accompanies her and airs short programs from these visits at some time during the year.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: Victoria's first boyfriend was Daniel Collert. They socialised in the same circles, went to the same school and were already friends when their romance developed in the mid-1990s. When Victoria moved to the United States in 1998 to study and recover from her eating disorders, Collert moved with her and settled in New York. In September 2000, Victoria's relationship with Collert was confirmed in an interview with her at Expo 2000. The relationship ended in 2001.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: In May 2002, Swedish newspaper "Expressen" reported that Victoria had a new boyfriend, her personal trainer at Master Training, Daniel Westling. When the news broke and the media turned its attention on him, it was obvious that he did not like being in the public eye. Once Westling was photographed crossing a street against a red light in order to avoid a camera. In July 2002, Victoria and Westling were pictured kissing for the first time at a birthday party for Caroline Kreuger, a close friend of Victoria's.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: In a popular personal report called "Tre dagar med Victoria", which profiled her work during a three-day period that aired on TV4 in December 2004, Victoria commented on criticism directed at Westling, "Many unfair things are written. I understand that there is speculation, but some day justice will be done there, too." Victoria also gave her opinion that happiness is important, and that these days it is not so much about background and pedigree but about two people who have to live with each other. She said that if they are not happy and comfortable with each other, it is impossible to do a good job.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: Swedish media often speculated about upcoming engagements and marriages for Victoria. On 24 February 2009, rumours that wedding plans were imminent became particularly intense preceding an information council between the King and Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt. Under the terms of the Swedish Act of Succession, the Government, upon the request of the King, gives the final consent for a dynastic marriage of a prince or princess of Sweden. The prince or princess otherwise loses their right to the throne. Later that day, it was confirmed that permission had been granted and that Victoria would marry Westling in the summer of 2010. The wedding date was set in Stockholm Cathedral for 19 June 2010, the 34th anniversary of her parents' marriage. Her engagement ring features a solitaire round brilliant-cut diamond mounted on white gold.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: The wedding took place on 19 June 2010. Guests including royalty and ambassadors from various countries were invited to the wedding ceremony which took place at Stockholm Cathedral. After the wedding the newlyweds were driven through Stockholm in a coach and then rowed in the antique royal barge "Vasaorden" to the royal palace where the wedding banquet was held. On the evening before the wedding, there was a gala concert dedicated to the couple in the Stockholm Concert Hall.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: On 17 August 2011, the Swedish royal court announced that Crown Princess Victoria was pregnant and expecting the couple's first child in March 2012. On 23 February 2012, Victoria gave birth to Princess Estelle, Duchess of Östergötland, in the Karolinska University Hospital. Their second child, Prince Oscar, Duke of Skåne, was born on 2 March 2016 in the same hospital.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: In 1996, it was established that Victoria had anorexia; this was not confirmed until the next year. Victoria had planned to study at Uppsala University, but after intense media speculation and public discussion when pictures of an evidently emaciated Victoria in sleeveless dresses at the Order of the Innocence's ball and the gala dinner for the incoming state visit from Austria surfaced in April 1997, the Royal Court decided to confirm her condition.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: After a press release from the Royal Court in November 1997 announced that Victoria had eating disorders, she moved to the United States where she received professional treatment and studied at Yale University.


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: In June 1999, Victoria said, "It was a really hard time. This kind of illness is hard, not only for the individual but also for the people close to him or her. Today I'm fine."


title: Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden

text: In November 2002, the book "Victoria, Victoria!" came out, speaking further about her eating disorder. Victoria said: "I felt like an accelerating train, going right down... during the whole period. I had eating disorders and was aware of it, my anguish was enormous. I really hated how I looked like, how I was... I, Victoria, didn't exist. It felt like everything in my life and around me was controlled by others. The one thing I could control was the food I put in me". She further said that "What happened cost and I was the one who stood for the payments. Now I'm feeling well and with the insights I've acquired through this I can hopefully help someone else".


title: Pandya dynasty

text: The Pandya dynasty, also referred to as the Pandyas of Madurai, was an ancient Tamil dynasty of South India, and among the three great kingdoms of Tamilakam, the other two being the Cholas and the Cheras. Existing since at least the 4th to 3rd centuries BCE, the dynasty passed through two periods of imperial dominance, the 6th to 10th centuries CE, and under the 'Later Pandyas' (13th to 14th centuries CE). The Pandyas ruled extensive territories, at times including regions of present-day South India and northern Sri Lanka through vassal states subject to Madurai.


title: Pandya dynasty

text: The rulers of the three Tamil dynasties were referred to as the "three crowned rulers (the mu-ventar) of the Tamil country". The origin and the timeline of the Pandya dynasty are difficult to establish. The early Pandya chieftains ruled their country (Pandya Nadu) from the ancient period, which included the inland city of Madurai and the southern port of Korkai. The Pandyas are celebrated in the earliest available Tamil poetry (Sangam literature"). Graeco-Roman accounts (as early as 4th century BCE), the edicts of Maurya emperor Ashoka, coins with legends in Tamil-Brahmi script, and Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions suggest the continuity of the Pandya dynasty from the 3rd century BCE to the early centuries CE. The early historic Pandyas faded into obscurity upon the rise of the Kalabhra dynasty in south India.


title: Pandya dynasty

text: From the 6th century to the 9th century CE, the Chalukyas of Badami or Rashtrakutas of the Deccan, the Pallavas of Kanchi, and Pandyas of Madurai dominated the politics of south India. The Pandyas often ruled or invaded the fertile estuary of Kaveri (the Chola country), the ancient Chera country (Kongu and central Kerala) and Venadu (southern Kerala), the Pallava country and Sri Lanka. The Pandyas fell into decline with the rise of the Cholas of Thanjavur in the 9th century and were in constant conflict with the latter. The Pandyas allied themselves with the Sinhalese and the Cheras in harassing the Chola Empire until it found an opportunity for reviving its frontiers during the late 13th century.


title: Pandya dynasty

text: The Pandyas entered their golden age under Maravarman I and Jatavarman Sundara Pandya I (13th century). Some early efforts by Maravarman I to expand into the ancient Chola country were effectively checked by the Hoysalas. Jatavarman I () successfully expanded the kingdom into the Telugu country (as far north as Nellore), south Kerala, and conquered northern Sri Lanka. The city of Kanchi became a secondary capital of the Pandyas.The Hoysalas, in general, were confined to Mysore Plateau and even king Somesvara was killed in a battle with Pandyas. Maravarman Kulasekhara I (1268) defeated an alliance of the Hoysalas and the Cholas (1279) and invaded Sri Lanka. The venerable Tooth Relic of the Buddha was carried away by the Pandyas. During this period, the rule of the kingdom was shared among several royals, one of them enjoying primacy over the rest. An internal crisis in the Pandya kingdom coincided with the Khalji invasion of south India in 1310–11. The ensuing political crisis saw more sultanate raids and plunder, the loss of south Kerala (1312), and north Sri Lanka (1323) and the establishment of the Madurai sultanate (1334). The Pandyas of Ucchangi (9th–13th century), in the Tungabhadra Valley were related to the Pandyas of Madurai.


title: Pandya dynasty

text: According to tradition, the legendary Sangams ("the Academies") were held in Madurai under the patronage of the Pandyas, and some of the Pandya rulers claimed to be poets themselves. Pandya Nadu was home to a number of renowned temples, including the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai. The revival of the Pandya power by Kadungon (7th century CE) coincided with the prominence of the Shaivite nayanars and the Vaishnavite alvars. It is known that the Pandya rulers followed Jainism for a short period of time in history.


title: Pandya dynasty

text: The etymology of Pandya is still a matter of considerable speculation among scholars. One theory is that the word "pandya" is derived from the ancient Tamil word "pandu" meaning "old". The theory suggests that in early historic Tamil lexicon the word pandya means "old country" in contrast with Chola meaning "new country", Chera meaning "hill country" and Pallava meaning "branch" in Sanskrit. Another theory is that the word Pandya is derived from the Sanskrit word Pandu to mean white or pale. Apart from these derivations mentioned, a number of other theories do appear in historical studies.


title: Pandya dynasty

text: According to the ancient Tamil legends, the three brothers "Cheran", "Cholan" and "Pandyan" ruled in common at the southern city of Korkai. While Pandya remained at home, his two brothers Cheran and Cholan after a separation founded their own kingdoms in north and west. Epic poem "Silappatikaram" mentions that the emblem of the Pandyas was that of a "fish".


title: Pandya dynasty

text: Indian traditions such as the Great Epics and the Puranas often associate southern India with Sage Agastya (who had his ashrama in the south). Agastya appears prominently in medieval Tamil literature also.


title: Pandya dynasty

text: Folklores attributes Alli Rani (meaning "the queen Alli") as one of the early historic rulers of the Pandyas. She is attributed as an "amazonian queen" whose servants were men and administrative officials and army were women. She is thought of ruling the whole western and northern coast of Sri Lanka from her capital Kudiramalai, where remains of what is thought of as her fort are found. She is sometimes seen as an incarnation of the Pandya associated gods, Meenakshi and Kannagi.


title: Pandya dynasty

text: The medieval Pandya kings were claimed to have belonged to the Chandra-vamsa or the Lunar Race. They claimed Pururavas and Nahusha as ancestors. Pururavas is listed as one of the ancestors in the Velvikudi Inscription of Nedunjadaiyan Varaguna-varman I (Jatila Parantaka Nedunjadaiyan).


title: Pandya dynasty

text: The Greek ambassador to Chandragupta Maurya, Megasthenes mentions Queens of Pandyas as 'Pandaia' and locates them in the south of India extending into ocean. It consisted of 365 villages which met the needs of the royal palace each day of the year. He described the queen as daughter of Heracles (by some author as Shiva or Krishna). Madurai, capital of Pandyas is mentioned in Kautilya's Arthashastra (4th century BCE) as 'Mathura of the south'.


title: Pandya dynasty

text: Pandyas are also mentioned in the inscriptions of Maurya emperor Asoka (3rd century BCE). In his inscriptions (2nd and 13th Major Rock Edict) Asoka refers to the peoples of south India – the Cholas, Cheras, Pandyas and Satiyaputras. These polities, although not part of the Maurya empire, were on friendly terms with Asoka:


title: Pandya dynasty

text: The earliest Pandya to be found in epigraph is Nedunjeliyan, figuring in the Tamil-Brahmi Mangulam inscription (near Madurai) assigned to 3rd and 2nd centuries BCE. The record documents a gift of rock-cut beds, to a Jain ascetic. It is assumed that the people found in the Mangulam inscription, Nedunjeliyan, Kadalan, and Izhanchadikan predates rulers such as Talaiyanganam Nedunjelyan and Palyaga-salai Mudukudimi Peruvaludi.


title: Pandya dynasty

text: Kharavela, the Kalinga king who ruled during c. 1st century BCE, in his Hathigumpha inscription, claims to have destroyed an old confederacy of Tamil countries ("the tamira–desa–sanghata") which had lasted 132 years, and to have acquired a large quantity of pearls from the Pandyas.


title: Pandya dynasty

text: Silver punch-marked coins with the fish symbol of the Pandyas dating from around the same time have also been found.


title: Pandya dynasty

text: The early historic Pandyas are celebrated in the earliest available Tamil poetry. The poems refers to about twelve Pandya rulers. According to tradition, the legendary Sangams ("the Academies") were held in Madurai under the patronage of the Pandyas. Several Tamil literary works, such as Iraiyanar Agapporul, mention the legend of three separate Sangams and ascribe their patronage to the Pandyas.


title: Pandya dynasty

text: Pandya rulers – such as Nedunjeliyan, the Victor of Talaiyalanganam, and Mudukudimi Peruvaludi, the Patron of Several Sacrificial Halls ("the Palyaga-salai") – find mention in a number of poems (such as "Mathuraikkanci").


title: Pandya dynasty

text: Beside several short poems found in the "Akananuru" and the "Purananuru" collections, there are two major works – "Mathuraikkanci" and "Netunalvatai" – which give a glimpse into the society and commercial activities in the Pandya country during the early historic period. The "Purananuru" and "Agananuru" collections contain poems sung in praise of various Pandya rulers and also poems that were claimed to be composed by the rulers themselves.