Historical themes in the Diocese of London: What were relations like between Anglicans and those of other Christian denominations and other faiths?

During the modern period London has been a place of religious multiplicity and vitality: a range of Christian denominations and a variety of different faith groups have worshipped and worked in the metropolis. Religious diversity in London is nothing new! Relations between these groups could be marked by competition, conversionism, conflict or cooperation in different periods and contexts. 

Look

A walk around your local community will provide you with clues about the range of religious diversity within it. You are likely to find a number of different places of worship, both Christian and of other faiths. Some buildings will display the date in which they were built. 

Listen

It will be useful to talk to long-standing members of the community and ask them about the religious history of the area. This might compliment the evidence you gathered as you looked around the local area. You could interview both Anglican churchgoers and members of other religious groups. By talking to a range of individuals you may well tap into the communal memory of the community and get a sense of historical relationship between religious groups. Remember that the subject of interactions between religious groups can occasionally be controversial, so be sensitive in your approach. See here for more information on oral history.

Read

Given the sheer diversity of religion in London it is impossible to give a comprehensive list of recommended reading. However, the following books might be useful places to begin:

Hugh McLeod, Piety and Poverty: Working-Class Religion in Berlin, London and New York 1870-1914, London: Holmes and Meier, 1996.

Donald Lewis, Lighten their Darkness: the Evangelical Mission to Working-Class London, 1828-1860.

Jeffrey Cox, The English Churches in a Secular Society: Lambeth 1870-1930, Oxford: OUP, 1982.  

Brian Frost and Stuart Jordan, Pioneers of Social Passion, London: SCM, 2006.

R. Swift and S. Gilley, The Irish in the Victorian City, London: Croon Helm, 1985.

John Wolffe, The Protestant Crusade in Britain, 1829-1860, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1991.

Humayun Ansari, The Infidel Within: Muslims in Britain since 1800, London: C. Hurst and Co, 2004.

W. Charles Johnson, Encounter in London: The story of the London Baptist Association 1865-1965, London: Carey Kingsgate Press, 1965.

Research

You could approach this question from three different directions. Firstly, you could assess Anglican material that might discuss other religious groups. Visitation returns will often describe the make up of individual parishes and give insights into relations between Anglicans and non-Anglicans. The evidence provided by in the 1851 Religious Census will often include remarks by individual clergy describing other religious groups in the community.  You might also find evidence relating to Anglican interactions with non-Anglicans in parochial sources for individual churches and in the correspondence between individual clergy and the Bishop of London.

Secondly, in order to find our more about the religious climate of a locality you could examine the various religious censuses of London and also read through the relevant section of the Charles Booth survey of working class London.

Thirdly, you could examine the archive material of the relevant non-Anglican religious groups. These are too numerous to be listed here; however, the following may be useful:

www.casbah.ac.uk – details on material relating to Black and Asian communities

www.rcdowarchives.blogspot.com/ - Westminster Diocesan Archives (Roman Catholic)

www.baptisthistory.org.uk – Baptist Historical Society

www.strictbaptisthistory.org.uk/index.htm - The Strict Baptist Historical Society

www.dwlib.co.uk/dwlib/ - Dr Williams’s Library (Nonconformist material)

London City Mission archive

The records of many religious groups are held at the London Metropolitan Archives.