The mention of faith in the city of London first conjures images of ceremonies in St. Paul's Cathedral, but there are more than forty other Anglican churches, as well as Jewish, Dutch, Catholic, and Welsh places of worship squeezed in between the Square Mile's towers of commerce. Intrigued by this incongruity, acclaimed London photographer Niki Gorick has gained unique access to capture the day-to-day workings of these ancient buildings. In her exploration, she discovered a vibrant, diverse spiritual life stretching out into many faiths. This is a book about London and Londoners from a previously unexplored angle, revealing a rich mix of characters, traditions, and human-interest stories. From weddings, communions, evangelical studies, and carol services to Knights Templar investitures, fish displays, Afghan music, and vicars wielding knives, the photographs show an extraordinary range of spiritual goings-on and charismatic personalities. For the first time, readers get to glimpse a side of London's Square Mile not dominated by money-making, where city workers try to connect to life's deeper meanings and where religious traditions and questions of faith are still very much alive. With stunning images and an introduction by Edward Lucie-Smith, Faith in the City of London dispels many preconceptions about the capital and captures the true character of its inhabitants.

Four years after Lord Scarman's report on the Brixton disorders, and at a time of continuing urban unrest, what future is there for our inner cities and housing estates? How should the Church of England, and other bodies, including government, respond? This was the brief given by the Archbishop of Canterbury to a distinguished 18-member Commission drawn from a wide range of backgrounds. After two years of taking evidence and visiting the major cities where economic, physical and social conditions are at their most acute and depressing, the Commission's report paints a disturbing picture. The report makes recommendations to the Church about its place and responsibilities in the urban priority areas. Important recommendations are also made about public policy issues: unemployment, housing, social and community work, education, policing, and urban policy. In its call for action on a broad front, the Commission argues that Church and State must have faith in the city. There needs to be a clear commitment - and a positive response - by the nation as a whole.

Rescripting Religion in the City explores the role of faith and religious practices as strategies for understanding and negotiating the migratory experience. Leading international scholars draw on case studies of urban settings in the global north and south. Presenting a nuanced understanding of the religious identities of migrants within the 'modern metropolis' this book makes a significant contribution to fields as diverse as twentieth-century immigration history, the sociology of religion and migration studies, as well as historical and urban geography and practical theology.

Major cities have long been seen as centres of secularisation. However, the number of congregations in London grew by 50% between 1979 and the present. London’s churches have been characterised more by growth than by decline in the decades since 1980. The Desecularisation of the City provides the first academic survey of churches in London over recent decades, linking them to similar developments in other major cities across the West. Produced by a large team of scholars from a range of disciplines, this volume offers a striking and original portrait of congregational life in London since 1980. Seventeen chapters explore the diverse localities, ethnicities and denominations that make up the church in contemporary London. The vitality of London’s churches in the last four decades shows that secularisation is far from inevitable in the cities of the future. This study necessitates a significant reassessment of the dominant academic portrayal of Christianity in Britain and the West, which has, mostly, depicted cities as secular spaces within a secularising culture. It will be of great interest to scholars working across a wide range of disciplines, including history, sociology, religious studies and theology.

This book provides the first academic survey of churches in London over recent decades, linking them to similar developments in other major cities across the West. The vitality of London's churches in the last four decades shows that secularisation is far from inevitable in the cities of the future.

There has been a growing interest in the rapidly evolving nature of cities in the past 10-15 years, but especially in the last 5 years, and the profound impact this is having upon our understanding of community, belonging and church. This book shows that theology in an urban context has developed way beyond the inner-city nostaligia. It is a challenging, critical and constructive study of the role of the church in cities.

This book offers fresh theoretical, methodological and empirical analyses of the relation between religion and the city in the South Asian context. Uniting the historical with the contemporary by looking at the medieval and early modern links between religious faith and urban settlement, the book brings together a series of focused studies of the mixed and multiple practices and spatial negotiations of religion in the South Asian city. It looks at the various ways in which contemporary religious practice affects urban everyday life, commerce, craft, infrastructure, cultural forms, art, music and architecture. Chapters draw upon original empirical study and research to analyze the foundational, structural, material and cultural connections between religious practice and urban formations or flows. The book argues that Indian cities are not ‘postsecular’ in the sense that the term is currently used in the modern West, but that there has been, rather, a deep, even foundational link between religion and urbanism, producing different versions of urban modernity. Questions of caste, gender, community, intersectional entanglements, physical proximity, private or public ritual, processions and prayer, economic and political factors, material objects, and changes in the built environment, are all taken into consideration, and the book offers an interdisciplinary analysis of different historical periods, different cities, and different types of religious practice. Filling a gap in the literature by discussing a diversity of settings and faiths, the book will be of interest to scholars to South Asian history, sociology, literary analysis, urban studies and cultural studies.

Issues of gender and sexuality are intrinsic to people’s experience: their sense of identity, their lives and the loving relationships that shape and sustain them. The life and mission of the Church of England – and of the worldwide Anglican Communion – are affected by the deep, and sometimes painful, disagreements about these matters, divisions brought into sharper focus because of society’s changing perspectives and practices, especially in relation to LGTBI+ people. Living in Love and Faith sets out to inspire people to think more deeply both about what it means to be human, and to live in love and faith with one another. It tackles the tough questions and the divisions among Christians about what it means to be holy in a society in which understandings and practices of gender, sexuality and marriage continue to change. Commissioned and led by the Bishops of the Church of England, the Living in Love and Faith project has involved many people across the Church and beyond, bringing together a great diversity and depth of expertise, conviction and experience to explore these matters by studying what the Bible, theology, history and the social and biological sciences have to say. After a Foreword from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the book opens with an invitation from the Bishops of the Church of England to embark on a learning journey in five parts: Part One sets current questions about human identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage in the context of God’s gift of life. Part Two takes a careful and dispassionate look at what is happening in the world with regard to identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. Part Three explores current Christian thinking and discussions about human identity, sexuality, and marriage. In the light of the good news of Jesus Christ, how do Christians understand and respond to the trends observed in Part Two? Part Four considers what it means for us as individuals and as a church to be Christ-like when it comes to matters of identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage. Part Five invites the reader into a conversation between some of the people who have been involved in writing this book who, having engaged with and written Parts One to Four, nevertheless come to different conclusions. Amid the biblical, theological, historical and scientific exploration, each part includes Encounters with real, contemporary disciples of Christ whose stories raise questions which ask us to discern where God is active in human lives. The book ends with an appeal from the Bishops to join them in a period of discernment and decision-making following the publication of Living in Love and Faith. The Living in Love and Faith book is accompanied by a range of free digital resources including films, podcasts and an online library, together with Living in Love and Faith: The Course, a 5-session course which is designed to help local groups engage with the resources, also published by Church House Publishing.

First published in 1995, this volume explores the effects of social policy on cities during Conservative Party rule over the 1980s and 1990s. It identifies the place where the effects of social policies are most strikingly felt due to the concentration of populations in cities. Delving into issues including business elites, market forces, regenerating cities and poverty, this volume’s contributors make clear that there can be no ‘quick fix’ for Britain’s complex urban problems.

This is London in the eyes of its beggars, bankers, coppers, gangsters, carers, witch-doctors and sex workers. This is London in the voices of Arabs, Afghans, Nigerians, Poles, Romanians and Russians. This is London as you've never seen it before. Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-fiction 2016 Shortlisted for the Ryszard Kapuscinski Award for Literary Reportage 2019 'An eye-opening investigation into the hidden immigrant life of the city' Sunday Times 'Full of nuggets of unexpected information about the lives of others . . . It recalls the journalism of Orwell' Financial Times 'Ben Judah grabs hold of London and shakes out its secrets' The Economist