Britain’s Zealous Christians

Less than 10 percent of Britain’s 56 million people are currently zealous Christians, according to The Economist. On a typical Sunday, fewer than four million people attend church services. Of these, only 1.1 million are Anglicans. Despite widespread agnosticism, however, the Church of England continues its established role as the State religion. “Britain has not been a Christian society for years but refuses to admit to agnosticism, largely out of nostalgia,” claims the same news magazine. Little wonder that modern politicians and newspapers call for the Church’s disestablishment, a break in the Church-State link.

“A world which is really secular, which professes to be Christian, is the worst of worlds,” lamented Walter Bagehot, the 19th-century editor of The Economist. But in the first century C.E., Jesus Christ said that his disciples were ‘no part of the world, just as he was no part of the world.’ (John 17:16) However, he sent them into the world to preach God’s Kingdom. Likewise today, Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide are well-known for zealously preaching “publicly and from house to house.”​—Acts 20:20.

Compared with Anglicans, the 126,173 Witnesses in Britain are few in number. Yet they spend some 20 hours a month attending Christian meetings. Further, during 1992 each Witness spent an average of 16 additional hours a month declaring to others the good news of God’s Kingdom, the government that will soon establish a righteous new world. (Matthew 24:14; 2 Peter 3:13) The next time Jehovah’s Witnesses visit your home, will you listen to their distinctive message and discover what motivates their zeal?