Leading Protestant in France Addresses Worrying Secular Trends to WARC Executives

A debate regarding the secularism of France, which has been ongoing over this past year, has been reignited this week as a leading Protestant told how the growth of Islam and the mushrooming of other religions would directly challenge the country’s secular positioning, according to the Church of England newspaper.

|TOP|The head of the Reformed Church in France, Rev Marcel Manoel explained how the religious landscape was changing and that this could eventually bring about a feeling of conflict and mistrust.

Rev Manoel said how this problem could also lead to a type of “secularist rigidity” in the nation.

The leading French Protestant leader was addressing the Executive Committee of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), a body with 75 million Protestant members worldwide.

Manoel pointed out that the rapid growth of new religious groups in the country, and in particular Islam, and said, “The Muslim presence has become more visible but there is no certainty that the way they practise their religion will not change profoundly in a secular culture,” according to ENI.

France has no official record of statistics for religious affiliations; however, it is thought that Muslims make up approximately 5-10 percent of the country’s 60 million population.

One worry for the Protestant Church has been that although the Reformed Church remains France’s biggest Protestant denomination with around 300,000 members, its membership has halved over the past 50 years, and a decrease of 30 percent in ministers has also been highlighted.

|QUOTE|In contrast the churches have noticed that over recent years a sharp growth has occurred in immigrant churches within the large city areas, and this has had an affect on traditional denominations.

Manoel said, “The question is how to demonstrate that in our diversity we are the one church of Jesus Christ. Without doubt there are fewer people but they are more active. We are beginning to see a new way of being the Church which is less about organising members and more about helping them to witness in contemporary society.”

According to the Church of England newspaper Manoel told of the problems various Churches were having in France. He said, “groups are suspected of being dangerous sects, immigrant churches, particularly African churches, suspected of political scheming, or church movements and agencies discriminated against because they clearly affirm their Protestant identity.”

In his address Manoel called for more established and powerful churches to react to the worrying trends.

“We have to show our solidarity,” said the Protestant leader.

France is a country that has traditionally kept a very strict separation of Church and state. However, many criticised the government earlier this year when the national tricolour was lowered on all of France’s public buildings for 24 hours following Pope John Paul II’s death.

In 2004 secularists also caused a stir in France as state schools banned religious symbols from their students.