The irish religions
...inent to support what they are doing in their country and to spread awareness about poverty around the world. There are over 4,500 Irish missionaries in 85 different countries working all over Africa, Asia, Central and South America, and Oceania. The Church of Ireland is a Protestant Episcopal Church, an independent church within the worldwide Anglican Communion. The Church is organized into twelve districts. The Archbishop of Armagh is the Primate of All Ireland and the only other Arch bishopric is Dublin. Chief legislative power lies with the General Synod, consisting of the archbishops, bishops, 216 representatives of the clergy and 432 representatives of the laity. The clerical and laity representatives are elected every three years. Education and social services are another big part of the church of Ireland. The total membership of the Church of Ireland is about 75% of the Northern Irish region, or 380,000. The Presbyterian Church is a Protestant Church, it is a member of the Reformed tradition and a member of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. The Reformed tradition lays strongly on the authority of the Scriptures in the Life of the Christian. The word 'Presbyterian' describes the form of church government which stresses the individual and corporate responsibility of members of the organization. The elders are the women and men that are elected by each people attending worship and are responsible for the spiritual welfare of members. The 562 congregations are grouped into 21 districts called Presbyteries. Ministers and elders represent their congregations at Presbytery and at the five regional Synods (main churches or meeting places). These all come together at the annual General Assembly, the decisive part of the Church, which decides the policies and is responsible for the government of the Church. Women have been joined to the ministry of the Presbyterians in Ireland ever since the 1950’s. There are about 300,000 Presbyterians in Ireland, almost 12,000 of them live in the Republic of Ireland, where they are a small but significant minority. The Methodist Church in Ireland is another religious group in the country. It owes its origins to the work of Reverend John Wesley, the Anglican evangelist who visited the country twenty one times in the 18th century spreading his ideas. The Irish Methodist Church is another independent religion in Ireland that has its own President and Secretary but it maintains close ties with world Methodism. There are 240 local churches that have been brought together into 76 regions which are to be spread across eight districts throughout Ireland. There are almost 130 ordained ministers engaged into working for these regions. Irish Methodism has developed a large line of social work activities, mostly through its missions in the large cities of the country and parts of the world. The “missions” make available for the elderly and the needy. The Church is also involved at all levels of education. In Northern Ireland religion is taken more than other parts because it is associated to politics, hence Catholicism equals Irish Nationalism (these people want Ireland United), and Protestantism equals Unionism (people who want Ireland to remain as part of the United Kingdom). At this very moment census monitors are waiting to find out the population of these religious groups in the north, even thoug...