Religion
Nuneaton's name reflects the effect that Christianity has made in the town's history. Although the Benedictine nunnery which gave the town its name was destroyed at the time of the reformation, the remaining fragments were incorporated into the Anglican church building now known as the Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin in Manor Court Road. This is a Victorian construction. The original ruins are left to be an obvious feature of the new building and its immediate setting.
Near the town centre, but unusually not actually a part of it and outside the ring road, lies the mediaeval church of St Nicolas- Nuneaton's only grade 1 listed building. Chilvers Coton contains All Saints' Church where Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) worshipped. This was badly damaged by bombing during the Second World War, and rebuilt largely by German prisoners of war. There are also Anglican churches in Weddington (St James's), Attleborough (Holy Trinity), Stockingford (St Paul's), Galley Common (St Peter's), Abbey Green (St Mary's), more recently built, Camp Hill (St John's).
Roman Catholicism is represented by Our Lady of the Angels Church on Coton Road, whose building was largely remodelled in the 1930s, and St Anne's, Chapel End, Nuneaton whose current building dates from 2000.
Other Christian traditions in the town include Baptist, Methodist, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and United Reformed churches.
There is also an atheist population of Nuneaton slightly above the national average.
Immigration from the Indian subcontinent has, like many British towns, brought with it believers in Islam, Sikhism and Hinduism, and Nuneaton has a substantial ethnic minority population. There is a mosque on Frank Street, Chilvers Coton, and two gurdwaras (Sikh temples): the Nuneaton Guru Nanak Gurdwara in Park Avenue, Attleborough, and the Shri Guru Tegh Bahadur Gurdwara in Marlborough Road, Chilvers Coton. There is also a significant Eastern European population, particularly Polish, and many European food stores can be found in the town.
Read more about this topic: Nuneaton
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“Since belief is measured by action, he who forbids us to believe religion to be true, necessarily also forbids us to act as we should if we did believe it to be true.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“This is one of the paradoxes of the democratic movement—that it loves a crowd and fears the individuals who compose it—that the religion of humanity should have no faith in human beings.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“I fancy it must be the quantity of animal food eaten by the English which renders their character insusceptible of civilisation. I suspect it is in their kitchens and not in their churches that their reformation must be worked, and that Missionaries of that description from [France] would avail more than those who should endeavor to tame them by precepts of religion or philosophy.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)