JACK GUEZ/AFP REVIVAL: ... but the faithful head in droves to retreats like this one at Taizé

Posted Sunday, June 8, 2003; 16.45BST
Key words: used to. Where popes and cardinals once usurped the authority of kings, and kings established churches to suit their own needs, today the trend is to weaken whatever mild church-state connections still exist. In 2000, Sweden disestablished its state church in 2000, eliminating most of the denomination's legal and fiscal advantages. Norway has convened a commission to draft an action plan for loosening ties by 2005. And Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion, has voiced support for the eventual disestablishment of the Church of England.

The exclusion of God from the affairs of state makes sense to many Christians. "This is not a theocracy, for God's sake," says British Liberal Democrat M.E.P. Andrew Duff. "I am concerned about the spiritual state of Europe, but we can't solve that in the constitution. Prayer is a much better answer." Duff's call for public inaction and private action reflects Europe's reality. Both at the national and individual levels, religion is going private. Churches across Europe are boarding up — or being turned into pubs, homes, even supermarkets. Citizens, like states, are rethinking their relationships with clergy and fashioning their own relationships with God. Says Ján Suchán, a Catholic priest in Slovakia who hosts a popular radio show: "The more independent people become, the less they need someone to lead them by the hand." French Orthodox theologian Olivier Clément terms this a "quest for liberty of the spirit." He predicts that "at the end of this path will open a new age of Christianity."

The influence of Christianity on Europe was so enormous that one used simply to speak of Western civilization as Christian civilization — TADEUSZ MAZOWIECKI, former Prime Minister, Poland

Truth is, it may already have begun. Even in Eastern Europe, where religion has enjoyed a postcommunist resurgence and the church has eagerly claimed the stature it lacked in decades past, its elevation has come with a diminution of respect for the Christian hierarchy. People are choosing to fend for themselves. Church leaders "call on us to believe and be led in faith by them, but I doubt they have that faith themselves," says Galina Zubritskaya, 48, a Moscow translator. "When I do come to a church, I avoid making contact with the clergy," whom most Russians see as tarnished by their involvement in shadowy business practices. "The important thing for me is to have God in my heart."

GOD IS AMONG THE IMMIGRANTS
As dusk falls on a Tuesday, La Courneuve, a working-class suburb of Paris, is quiet. But the late-day stillness is pierced by a rousing chorus — "Praise be to you, O Lord!" — and shouts of "Hallelujah!" that bounce off the low ceilings and burst out of the open windows of the Parole de Foi (Word of Faith) church. Undeterred by a transport strike, 200 people — dressed in their Tuesday best, which is traditional African garb for some, neat shirts or tidy dresses for others — have made it to this evening prayer meeting at the Evangelical church, which meets on the second floor of a paint factory. Voices and hands raised to heaven, they worship their God. The electricity has gone out, and the room is stifling. But nothing can silence the song of Lucie G., 50, a native of the West Indies who says that "having a relationship with the Father is the most extraordinary thing. I wish it for the whole world."

Representatives of much of that world are right there in the room with her: almost all the congregation — 1,500-strong on most Sundays — hails from outside France. Pastor Selvaraj Rajiah, who founded the church 15 years ago with his wife Dorothée, is Indian. Other worshippers come from Congo, Ivory Coast, Martinique, even the U.S. Immigrants "find support in the church," says Rajiah. "We pray with them. We give them comfort. We give them counsel."

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