page_title: Shetland
section_title: Churches and religion
hierarchical_section_title: Shetland / Churches and religion
caption_attribution_description: Haroldswick Methodist Church
context_page_description: Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated in the Northern Atlantic, between Great Britain, the Faroe Islands and Norway.
  The islands lie some 80 km to the northeast of Orkney, 170 km from the Scottish mainland and 300 km west of Norway. They form part of the division between the Atlantic Ocean to the west and the North Sea to the east. The total area is 1,466 km², and the population totalled 22,920 in 2019. The islands comprise the Shetland constituency of the Scottish Parliament. The local authority, Shetland Islands Council, is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. The islands' administrative centre and only burgh is Lerwick, which has been the capital of Shetland since taking over from Scalloway in 1708.
  The largest island, known as "Mainland", has an area of 967 km², making it the third-largest Scottish island and the fifth-largest of the British Isles. There are an additional 15 inhabited islands. The archipelago has an oceanic climate, a complex geology, a rugged coastline and many low, rolling hills.
  Humans have lived in Shetland since the Mesolithic period.
context_section_description: The Reformation reached the archipelago in 1560. This was an apparently peaceful transition and there is little evidence of religious intolerance in Shetland's recorded history.
  In the 2011 census, Shetland registered a higher proportion of people with no religion than the Scottish average.  Nevertheless, a variety of religious denominations are represented in the islands.
  The Methodist Church has a relatively high membership in Shetland, which is a District of the Methodist Church (with the rest of Scotland comprising a separate District).
  The Church of Scotland has a Presbytery of Shetland that includes St. Columba's Church in Lerwick.
  The Catholic population is served by the church of St. Margaret and the Sacred Heart in Lerwick. The Parish is part of the Diocese of Aberdeen.
  The Scottish Episcopal Church (part of the Anglican Communion) has regular worship at St Magnus' Church, Lerwick, St Colman's Church, Burravoe, and the Chapel of Christ the Encompasser, Fetlar, the last of which is maintained by the Society of Our Lady of the Isles, the most northerly and remote Anglican religious order of nuns.
  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a congregation in Lerwick. The former print works and offices of the local newspaper, The Shetland Times, has been converted into a chapel.
caption: Haroldswick Methodist Church, the most northerly church building in the UK
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