A Fundamental Part Of Modern Life

(from www.lifeandwork.org)

Adam McPherson argues that there is an opportunity for the Church in the thousands of people flocking to its buildings for secular events.

As I queued outside Exeter Cathedral on a wet Wednesday night, I wondered what could have possibly drawn so many people to a Church.

The event I was waiting for was Renaissance: Sound and Light Show, run by Luxmuralis, who project vast images onto walls, ceilings and floors accompanied by soaring music. The theme of this show was 'Renaissance', and the effect of watching Leonardo Da Vinci's 'Vetruvian Man' cartwheeling over the arches and organ pipes of the Cathedral was spellbinding.

But more intriguing, perhaps, was the queue of people waiting in the rain for their chance to enjoy the spectacle. All had booked in advance and all age groups were in attendance. In front of me in the line was a young family, babe in arms, behind me was an elderly couple. Sitting down to write this article, I wondered when the Cathedral had last provoked such fervent excitement.

Since 2011, British Religion in Numbers has been tracking self-defined religious affiliation using the pollster Yonder (formerly Populus). Between 2011 and 2022, affiliation with Christianity has dropped by 12% and those responding with no religious belief has risen by 11.3% to 45.4% overall. The number of people defining themselves as Christian is projected to continue falling from its current level of 44.1%.

Despite these problems, the United Kingdom continues to define itself as a Christian country. We use Christian festivals as chronological markers, whether it's school holidays or deciding the appropriate time to share presents with each other. One might assume that even if Church attendance continues to fall, Christianity has become so embedded in society that the majority of the population have become 'unintentional' Christians. Could these festivals lead to greater engagement with the Church?

The statistics suggest not. If you are one of those who sacrificed something for Lent, you find yourself in the minority. YouGov polled 2,017 adults in February, finding that only 5% had given something up for Lent. Of those professing to be Christian, that number rose to 11%. And although Shrove Tuesday has morphed into the much more exciting sounding Pancake Day in recent years, only 39% said they intended to eat one or more pancake and two-thirds of over-65s said they would have none. This is despite the fact that Pancake Day has been “heavily promoted by retailers”, as BRIN notes.

Christmas is probably a non-starter as well. A YouGov poll of 1,436 adults asked them to rank the relative importance of ten aspects of Christmas. Top of the list with a stonking 95% was time with family and friends. 76% of respondents thought that time off work was the most important aspect of Christmas. In ninth place, with 35%, was celebrating the birth of Jesus. And 73% of under-50s considered this to be unimportant. In the minds of the public, Christmas is becoming a secular holiday. So if the traditions of Christian festivals are being eroded, where else might the Church exercise 'soft power' to encourage greater participation with faith?

Rather than being places of worship, religious buildings could become places for secular activities, providing services for the local community at a reasonable price. A Savanta ComRes poll conducted last year found that 54% of the 2,061 respondents had visited a church in the last year. Although the majority of this group had attended for non-religious purposes, respondents agreed that church buildings should be maintained and utilised for the provision of space for community activity and services, exceeding their perceived value as places of worship. The queue of people waiting patiently in the rain outside Exeter Cathedral with me was testament to this.

The church can use this influence to convince people that faith is still a fundamental part of modern life, and not just eating pancakes until you’re sick or getting some time off work.

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