LAST week, a young person asked me a question in response to
recent articles in the Church Times which brought me up
short: "What should change, Church or society?"
The reason I was dumbfounded was that I had never thought of the
Church like that - as separate from society. The more I reflected
on it, the less sense it made to think of a Church of England
without England; it actually made more sense to think of a Church
without congregations.
Imagine, for a moment, that all regular Sunday worshippers
disappeared overnight, leaving only the clergy. Obviously there
would be a financial crisis, the current parochial system would
have to be radically reformed, a great number of churches and
vicarages would need to be sold off, and the Synod would have to
cease or change.
But the Church would remain, and its most influential activities
could continue: occasional offices; Christmas services and other
major festivals; cathedrals; civic and national rituals;
chaplaincies; social action; schools; centralised church
activities; bishops in Parliament; heritage sites; and the Church's
living legacy of ethics and culture. Resources could be
concentrated on them.
That is a fantasy, of course. But it is a way of making the
point that an assessment of the Church's health has to do with more
than just congregations. "Church growth" also needs to consider how
well social activities are faring. Happily, the answer is not all
doom and gloom.
MY SURVEYS last year found that half of all British adults
(excluding Northern Ireland) reported having some contact with the
Church over the past 12 months. And these numbers are not declining
- those aged 18 to 24 report much the same level of contact as
those aged over 60.
How do they connect with the Church? In descending order, the
five most common points of contact are: funerals, visits to a
cathedral or historic church, weddings, Christmas services, and
christenings. Regular worship came in sixth place.
There is some variation by age. The top three for over-60s are
funerals, regular worship services, cathedrals. For those aged 18
to 39 it is funerals, visiting cathedrals, and weddings. Not
surprisingly, schools and school chaplains are also important
points of contact for some younger people. More surprisingly,
Christmas services are more pop-ular with young people than older
ones.
In the educational sector, we find obvious vitality. Church of
England schools still play a vital part in the English education
system, generally perform well, and are popular with parents. When
asked why they would send a child to one, parents who completed our
survey gave four main reasons: academic standards, location,
discipline, and ethical values. These are traditional Anglican
commitments.
Another area of societal Church which is doing well is
cathedrals and heritage. The Church's own statistics reveal that,
although Sunday worship is declining, interest in cathedrals -
above all, midweek choral evensong - is going in the opposite
direction.
There is also growing public interest in other activities that
involve participation in history, such as choirs, pilgrimages, and
Mystery plays. It is hardly necessary to mention cathedrals' and
abbeys' continuing success in orchestrating national pageants, from
funerals to royal weddings. Historic parish churches are also
widely appreciated - just not for regular worship.
THE part played by the Church in social welfare is much harder to
measure. Studies veer wildly from suggesting that the Church is in
a position to take over welfare functions from the state to finding
that its impact in even some of the most deprived areas of Britain
is minimal or non-existent.
When I asked about contact with the Church over the past year,
one per cent of the population reported having received help from
the Church. As Professor Adam Dinham explains,
the Church's mode of social action has changed, from leading
projects nationally and locally to working in partnership with
other faiths and statutory bodies. This is an inevitable
consequence of congregational decline, and the growth of a
multifaith landscape.
But, of course, not all social action is carried out by
congregational volunteers; lay-led, quasi-autonomous Anglican
trusts and charitable bodies continue to make an important
contribution.
When it comes to the Church's occasional offices of baptisms,
weddings, and funerals, the picture is more easily quantifiable -
and worrying. Even though they remain the Church's most significant
points of contact with society, their popularity is waning.
It is not that people no longer want such rites - far from it. A
re-ritualisation of personal life has been taking place since 2001,
which has seen the rise of baby-naming ceremonies, school proms,
engagements as a rite in themselves, more lavish weddings, divorce
parties, marriage re-dedications, and so on.
Growing numbers of people, however, are doing these things
outside the Church. Baptisms in the C of E have fallen from 20 per
cent of live births in 2000 to 12 per cent in 2010. Funerals have
dropped from 46 per cent of deaths in 2000 to 37 per cent in 2010.
And, between 2010 and 2011 alone, the Churches of England and Wales
conducted seven per cent fewer weddings.
THE Church's changing influence in the media, in civil debate, in
value-change, and in political life are other important areas to
consider, and they will be touched on in the final of this Church
Health Check series. Whatever detailed judgement we make, no one
seriously maintains any longer that religion is becoming a purely
private matter.
Overall, then, the report on the health of the societal Church
must return a mixed verdict. Some parts look healthy; some do not.
So, what makes the difference?
The single most significant factor seems to be a willingness to
abandon a paternalistic mode of action. The bulk of the Church's
social activities - and many congregational ones, too - were shaped
in the 19th century in response to the demands of urban industrial
modernity, and missionary activity. They were premised on social
inequalities that were rarely challenged, and had to do with
dispensing salvation goods, educational goods, and material goods
to "God's children", and the "poor and needy".
Those forms of Christian activity which have not shaken off this
paternalistic mode are in trouble. Where they have given way to
genuine partnership, and co-creation, they tend to be doing much
better.
It is the difference between asking parents to have their child
baptised in a Sunday service, among people they do not know, and
making the family the centre of the event. It is the contrast
between designing a funeral with the active participation of the
bereaved, and telling them that they cannot even have the music
they want.
It is the shift from school chaplains who were there to give
Christian "instruction" to the employment of chaplains - even in
non-faith academies - to support the moral and general well-being
of the whole institution. It is the difference between being a
Church that works with other agents in society - and is open to
being changed by them - to one that claims to be the sole
repository of truth.
Rather than ignoring or repressing the Church of England's deep
insertion into society, the time seems ripe for rediscovering it as
its saving asset. My point about a Church without congregations is
tongue-in-cheek. Success always depends, in part, on activists. But
once the Church starts to exist for the benefit of activists alone,
it ceases to be a Church, and becomes a sect.
Linda Woodhead is the Professor of Sociology of Religion at
Lancaster University.