Belonging through Events? Exploring the Demographic Profile, Motivations, and Experiences of Those Attending the Afternoon Carol Services on Christmas Eve at Liverpool Cathedral

Emma Williams,Susan H Jones,Ursula Mckenna,Nelson Pike,Leslie J Francis

doi:10.3390/rel12020090

Abstract

This study tests the strength of Bishop David Walker’s notion of belonging to God through the Anglican Church through participation in events, by exploring the demographic profile, motivations, and experiences of 1234 participants attending the two afternoon Carol Services on Christmas Eve 2019 at Liverpool Cathedral, alongside 564 participants who completed the same survey at the evening Holly Bough Service on the Fourth Sunday in Advent 2019. The data confirmed the importance of event-belonging for 76% of the participants who do not regularly attend church services but who return year on year to the Cathedral and often invite friends to join them. The data also affirmed the presence of newcomers (12%) alongside returnees. Between two-thirds and three-quarters of the participants perceived beneficial impact on their personal wellbeing. For the participants, what drew them to the Cathedral and what made the experience so special was not simply the quality of the music (93%), but also the opportunity to remember the Christmas story (82%).

Highlights

The questions regarding who feels that they belong to God through the ministry of the Church of England and for whose benefit the Church of England exists are of considerable theological and ecclesiological significance
The aim of the present study is to revisit the data provided by Francis et al (2020c) among participants attending the Holly Bough Service, and to place alongside these data comparable data provided by participants attending the two carol services held on the afternoon of Christmas Eve in Liverpool Cathedral
When people came into the Cathedral for the Holly Bough Service and for the two Carol Services, the welcomers gave them a copy of the service and a white envelope containing the questionnaire and a pen

Summary

Introduction

The questions regarding who feels that they belong to God through the ministry of the Church of England and for whose benefit the Church of England exists are of considerable theological and ecclesiological significance They are of considerable interest to scientists concerned with the social scientific study of religion within the contemporary landscape that is characterised both by growth in religious diversity (Arweck 2017) and by growing numbers of people who choose to identify themselves as having no religious affiliation, the so-called ‘religious nones’ (Thiessen and Wilkinson-Laflamme 2017). 20) make the point that the proportion of the population identifying as Anglican (Church of England, Church in Wales, and Episcopal Church of Scotland) declined from 40% in 1983 to 12% in 2018 They conclude their evaluation of the situation in 2018 in the following way. A third (33%) of respondents who are aged 75 and above regard themselves as Anglican; in the youngest age group who are 18–24, almost none (1%) do. (Voas and Bruce 2019, p. 22)

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