Women’s religious communities and patronage in the UK

Utilising an ecological framework, this study presents a meta-analysis of four sub-studies investigating the socialisation experiences of young people affiliated with a religious minority community. More precisely, it is a study of how this particular socialisation context affects the individual's construction of a personal value system and religious identity and how the developing person interacts with his/her environment. Seventh-day Adventism in Finland is the context for this case study. The research adopts an educational perspective on religious socialisation, placing a special emphasis on youth as the phase during which values and memberships are negotiated and constructed with increasing independence from parental values and opinions. The mixed-method study includes both quantitative and qualitative data sets (3 surveys: n=106 young adults, n=100 teenagers, n=55 parents; and 2 sets of interviews: n=10 young adults and n=10 teenagers).Results indicate that the religious community has an important influence on these young people's religious socialisation, both in terms of commitment to denominational values and lifestyle and in providing a religious identity and anchoring them in the social network of the denomination. Furthermore, the network of the religious community generates important social resources (or social capital) for both the youth and their families, with tangible as well as intangible benefits and bridging and bonding effects. However, the study also illustrates the sometimes difficult negotiations that young people face as teenagers in negotiating between differentiation and belonging, when there is tension between the values of a minority group and those of the larger society and one wants to — and does — belong to both. It also demonstrates the many different ways one can choose and yet find a personally meaningful way of being an Adventist.

This research examines inter-religious harmony in Panjunan Bulusidokare Village, Sidoarjo, with a focus on tolerance and religious pluralism, as well as the application of Imam Syafi'i's perspective in social and religious contexts. The purpose of this study is to understand the dynamics of tolerance between religious communities, especially in terms of mutual understanding and respect for religious differences, and to identify the principles of pluralism according to Imam Syafi'i that are relevant in the daily lives of people in Panjunan Bulusidokare Village. This research used a qualitative approach with a case study design. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with religious leaders, community leaders, and community members from various religions in the village. Data analysis used a thematic approach to identify patterns and themes related to religious pluralism and tolerance by applying John Hick's theory of pluralism that distinguishes two types of religious experience: the experience of God as a personal and non-personal entity. This study found that religious tolerance in Panjunan Bulusidokare Village is achieved through mutual understanding, respect for differences, and prioritizing the principle of social cooperation between religious communities. In addition, the results show that tolerance in Islam is not only based on religious beliefs but also in the context of protecting non-Muslim rights and inclusive social interactions. The contribution of this research is to enrich the understanding of tolerance and religious pluralism, particularly in the context of rural communities in Indonesia, as well as integrating Imam Syafi'i's perspective within the framework of John Hick's theory of pluralism to promote interfaith harmony. It also provides practical guidance for creating a more harmonious and respectful society amidst religious differences.

The debate about state funding for faith based schools in England and Wales has intensified recently in the light of a number of factors, including the events of 11 September 2001 in New York and Washington and their aftermath internationally, together with tensions related to religion more locally, typified by riots in the north of England in the summer of 2001. Supporters of state funded faith based schools advance a variety of arguments in their favour, including the view that they: provide a positive response to racism; promote justice and fairness for children, parents and religious communities; offer education of a high quality; and promote social cohesion and the integration of minority communities into the democratic life of the state. Opponents of such schools argue that they: limit the personal autonomy of pupils; erode social cohesion through separating young people of different religious and non‐religious backgrounds; impose on pupils a restricted view of their religion; use state finance to fund proselytisation or mission; and disadvantage other schools through selection procedures that cream off the most able students. The article reviews the arguments and reaches the conclusion that the undesirable practices referred to by opponents are not intrinsic to a faith based education and that all schools should promote social justice (including religious tolerance), knowledge about religions, the development of pupils’ skilIs of criticism and independent thinking and also dialogue and interaction between pupils of different backgrounds.

Conference proceedings often do not lend themselves to effective publications, but the fruit of this 2003 conference on The Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Religious, Ethnic and Cultural Diaspora Communities in the West, held in Gothenburg, Sweden, is an exception. The nine articles and preface by the editor provide a significant contribution to the rapidly growing field of studies of religion on the Internet. Acknowledging the need to collect more empirical data on Internet use patterns, Larsson notes that research needs to be conducted both online and offline (p. 9). The case studies here cover a variety of local contexts in Denmark, Egypt, Great Britain, North Africa, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United States. Sociologist Lorne L. Dawson provides a methodological discussion on the appropriateness of labeling online social networks as ‘communities’ in the Gemeinschaft sense first proposed by Ferdinand Toennies in the 19th century. Noting that the term ‘community’ has been applied loosely to all kinds of networking groups on the Internet, Dawson argues that the definitional confusion be mitigated with ‘a plausible set of variable features of online interaction to provide us with empirical evidence of the relative presence of communal life’ (p. 43). The author’s list of eight insights drawn from recent Internet research in the field of Sociology is a valuable contribution. For example, he observes: ‘For individuals, life online must be placed in the context of life offline. Life online is largely in continuity with life offline and must be examined with that relationship in mind. Life online may have distinct features and possibilities, but its meaning is always influenced by the broader life experiences of users’ (p. 33). This is an important methodological consideration in light of earlier flirtation of some enthusiasts with the notion of humans becoming cyborgs. Morten Thomsen Hojsgaard suggests a model for studying the Internet arena of circulation of interfaith dialogue online. He Cont Islam (2009) 3:197–199 DOI 10.1007/s11562-008-0058-7

The growing interest in religious activities and the lifting of restrictions after the fall of the USSR on the activities of religious communities contributed to the growth of the influence of churches on local communities. Religious communities take care of the social needs of the community, namely the support of youth, the organization of leisure time, and the preservation of cultural heritage. An important direction is the restoration of religious architecture, which is both the heritage of the local community or national property and the center of public life. A valuable cultural heritage is the wooden sacral architecture, spread mainly in rural areas in the west and north of Ukraine. The growth of military and political instability and the invasion of Russia also influenced the increase of the role of religious organizations in local communities. The most active are the organizations of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the Greek Catholic, and the Roman Catholic Church, which help local youth, socially vulnerable families, and military personnel. The last decade featured by increasing interest in pilgrimage, forming connections between religious and local communities in Ukraine.

The UN System and Religious Actors in the Context of Global Change Josef Boehle Introduction Past political efforts of achieving large‐scale global systemic change have been successful if they have been rooted in and supported by large alliances of non‐governmental and civil society organizations. The examples of the movements for banning land mines and for the establishment of an International Criminal Court, the Jubilee 2000 campaign and the Make Poverty History campaign are some of the more recent examples. The fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany caused by a grassroots citizen movement, supported by Christian communities in the former East Germany, as well as the Solidarnosc trade union movement supported by the Catholic Church in Poland, are among the best known examples of recent history where citizen movements and religious actors joint forces. Given that the pre‐eminent global forum, where regular interactions of NGOs, transnational civil society networks and governments take place is the UN System and given the importance of citizen movements and religious actors for sustainable global change, a closer look at how civil society and religious actors engage with the UN System can make an important contribution both to analysis and strategic planning when responding to contemporary global challenges. In this article, I will look at religious actors in the wider context of global civil society and in the context of the UN System, then look at the pioneering programs for engaging with religious actors that have been developed within UNESCO, and finally reflect on the crucial contribution that religious actors are making to development cooperation and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Alliances between grassroots movements, non‐profit organizations, religious communities, and spiritual organizations, supported by religious and spiritual leaders, can have an immense global impact. The Jubilee 2000 debt relief campaign for poor countries is one example of such an alliance across a great diversity of participating groups that had won the support of many religious leaders and communities. Other less well‐known examples of the influence of global movements of religious NGOs are, for example, the participation of religious and spiritual organizations in the UNESCO led Global Movement for a Culture of Peace and the support of religious and spiritual organizations for the 2001‐2010 UN Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non‐violence for the Children of the World (Boehle, 2001, p. 217–218). NGOs often start the initial initiatives that result years later in changes in national and international law, in (re)forming international values and norms, and in (re)shaping international institutions and their programs. For example, seen from a long‐term perspective, it can be argued that it was the over 100‐years‐old international interreligious movement with its countless events and activities throughout the last century that prepared the ground for the major international interreligious events during the last decade like the Millennium World Peace Summit held in New York in 2000 or the “High‐level Dialogue on Interreligious and Intercultural Understanding and Cooperation for Peace” of the UN General Assembly in 2007 (http://www.un.org/ga/president/62/issues/hld-interreligious.shtml). The “Millennium World Peace Summit” (28–31 August 2000) brought together more than 1,000 senior religious, spiritual, and indigenous leaders from over 50 countries at the UN to address together major world problems and increase interreligious understanding and cooperation (Boehle, Josef 2001, p. 230ff). In Development and Faith, a book of case studies from around the world of religious organizations engaging with development and peace issues, Marshall and van Saanen point to the Millennium World Peace Summit and its impact: Yet since that meeting in 2000, faith groups have steadily intensified their engagement in the MDG framework, and religious actors are now poised to play even more significant roles. The major areas of engagement include national, regional, and global advocacy and mobilization around the MDGs; implementing specific programs to help fulfill them; and monitoring progress. (Marshall and van Saanen, 2007, p. 24) More recently, a major global event was the “High‐level Dialogue on Interreligious and Intercultural Understanding and Cooperation for Peace” (4, 5, and 8 October 2007), the first formal high‐level session of the UN...

This study aims to explain how the history of the establishment of the Forum Kerukunan Umat Beragama (FKUB) or Religious Harmony Forum, how the development of character education and what roles are performed by FKUB. It uses a historical method with a case study approach, including collecting information through interviews, archival documents, observation, and documentation. The results of the study state that the FKUB of Sidoarjo Regency functions as a regular forum for religious leaders and community leaders to strengthen relations between religious communities. The government established FKUB to maintain inter-religious harmony and ensure a harmonious society, in accordance with PBM No. 9 and 8 of 2006. In Character Education Development, it is also important to instil positive values such as integrity, cooperation and responsibility. FKUB also has a significant role in shaping positive and healthy community views, responding to misleading issues, accommodating the aspirations of religious organisations and providing advice regarding the construction of houses of worship. The data shows that the percentage increase in the number of mosques in Sidoarjo from 2021 to 2022 is around 4.47%.

Gettysburg Religion: Refinement, Diversity, and Race in the Antebellum and Civil War Border North

In studies of disasters, cases of religious communities providing support to victims at times of disaster have been reported. Such support can be understood as a function of social capital within religious communities. This paper considers the case studies of disaster relief activities provided by a Muslim community and a Soka Gakkai Buddhist community in Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011 and the Kumamoto Earthquake in 2016. It also analyzes how each religious community functioned from the viewpoints of three kinds of social capital: “bonding,” “bridging,” and “linking” and identify challenges faced by religious communities at times of disaster.

This book aims to offer a comprehensive investigation of dialect writing in the North of England. It brings together a wide range of contributors, investigating everything from the cultural positioning and impact of dialect writing to the mechanics of how authors produce dialect spellings (and what this can tell us about the structure of the dialects represented). Case studies focus on dialect writing from all over the North of England and consider many types of text, including dialect poetry, translations into dialect, letters, tweets, direct speech in novels, humorous localised volumes, written reports of conversations and cartoons in local newspapers. The North of England is a compelling geographical and dialectological focus: it is coherent part of the English-speaking world with considerable dialectal diversity and there are long traditions of dialect writing in the area. Contributions in the book also focus on broad questions about dialect writing in general: What is it? Who does it? What types of dialect writing exist? How can linguists interpret it? How does it interact with speakers’ linguistic knowledge?

Much of the research on sexual trauma and religion has focused on male clergy perpetrators and child sexual abuse. In response to this limitation, we conducted a national survey of sexual trauma among Catholic nuns. Sexual trauma was not uncommon, both across the lifespan and during religious life. Childhood sexual abuse was most prevalent (although lower than in the general population), followed by sexual exploitation (primarily by priests and nuns), sexual harassment within the religious community (exclusively by nuns), and sexual harassment at work (primarily by men, both clergy and lay). Past and current sequelae of the trauma included psychological and spiritual dysfunction. Childhood sexual abuse consistently predicted sexual re-victimization in adulthood. The severity of the abuse, age of the victim, and gender and religious status of the abuser modified victims' reactions to and willingness to discuss the trauma. These findings have implications for education, intervention, and policy in religious communities with respect to sexual trauma, and may prove useful to health professionals who treat abused women.

This paper focuses on the significance of debate within and beyond religious communities over faith representation in relation to globalisation and migration. It analyses ways in which globalisation affects forms of religiosity and spiritual identity, among the young and their elders in religious communities, using two case studies: one from Islam and one from Buddhism. It argues that the issues presented by globalised communication and migration will have a major effect on young people as they assume shifting identities in a changing world. It examines cross‐generational tension and change and underlying trends related to forms of capital that produce these. Within this, questions of what informs conversion will be analysed. In conclusion it suggests that the modernising agenda pursued by capitalist democratic societies is likely to be insufficient to ensure that religious communities will commit themselves to social cohesion, because this has to be more intimately related to forms of capital and provide religious communities with a sense of proactive, rather than reactive, purpose. Indeed, the pressure to modernise may be counterproductive, in causing fractures within these communities, if it results in a weakening of leadership and religious identity and disaffection of the youth. For the next generation and those who might find themselves here in fifty years time there needs to be a willingness to dialogue from a position within which national and religious identity are not estranged and within which the latter has not been emaciated by the former. This we might call a position in which ‘spiritual capital’ can be aligned with the other forms of capital required for a meaningful sense of citizenship.

The article starts from the experience of living with Islam-Christians in the North Maluku province of Indonesia infacing the threat of the spread of the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This religious community, whichhad a conflict in 1999, has a different way of dealing with the spread of COVID-19 with other regions in Indonesia,both regarding the views of positive Covid-19 patients who care for sin and reward, Islamophobia, and physicalworship. continues in buildings of worship during the pandemic. These incidents occurred in the North Malukuprovince of Indonesia as a border area with a distinctive social, cultural and political context, so the field tracingused was a case study. This is in line with the empirical reality of the spread of COVID-19 which is still ongoing, soresearch was conducted intensively participatory in the Muslim-Christian community in North Maluku province. Inthe process of investigating data, informatory are needed, but the question of how the Muslim-Christian communityin North Maluku continues to care for life together amid the COVID-19 pandemic is the main question of thisresearch. Of course, many research articles on COVID-19 have been published, but there has not been a singlestudy on Islamic-Christian relations during the pandemic, let alone a case study of the Muslim-Christiancommunity, which once fought to the point of casualties and is now facing non-natural disasters. The answers to themain research questions will be a contribution of thought for anyone who has the desire to care for their communitythat supports each other. So that a case study of the Muslim-Christian community who has been in conflict andinhabits the coast of eastern Indonesia and is now facing the threat of COVID-19 is an important agenda andcloseness. The value premise of this study is to learn the pattern of relations in the community after the riot betweenMuslims and Christians and religious communities, this non-natural disaster along the spread of COVID-19. As faras the author's knowledge, this study is the latest study on the Muslim-Christian community in North Maluku in theface of COVID-19. These two communities are able to get through difficult times of horizontal conflict, this studywill study how the two religious communities can face the challenges of COVID-19 and become a strong generationafter all of this has passed.

Using data from an original qualitative study carried out during 2009–10 with a sample located in the north of England (NES), this article considers the satisfaction levels of black minority ethnic (BME) groups with a north of England police force (NEPF). The study sought to examine existing levels (as well as improve) satisfaction with police responses among BME populations. This was done by asking local BME communities about their encounters with NEPF, including how they felt the police should respond when they are a victim of crime and more broadly how the police could better engage with BME populations. What emerged in the responses was not just practical ‘solutions’ for ‘better engagement’ but a series of narratives that placed the broader historical and contemporary complexities, and recent developments of BME relations with the police into focus. The article begins by exploring current literature and claims to knowledge in the areas of problematic police responses, especially with the use of ‘race’1 in stop and search, and developments in communicating police progress. The literature setting the context draws upon case studies from the north of England but also more generally from across the UK, using examples that while geographically located beyond the NES context have had significant impact more broadly. The findings section discusses the qualitative data from the study and explores the emerging themes of communication and the local community nexus, disconnections from young people and police (ab)use of stop and search powers. The article highlights how in addition to actually policing in a fair way, direct and indirect communication plays a key role in satisfaction levels with police services. Achieving effective communication between the police force and BME groups is a complex matter, although not impossible, mediated at times by local and historical precedents with different BME groups.

In Say Little, Do Much, Sioban Nelson offers the first extensive critical account of the role of vowed religious women (Roman Catholic and Anglican nuns and Protestant deaconesses) in the development of nursing in the West. Nelson's impressive synthesis of primary and secondary literature on religion, gender, medicine, and politics ranges across three continents and four religious traditions, opening up significant new directions for scholarship on women and work in the modern world. Organized nursing by religious women began in seventeenth-century France, but Nelson's study rightly focuses on the nineteenth century, when vowed women—particularly Roman Catholic sisters—contributed significantly to the growth of institutional health care through their work in hospitals they owned and managed. Their work has been ignored or underappreciated by most historians, and Nelson offers a persuasive analysis of the scholarly biases that have discouraged attention to religious women. It is the failure of women's history to take serious notice of vowed women that most disturbs Nelson, and her own study has much in common with early work in that field. Her burden is to recover silenced voices and establish their relevance as historical actors. Although she works within a more sophisticated critical apparatus than did early historians engaged in similar recovery projects, Nelson is hobbled by some of the same constraints. Confronted with an overabundance of stories to tell, she takes an expansive approach that forces some sacrifice of detail and analytical depth. Her five case studies highlight the work of different religious communities in North America, Britain, and Australia, suggesting, quite fairly, that the geographical reach of their work is reason enough for scholars to take a closer look at vowed women.