Rural Parishes Research Articles

Seeking Signs of Dormant Catholicity in Rural Anglican Parishes: An Enquiry Among Churchgoers in Wales

ABSTRACT The Anglican Church occupies a unique position within the inherited church structure emerging from the nineteenth century. The distinctive claim of the Anglican Church is that it is both Catholic and Reformed, occupying a mid-position between the Catholic Church and the Reformed Churches. The aim of the present study was to explore the extent to which traces of Catholic belief and practice can still be found in rural Anglican parishes in Wales. In a pilot project a modified form of the 21-item Anglo Catholic Orientation Scale proposed by Francis and Littler was completed by 75 churchgoers within five rural Anglican parishes in Wales. The data supported the internal consistency reliability of the revised instrument (α = .94) and demonstrated endorsement of a number of Catholic beliefs and practices, including praying for the dead (80%), priests using vestments, lighting votive candles (65%), and using holy oils (57%).

Measuring women's empowerment: Rural-urban comparison in the Ecuadorian Andes

The research aimed to analyze the levels of female empowerment by comparing rural and urban parishes in the Canton of Latacunga, which is part of the province of Cotopaxi in the Ecuadorian Andes. The methodology proposed by Hernández & García (2008) was applied to a sample of 384 women over 15 years of age, of whom 151 reside in rural areas and 233 in urban areas. The instrument was composed of two parts: the initial one associated with questions on socio-demographic components, and the second with 34 reactive ones on the perception of empowerment, with four possible answers on a Likert-type scale. The levels of empowerment were analyzed in both, urban and rural areas, validating the possible existence of statistically significant differences. In addition, the factor analysis methodology was used to group the approaches into dimensions. It was possible to validate the idea of a higher level of empowerment in the urban area (96.67) compared to the rural sector (93.46). However, in both cases they are medium, with a statistically significant difference of 1%. Secondly, the results related to the factors into which the empowerment reagents could be grouped allowed for extracting of seven dimensions associated with security, self-esteem, boldness, equality, independence, external influences, and leadership. These factors presented different behaviors between both study areas, being superior in the urban environment – except for boldness, which was greater in the rural area, and external influences, which presented similar values. External influences score low, security and independence are in the middle ranges, while social value, equality and leadership are at the upper end of the proposed scales. Therefore, women consider that their work and effort are recognized socially or, at least, by their families.

A formative assessment of vulnerability and implications for enhancing livelihood sustainability in Indigenous communities in the Andes of Ecuador

Through the creation of a livelihood asset index, this study investigates the degree of livelihood vulnerability among indigenous farming households in the rural parish of Guangaje, Ecuador. The use of an asset index enables the estimation and description of the different areas of vulnerability in three communities across livelihood asset types. A unique feature of this article is that it provides a case study of how asset indexes can be used as part of a formative assessment, prior to intervention design, to understand local context. We find low levels of livelihood assets in Guangaje, especially in the categories of human, physical, and financial capital. There is significant variability among the communities linked to differences in access to clean reliable sources of water, the presence of governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), access to credit, and amount of productive capital. The community with the highest composite asset score also had the highest level of social capital, suggesting an important role for social capital in asset creation. Improving social and financial capital, especially access to credit, and increasing human capital through improved educational attainment could be effective approaches for decreasing vulnerability and improving livelihood outcomes in the three study communities and similar indigenous subsistence farming communities across the world.

Rescue and dissemination of ancestral knowledge of the Montuvio people to produce traditional soap

The work deals with the recovery of ancestral knowledge in the Montuvio Manabita people as an extension proposal to the community, for which the main objective was to disseminate ancestral knowledge through the planting of the traditional soap tree to produce natural liquid soap that can be used to wash clothes by hand, in a washing machine and even as a shampoo. The project was located in the El Limón commune of the Picoazá rural parish of the Portoviejo canton, in the Manabí province of the zone4. We worked with an intentional sample of 20 families, the technique of focus groups; The method to be used contemplates two phases, the first of planting the soap on the edges of the farms, preferably on the banks of the irrigation canals or the river, and the second phase of training on the production of soap using soap seeds. The result was that the dissemination of ancestral knowledge in the communities constitutes a practical application that can contribute as a way of reactivating the local post-covid-19 economy, applying ancestral techniques for the elaboration of various products from the Manabí field.

In suo Patrocinio - landowners in Dąbrówka and Ostałówka in the 17th century

Dąbrówka and Ostałówka founded in the 14th century were once two private villages, the latter is now the hamlet of the former. Until today, both have not been discussed in literature, and their owners were for instance land judge of Zator and vice-voivode Piotr Strzała from Krakow, valet of Mikołaj Zebrzydowski – Hieronim Strzała, subprefect of Żywiec Stanisław Biegański, Krakow town councillor Jakub Reynekier or master of the pantry (stolnik) of Podolia Michał Wilkoński. Apart from a brief overview of the villages and their inhabitants in the 17th century, the author introduced the noble families who were the landowners of the local estates. The text is supplemented with a source edition of the foundation of the cows by Jan and Barbara née Strzała Paszkowski family. The document is a testimony to the severe plague of 1663 and the relationship of the Dąbrówka and Ostałówka owners with the local rural community and parish in Stryszów.

Reports of the Authorized Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow and the Moscow Region as a Source of Information about Parish Life in the Moscow Diocese in the 1944–1946

The article analyzes information about the parish life of Moscow and the Moscow region churches in the 1944–1946 contained in the reports of the Commissioner for Moscow and the Moscow region of the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church made by A.A. Trushin according to the funds of the
 Central State Archive of the Moscow region. The paper provides data on the number of churches operating in the first post-war years, as well as on how many churches closed in the 1920s and 1930s were used for economic and cultural
 needs, which, according to the author, in most cases, contributed to their preservation until the period of mass transfer to the Church. To analyze the changes in the manifestations of popular religiosity in the mid-1940s, information on the attendance of Easter services is taken as a basis,
 participation in which is considered as an open manifestation by believers of their attitude to the Church. These materials record a steady increase in the number of parishioners during the period under review, not only in Moscow, but also in cit-
 ies near Moscow and rural parishes of remote areas – Taldomsky, Lukhovitsky, etc. The main reasons for the rise of popular religiosity, according to the author,
 were the victory in the Great Patriotic War, as well as the expectations of changes in anti-church policy on the part of the state in the USSR that appeared after the
 meeting of I.V. Stalin with the metropolitans of the Russian Orthodox Church in September 1943. The great interest in the array of documents under consideration
 is represented by the data on the percentage of young people in the total number of believers and military personnel in the temples

Social network correlates of free and purchased insecticide-treated bed nets in rural Uganda

BackgroundMalaria is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in Uganda. Despite Uganda’s efforts to distribute bed nets, only half of households have achieved the World Health Organization (WHO) Universal Coverage Criteria (one bed net for every two household members). The role of peer influence on bed net ownership remains underexplored. Data on the complete social network of households were collected in a rural parish in southwestern Uganda to estimate the association between household bed net ownership and peer household bed net ownership.MethodsData on household sociodemographics, bed net ownership, and social networks were collected from all households across one parish in southwestern Uganda. Bed nets were categorized as either purchased or free. Purchased and free bed net ownership ratios were calculated based on the WHO Universal Coverage Criteria. Using network name generators and complete census of parish residents, the complete social network of households in the parish was generated. Linear regression models that account for network autocorrelation were fitted to estimate the association between households’ bed net ownership ratios and bed net ownership ratios of network peer households, adjusting for sociodemographics and network centrality.ResultsOne thousand seven hundred forty-seven respondents were interviewed, accounting for 716 households. The median number of peer households to which a household was directly connected was 7. Eighty-six percent of households owned at least one bed net, and 41% of households met the WHO Universal Coverage Criterion. The median bed net ownership ratios were 0.67 for all bed nets, 0.33 for free bed nets, and 0.20 for purchased bed nets. In adjusted multivariable models, purchased bed net ownership ratio was associated with average household wealth among peer households (b = 0.06, 95% CI 0.03, 0.10), but not associated with average purchased bed net ownership ratio of peer households. Free bed net ownership ratio was associated with the number of children under 5 (b = 0.08, 95% CI 0.05, 0.10) and average free bed net ownership ratios of peer households (b = 0.66, 95% CI 0.46, 0.85).ConclusionsHousehold bed net ownership was associated with bed net ownership of peer households for free bed nets, but not for purchased bed nets. The findings suggest that public health interventions may consider leveraging social networks as tools for dissemination, particularly for bed nets that are provided free of charge.

Identification of demographic crises and evaluation of their intensity in the Kujawy region (Central Europe) in the 19th century

Mortality crises are periods of unusually high mortality resulted from a combination of epidemic episodes, climatic phenomena, historical events and sociopolitical factors. The most pronounced setback in the methodology applied to analyse mortality rates of historical populations is the inability to establish their size. Reference publications do not provide unambiguous measures of the intensity and scale of mortality crisis periods. This problem was approached with the use of the Standardised Demographic Dynamics Rate (SDDR) whose value provides information about the condition of a population, disregarding the size of the group. Demographic crises were indicated and identified among the population living in the 19th century in central Poland in the rural parish. The analysis was based on data obtained from parish registers, made use of the measure expressing the ratio of the number of births to the number of deaths, without using the size of the group. Results obtained from the analysis of data were set against the information about events causing a sudden growth in mortality derived from the widely-accessible literature. Value of the Standardised Demographic Dynamics Rate (SDDR) provides information aboutthe condition of a population, disregarding the size of the group. Nevertheless, only by combining the statistically obtained data with the information derived from written records it is possible to attempt to answer the question of the possible root cause of a demographic crisis.

Contextualizing bilateral asymmetry and gender: A multivariate approach to femoral cross-sectional geometry at rural Medieval Pieve di Pava, Italy.

Our objective was to identify the relationship between biocultural factors of sex-gender and age and patterns of femoral cross-sectional geometry with historical evidence about labor and activity from an archeological skeletal sample excavated from the rural Medieval site Pieve di Pava. The study site, Pieve di Pava, was a rural parish cemetery in Tuscany with osteoarcheological remains from the 7th to 12th centuries. Cross-sectional geometric analysis of femora from 110 individuals dated to the 10th-12th centuries were used to examine trends in bone quantity, shape, and bending strength between age and sex groups, as well as in clusters identified through Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA). Overall, our study sample showed remarkable heterogeneity and our cluster analysis revealed a complex underlying structure, indicating that divisions of labor did not follow a strict gender binary in our sample. We found high levels of bilateral asymmetry in our sample in multiple cross-sectional areas for a significant proportion of the population. We found minimal differences between age groups or sex. Our results suggest that males and females had varied experiences of labor and work during their lives that did not reflect the strict binary gender roles sometimes documented for medieval Europe. One important axis of difference is the direction and magnitude of bilateral asymmetry observed in our femur sample, which is associated with divergent trends in section moduli and bone area measures.

Wastewater surveillance in smaller college communities may aid future public health initiatives.

To date, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over 570 million cases and over 6 million deaths worldwide. Predominant clinical testing methods, though invaluable, may create an inaccurate depiction of COVID-19 prevalence due to inadequate access, testing, or most recently under-reporting because of at-home testing. These concerns have created a need for unbiased, community-level surveillance. Wastewater-based epidemiology has been used for previous public health threats, and more recently has been established as a complementary method of SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. Here we describe the application of wastewater surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 in two university campus communities located in rural Lincoln Parish, Louisiana. This cost-effective approach is especially well suited to rural areas where limited access to testing may worsen the spread of COVID-19 and quickly exhaust the capacity of local healthcare systems. Our work demonstrates that local universities can leverage scientific resources to advance public health equity in rural areas and enhance their community involvement.

Analysis of Citizen Satisfaction in Municipal Services

Citizen demand for quality public services is increasing, and improvements in the provision of public services affect citizen satisfaction and loyalty. This research is to evaluate citizens’ loyalty to municipal officials on the quality of public services provided by the municipality. The measurement is made through a household-level survey, with a sample of 428 valid questionnaires, in a rural parish of Tengel in Guayaquil, following the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). This study used the Warp-PLS 7.0 software with a structural equation model to evaluate the seven hypotheses raised. A new component is included in this research: the effect of perceived quality in the provision of municipal services in rural areas on the value ratio perceived by the citizen and overall satisfaction. The results obtained allowed us to observe that the loyalty of the citizen to the elected municipal officials depends on citizen satisfaction with the public services provided by the municipal administration in rural areas. In addition, the quality perceived by the citizen modulates at different levels the relationships between the perceived value and the citizen satisfaction. Areas of improvement in the provision of public services such as municipal police, firefighters, veterinary services, parking services and address information were identified. The findings would allow local public administrators to take action to improve the services provided in rural areas in order to maintain the loyalty of citizens.

Knowledge and Perceptions about Cervical Cancer and HPV Screening in Women in Rural Areas of Ecuador: A Qualitative Research Study.

Background: Cervical cancer continues to be a major health problem in developing countries. Educational programs, as well as Pap and HPV screening and vaccination, are important tools to reduce the morbidity and mortality rates associated with this disease. The objective of this study is to explore the diverse knowledge and perceptions about cervical cancer and the different diagnostic tests for HPV of populations living in the rural parish “El Valle”. Method: A qualitative study was conducted through eight focus groups, which included 46 participants from mixed ethnic groups. A phenomenological analysis was performed. Results: Four topics and seven sub-topics were identified. By analyzing all the narratives, it was possible to identify that the perception of cervical cancer was focused on its severity, secondary to its infectious process and screening periodicity. However, despite the diverse knowledge, indigenous people do not relate it to the human papilloma virus; in addition, there is also certain resistance to undergo the Pap smear test, for reasons such as inaccessibility and its sampling process. Conclusions: It is necessary to develop educational programs for the prevention of cervical cancer and to implement diagnostic alternatives to reach populations with precarious accessibility, as well as women who refuse to undergo the Pap smear test.

Bulldozed and Betrayed: Louisiana and the Stolen Elections of 1876 by Adam Fairclough

Readers are to be forgiven if they dread reading this story of self-interested political hacks, secretive politicians, election meddling, resurgent white supremacist governing structures, and general backlash by white conservatives against democratic reforms and the rights of Black people. The book, however, serves as an important reminder that the United States made it through a dark period in American politics eerily similar to that surrounding the election of 2020—the election of 1876. Furthermore, the 2020 election had at least one advantage over its predecessor: Its supervisors (as far as we know) held their ground, defended their honest work, did not skip town, and did not try to benefit financially from their position.Fairclough knits together the story of the “Stolen Elections of 1876,” a campaign that ended in the betrayal of Blacks in the South, the return to Democratic “home rule,” and a continuation of the violent repression of Black citizens. The Compromise of 1876—broadly understood as the political deal that brought an end to post–Civil War Reconstruction in the South—allowed Republicans to retain the presidency while promising Democrats that President-elect Rutherford B. Hayes would no longer use federal power to protect Black people’s right to vote or to end the violent intimidation by southern whites. The story centers on Louisiana, the state with arguably the worst reputation for political corruption and violence of any in the late nineteenth century. Not coincidentally, Louisiana was the vortex of the scandals surrounding the election of 1876 and the southern state with the most electors still in question after votes had been tallied.Louisiana after the Civil War was not the fictional South of filmmaker David Wark Griffith and subsequent historians who accused majority Black legislatures of rampant corruption. The Louisiana Legislature in 1868, under the leadership of formerly enslaved Lt. Governor Oscar J. Dunn, passed the most progressive state constitution in the South—a critical fact that Fairclough omits. By 1876, however, White Leagues across the state had “bulldozed” rural parishes well in advance of the presidential election, torturing and murdering Black residents and forcing others to enter the rolls of the Democrats. The corruption on both the Democratic and Republican side was largely at the hands of unscrupulous white men jockeying to keep Black men out of politics and Black workers under their collective thumbs. The portraits and cartoons at the book’s center indicate key players in the corrupt ending of Reconstruction (122–142). The period was rife with partisan division. As John Sherman (the brother of General William Tecumseh Sherman) observed from ground zero at the St. Charles Hotel in New Orleans, “There is but little intimacy between men of the opposite parties” (40). The Cincinnati Enquirer observed in 1878, “Nobody flinched on either side because at such times partisanship and patriotism are interchangeable terms” (7).Fairclough’s methodology is archival. He devotes most of his attention to the investigations that followed the Election of 1876—committee hearings that generated 3,000 pages of testimony describing the election in Louisiana. The work of the 1878 Potter Committee unearthed some of the unsavory characters at the local level who played both sides in their effort to secure lucrative appointments for themselves (they also recorded some choice nineteenth-century colloquialisms describing scoundrels and heavy drinkers). The committee also afforded one last dramatic performance by Benjamin Butler, a former Union general who served on the committee and offered no quarter to those Democrats or Republicans that he viewed as betraying the democratic aims of Reconstruction.This narrative of political corruption—tying local elections and election officials to the counting of electors for the presidency—functions as a case study for political scientists seeking to understand the past and (regrettably) possibly the future of American democracy in the modern era. It is nothing if not a cautionary tale.

The virtuality of students in the rural area

The health emergency due to COVID-19 that affected the world, forced each of the governments to take measures that allowed protecting the health and integrity of its inhabitants , Ecuador, as a result of the declaration of a state of exception in the Educational Units of the country, adopted measures to meet the needs of the students, one of them the modality that from its application presented advantages and disadvantages for the educational community, this method was used. teaching-learning method, where teachers taught their virtual classes, improving their professional practice, with new strategies in the use of technological tools. The objective of the research is to identify how virtual education affected the learning of students in rural areas, through argumentative research, with bibliographic review strategies through documents, scientific journal articles. The study was carried out in the Educational Unit "Guaranda No. 43" of the Chirijos rural parish of the Portoviejo Canton, it was obtained as a result that the educational plan implemented by the Ministry of Education for the health emergency evidenced the educational reality in the country where the Virtual educational practice was negative due to the impact caused and the problems exposed.

Arseniev-Komelsky Parish (1920-1930)

The subject of the study is the study of the history of Arseniev-Komelsky parish in 1920-1930. The object of the study is the situation of the rural parish of the Russian Orthodox Church in the first decades of the existence of the Soviet state. Special attention is paid to the specifics of the creation of the parish, the manifestation of the main directions of the state's policy towards religion and the church on the example of the history of the parish, the reasons and the process of its closure. The choice of the subject of the study is largely connected with an attempt to reveal the subsequent fate of the Arseniev Komel Monastery of the Gryazovets district of the Vologda province, which was closed in 1920. The source base of the research consists of legal acts of the Soviet state, archival documents (the State Archive of the Vologda Region, the Vologda Regional Archive of Modern Political History, the Archive of the Federal Security Service of Russia for the Vologda Region, the Vologda Diocesan Ancient Repository) materials of the periodical press. The novelty of the research lies in the study of a parish not mentioned in the literature; in the introduction of new historical sources (archival materials) and historical facts into scientific circulation. The main results of the authors' research are: the conclusion about the connection between the opening of the Arseniev-Komelsky parish and the closure of the Arseniev Komelsky monastery; the identification of the peculiarities of the anti-church and anti-religious policy of the state in 1920-1930 in relation to the rural parish (its tightening in the conditions of collectivization and dispossession), the combination of state policy and the interests of local authorities among the reasons for the closure of the parish. The article outlines for the first time the fate of the priest and some of the inhabitants of the closed monastery. It is shown that, despite the anti-church policy of the state, the religious consciousness of the peasantry (at least part of it) preserved.

Poverty, pollution, and mortality: The 1918 influenza pandemic in a developing German economy

AbstractThe paper provides a detailed analysis of excess mortality during the ‘Spanish Flu’ in a developing German economy and the effect of poverty and air pollution on pandemic mortality. The empirical analysis is based on a difference‐in‐differences approach using annual all‐cause mortality statistics at the parish level in the Kingdom of Württemberg. The paper complements the existing literature on urban pandemic severity with comprehensive evidence from mostly rural parishes. The results show that middle‐ and high‐income parishes had a significantly lower increase in mortality rates than low‐income parishes. Moreover, the mortality rate during the 1918 influenza pandemic was significantly higher in highly polluted parishes compared with least polluted parishes. Furthermore, the paper provides a detailed description of mortality statistics in Württemberg and new excess mortality rate estimates for Germany and its states.

Role of Self-Sampling for Cervical Cancer Screening: Diagnostic Test Properties of Three Tests for the Diagnosis of HPV in Rural Communities of Cuenca, Ecuador.

Background: HPV primary screening has shown effectiveness for cancer prevention; however, gynaecological examination is considered uncomfortable. Self-sampling methods increase the acceptance of screening. The aim of this study is to compare the sensitivity and specificity of clinician sampling versus vaginal and urine self-sampling for HPV diagnosis. Methods: A diagnostic test study was conducted in a rural parish of Cuenca, Ecuador. A total of 120 women participated. Each participant self-collected urine and vaginal samples and underwent clinician sampling for HPV testing. The latter was considered as the golden standard. All three samples were processed with the same amplification and hybridization protocol for HPV detection (Hybribio) following the manufacturer’s instructions. Results: Characteristics of the participants were: median age 35 years; 40.8% married; 46.7% had a primary level of education; and median age of sexual onset, 17.6 years. The prevalence of any type of HPV with clinician sampling was 15.0%, 17.5% with urine sampling and 18.3% with vaginal self-sampling. Self-sampling sensitivity reached 94.4% (IC 74.2–99.9), and specificity 92.1% (IC 85.2–95.9). Urine sampling had a sensitivity of 88.8% (IC 67.2, 96.9), and specificity 94.1% (IC 67.2–96.9). The negative predictive value was 98.9% (IC 94.2–99.8) for vaginal self-sampling and 97.6% (IC 92.6–99.4) for urine sampling. Conclusions: This study shows that vaginal and urine self-sampling methods have similar sensitivity and specificity compared with clinician sampling for the diagnosis of HPV. The correlation between HPV genotypes among the three tests is satisfactory.

Wildfire preparedness and response during the 2016 Arouca wildfires in rural Portugal

This study examined how residents living in rural Portugal were prepared for and took action to protect themselves and their property before and during the 2016 large Arouca wildfires. Interviews were completed with 30 residents living in small rural parishes affected by the wildfires. Qualitative research findings show that interview participants were aware of the high wildfire risk in the area but had different views about the source of risk and the immediate threat posed to their own property. During the wildfires, many participants reported taking last-minute preparatory actions such as having water, hoses, water pumps and sprinklers available. We found few differences in the preparatory roles carried out by women and men. Despite official evacuation recommendations, most participants stayed behind to protect their property. Participants’ decisions to stay behind were affected by a feeling of confidence due to local knowledge and past experience, lack of trust in fire management agencies, and emotional attachment to their home and village. Participants were helped by family and village members, and in turn helped others during the wildfires. Recommendations for wildfire and emergency managers are discussed.

Exploratory Spatial Analysis of Social Vulnerability and Forest Fire Risk in the Pinhal Interior Sul (Central Portugal)

Mainland Portugal is a Mediterranean country, particularly known for the recurrence of forest fires in terms of burnt areas, losses, and damage. The central Portugal administrative area has been in a “stage” of prominence for this dangerous phenomenon, with the sub-region Pinhal Interior Sul being one of the most critical territories. In addition to the manifestation of the dangerous process itself, it is important to state the importance of vulnerability, which has been relatively ignored in the definition of public policies in terms of spatial planning. Vulnerability concerns the way people and their assets are exposed to forest fires (as they represent the main targets of their harmful consequences), as well as how they are affected by, resist, and recover from them. This paper investigates only one of the components of vulnerability—social vulnerability—in terms of demographic, cultural, socio-economic, and infrastructural conditions to establish a comparative analysis among the parishes of the sub-region Pinhal Interior Sul (in particular, between the more urban and rural ones in each municipality). In the studied area, the high values of social vulnerability reinforce the high hazard level. At the municipality level, it is possible to conclude that the population living in more markedly rural and peripheral parishes is more vulnerable to forest fires than those living in the more urban conditions.

Victory on Earth or in Heaven: Mexico's Religionero Rebellion

Victory on Earth or in Heaven: Mexico's Religionero Rebellion