Sunday Times Religion Poll

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Clive D. Field

YouGov conducts a weekly online poll for The Sunday Times, and today’s edition includes a special module on religion (with particular reference to attitudes to the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church), as well as analysing responses to political questions by religious affiliation (the upcoming budget and press regulation post-Leveson being prominent in this survey). Full data tables can be found at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/qnktt3jc19/YG-Archive-Pol-Sunday-Times-results-15-170313.pdf

Coverage of the poll in the print edition of the newspaper is minimal, confined to just a couple of findings relating to the Catholic Church which are reported on page 25 of the main section. There seems to have been more editorial interest in the drinking habits of the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, which makes the lead story on the front page!

The sample comprised 1,918 Britons aged 18 and over interviewed on 14 and 15 March 2013, 71% of whom professed no religion. This is an unprecedentedly high number of ‘nones’, even by YouGov’s standards, and would suggest caution in using the affiliation data. Unfortunately, also, YouGov coded Church of Scotland to the Anglican responses, thus somewhat compromising the integrity of the category.

Attitudes to the Church of England

A majority of Britons (61%) consider the Church of England to be out of touch, peaking at 69% for those professing no religion and 73% among UKIP supporters. One-fifth (21%) see it as in touch, ranging regionally from 11% of Scots to 29% of Londoners, with 18% undecided. Among Anglicans a few more regard their Church as being in touch (45%) than not (43%), but that still constitutes substantial dissatisfaction.

A plurality of adults (48%, the same as in November 2012) criticizes the Church of England for opposing same-sex marriage, rising to 67% among the 18-24s and Liberal Democrats. Around two-fifths (39%) support the Church’s opposition, including 51% of Conservative and 72% of UKIP voters. Majorities of Anglicans (57%), Catholics (55%), and other Christians (53%) side with the Church. One in seven (14%) of the entire sample remain undecided.

Exactly four-fifths of Britons want the Church of England to allow women to become bishops, including 88% of Liberal Democrats and 82% of people with no religion. Just 11% do not favour women bishops (16% of Anglicans and 23% of non-Christians) and 10% cannot make up their minds.

A majority of adults (69%, including 76% of those professing no faith) believe Justin Welby to be wrong in condemning sex outside marriage, while 17% think he is right (including 30% of Anglicans and UKIP supporters), and 13% are unsure.  

A plurality of Britons (44%) disapprove of the recent criticism by Anglican bishops of the Coalition Government’s 1% cap on welfare benefits for the next three years, which is less than the current rate of inflation. The proportion increases to 72% among Conservative voters and even reaches 51% for Anglicans. Two-fifths (39%, but 60% of Labour voters and 56% of Catholics) back the bishops’ stance, with 17% uncertain what to think.

The country is evenly divided about whether bishops and other senior clergy should comment on political issues and Government policies: 44% contend they should and 43% that they should not. Labour and Liberal Democrat supporters are most likely to favour episcopal intervention, Conservative and UKIP voters to oppose it. Around three-fifths of Christians (58% of Anglicans, 59% of Catholics, 63% of other Christians) want bishops and other senior clergy to speak out, with 35% of Anglicans in disagreement. As many as 38% of people with no religion back the right of the Church to enter the political arena.

Attitudes to the Roman Catholic Church

Even more Britons (77%) regard the Roman Catholic Church as out of touch than do the Church of England, the figure hitting 82% among those with no religion and 87% among prospective UKIP voters. Just 10% view the Church as being in touch, with scarcely any variation by secular demographics, and 14% have no view on the matter. Most professing Catholics (59%) think their Church is out of touch, against 34% who say the opposite. 

Most Britons (78%) want the Catholic Church to allow priests to marry, albeit somewhat fewer of Catholics (70%). Only 7% (but 21% of Catholics) opt to uphold the celibacy rule, with 15% expressing no opinion.

Most adults (79%) consider the Church to have dealt badly with the issue of child abuse by its priests, the over-60s (87%) being particularly likely to say so. The majority of Catholics (62%) agree. A mere 7% of Britons think the Church has handled the crisis well, rising to 27% of Catholics, with 13% unsure.   

Asked whether the Catholic Church was right or wrong to have elected a new Pope from South America (Cardinal Bergoglio, now Francis I), 47% say that they do not know. Of the rest, 48% agree with the decision (among them 54% of the over-60s, 55% of Scots, and 77% of Catholics) and 5% disagree (peaking at 14% for non-Christians).

Religion and political attitudes

The relatively small number of interviewees professing a faith (29%) somewhat limits the potential of analysing political attitudes by religion. In general, the profile of replies for the no religion category does not vary markedly from that for all adults.

However, Anglicans are somewhat more likely than average to align with the Conservatives. For example, 38% say they would vote Conservative (against 29% of the whole sample), 35% approve of David Cameron’s performance as Prime Minister (32%), 24% consider George Osborne is doing well as Chancellor of the Exchequer (17%), and 25% want Osborne to remain in post (17%).

On the other hand, Catholics incline to back the Labour Party: 48% indicate that they would vote Labour (41% nationally), and 39% think Ed Miliband is doing well as Labour leader (30%). Catholics are similarly more unconvinced than all Britons (51% versus 45%) that the Coalition Government’s strategy for managing the economy will work over the long term.

 

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Gender and Religion and Other News

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Today BRIN features the third instalment of findings from the YouGov poll commissioned in connection with the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, plus the usual miscellany of other British religious statistical news.

Gender and religion

There is little public sympathy for gender segregation and discrimination in organized religion, according to the latest batch of findings from the YouGov poll of 25-30 January 2013 commissioned by Professor Linda Woodhead of Lancaster University to provide background for the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates. Online interviews were undertaken with 4,437 adult Britons. An innovative set of questions about the gender aspects of religion was posed, summarized in the press release to be found at:  

http://religionandsociety.org.uk/events/programme_events/show/press_release_westminster_faith_debate_3_gender_and_religion

The full data tables, incorporating numerous cross-breaks, have also been uploaded by YouGov at:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/byjw8evl6d/YG-University-of-Lancaster-results-Archive-300130-religion-gender-debate.pdf

Hardly anybody (relatively) thinks it acceptable for the major religions to differentiate between men and women in various practical ways. Thus, only 4% find it appropriate that the sexes should be separated in public worship and other religious contexts; 12% that religions should strongly encourage men and women to dress differently; 11% that they should offer men and women different teachings about how to lead a good life; and 5% that they should insist on the sexes being educated separately.

Unsurprisingly, the most religious, those who currently engage in some form of religious activity, are generally more well-disposed to these forms of differentiation; even so, the majority still say that they are inappropriate. Of the various denominations and faiths, Muslims are a notable exception, with as many as 54% supporting different dress for the sexes, 50% gender segregation in religious contexts, and 44% separate education. 

A good many people (43%) think that major religions would be better off if more women held senior leadership positions. Just 5% say that religions would be worse off, with 52% neutral or undecided. A somewhat larger proportion (49%, rising to 55% of females) believe that more women should lead major religions in Britain, with a mere 6% against, and 32% contending that it is a matter for the religions to determine. Yet more (74%) are of the view that women are just as suited to religious leadership as men, and 3% that they are better suited (8% saying the contrary).

The Church of England (in the gender news recently because of the unresolved issue of women bishops) comes in for a fair amount of implied criticism in the poll. Only 10% of all adults approve of the way in which women are depicted in its teachings and traditions, with the figures not much better for nominal Anglicans (15%) and practising Anglicans (23%). No more than 8% approve of the Established Church’s current policies towards women (against 11% of nominal and 16% of practising Anglicans). Even considering the parish level, just 13% endorse the way in which women are treated (20% of nominal Anglicans, albeit a more respectable 47% of practising Anglicans).

The Roman Catholic Church comes off even worse on the same measures, with 6% of Britons approving of the way in which women are depicted in its teachings and traditions (rising to 23% of nominal Catholics and 32% of practising ones). The same number back its current policies towards women (22% of nominal and 31% of practising Catholics). At local parish level, just 7% support the way in which women are treated (28% of nominal and 38% of practising Catholics).

Summing up, Woodhead concludes: ‘These new findings show that the churches are seriously out of step not only with society but with their own members’. The same trend has emerged from the results released in connection with the two previous Westminster Faith Debates. It would seem that, in matters of religion and personal life, there is a real clash of sources of authority, between revelation, scripture, and religious teachings on the one hand and the standards, expectations, and behaviours of society (and perhaps the state) on the other.

Pope-making

The election of Pope Francis I on the evening of 13 March 2013 has partly overtaken the papal survey released by ComRes and Premier Media Group the day before, based on online interviews with 2,030 Britons aged 18 and over on 6 and 7 March, i.e. before the commencement of the papal conclave. Nevertheless, some of the findings remain topical. The full data tables can be found at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Premier_Papal_Survey_8_March_2013.pdf

According to the British public, by far and away the most important issue facing the new pope is child abuse in the Catholic Church, mentioned by 47%, followed by improving the Church’s global image (16%). Few support prioritizing the promotion of the Church’s teachings on same-sex marriage (3%), contraception (3%), euthanasia (1%), or abortion (1%). There is likewise limited interest in respecting diversity (5%), caring for the vulnerable (4%), celibacy of priests (4%), and women priests (3%). In a separate question, 80% agreed that it is part of the new pope’s role to try and enhance the Church’s reputation.

As for the conclave itself, 50% of respondents considered that the process of appointing a new pope needs updating, while 56% thought that it should be more transparent. Although 58% favoured an upper age limit in papal elections (80 was quoted by ComRes, which is already the de facto position), fewer (43%) concurred that popes should have to retire at 85 (with 28% disagreeing). Most (69%) wanted the pope to be free to retire whenever he wished, whereas death in office has been the papal tradition. There was no great enthusiasm for a pope being appointed from outside Europe (18%), 53% having no opinion on the matter; from this perspective, there is a certain irony that Francis I is an Argentinian.  

Anti-Muslim incidents

On 10 March 2013 the Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) campaign published preliminary statistics of anti-Muslim hate incidents in the UK which have been reported to it during its first year of operation, with a fuller analysis to follow in July. Cases logged thus far total 632, 74% of which occurred on social media sites. A majority of victims (58%) were women, and the overwhelming majority of perpetrators (75%) men, mostly in their twenties. MAMA claims to have identified 54% of the perpetrators as supporters of the British National Party or English Defence League. More details at:

http://tellmamauk.org

European values

A second edition of the Atlas of European Values, which first appeared in 2005, has recently been published. It incorporates results from the latest (2008) wave of the European Values Study, the fieldwork for which was actually conducted in Great Britain in 2009-10. Maps, charts, and some commentary (but no data tables) present the main findings thematically. There is a chapter on religion (pp. 54-72) which covers the full range of religious affiliation, practice, belief, and attitudes. Details of the book are: Loek Halman, Inge Sieben, and Marga van Zundert, Atlas of European Values: Trends and Traditions at the Turn of the Century (Leiden: Brill, 2012, xi + 141p., €139 hardback, €69 paperback).

Hymns and mental health

Feeling down or depressed? Forget the G&T, for a good hymn could be your pick-me-up, especially if you sing it, and particularly if you are a woman and/or consider yourself highly religious. For hymns can ‘raise your spirits and make you feel better’, according to a survey of ‘what hymns mean to you’, undertaken by members of the Research Group of the Christian Council on Ageing: Michael J. Lowis, Janet Eldred, Albert J. Jewell, and Michael I. Jackson, ‘Hymns and Mental Health: A Survey of Church Attendees’, Journal of Applied Arts & Health, Vol. 3, No. 2, 2012, pp. 149-61.

It is freely admitted by the authors that ‘this study is not without its shortcomings’, and certainly the sample may not be entirely representative, even of churchgoers, although it was mostly recruited through religious organizations. It comprises 394 adults, almost entirely from England, of whom 75% were female and 95% Protestants (disproportionately from the Free Churches). For abstract and article purchase option, go to:

http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/jaah/2012/00000003/00000002/art00005

 

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Religion and Voting and Other News

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Four stories are covered in today’s BRIN post, including new data on religion and prospective voting behaviour.

Religion and voting

Two new large-scale polls (from YouGov and Populus) shed light on the relationship between religion and voting intentions since UKIP’s emergence as the fourth force in British politics (so clearly demonstrated in the recent Eastleigh by-election). The studies show that prospective voters for the two parties towards the right of the political spectrum (Conservative and UKIP) are more likely to espouse a religion than those towards the left (Labour and Liberal Democrat). Summary results are set out in the table below, percentages reading downwards. 

  All Con Lab LibDem UKIP
YouGov

 

 

 

 

 
No religion

46

40

46

NA

39
Any religion

50

56

50

NA

59
No answer

4

4

4

NA

2
Populus

 

 

 

 

 
No religion

36

28

36

36

31
Any religion

62

71

62

62

68
No answer

2

2

2

2

1

It should be noted that the polls used different measures of religious affiliation, which explains why people of faith were less numerous in one than the other. The YouGov question wording is fairly neutral, making no assumptions about religious affiliation, whereas the Populus one might be considered to be somewhat leading, implying some expectation that respondents will belong to one of the religious groups.

The religious category was sub-divided in the Populus survey, enabling an assessment of the current voting intentions of adherents of the major faiths. The single most striking finding is that the majority (58%) of Muslims now incline to follow Labour, contrasting with the 2010 general election in which around one-third (36%) of Muslims recalled that they had actually voted for Labour, at a time when the party (then in government) was unpopular with Muslims because (especially) of its perceived anti-Islamic foreign policy. Also notable is that 54% of Jews support either the Conservatives or UKIP. Details are below (percentages reading across in this instance):

  Con Lab LibDem UKIP Other/none
Populus

 

 

 

 

 
No religion

18

29

7

7

39
Christian

27

28

6

10

29
Non-Christian

16

36

9

6

33
Muslim

8

58

8

1

25
Hindu

20

39

11

1

29
Jew

42

16

4

12

26
Buddhist

9

27

16

6

42

Source: Online surveys of adult Britons aged 18 and over conducted by a) YouGov throughout February 2013 (n = 28,944), the religious affiliation question being ‘do you regard yourself as belonging to any particular religion?’; and b) Populus for Lord Ashcroft on 22-31 January 2013 (n = 20,022), the religious affiliation question being ‘which of the following religious groups do you consider yourself to be a member of?’

The YouGov data were published on 5 March 2013 and are at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/mse55iouje/UKIP-profile-Feb-2103.pdf

The Populus/Ashcroft data were published on 8 March 2013 and can be found in table 100 at:

http://lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/LibDem_Poll.pdf

Attitudes to Muslims

British Muslims continue to have a major public image problem, according to two recent polls commissioned by Matthew Goodwin of the University of Nottingham in connection with his Chatham House briefing paper on the English Defence League (EDL). This was published on 6 March 2013 as: The Roots of Extremism: The English Defence League and the Counter-Jihad Challenge.

In the second of Goodwin’s surveys, the proportion of all adult Britons responding to various statements about Muslims was as follows: 

  • 50% anticipated there will be a ‘clash of civilizations’ between British Muslims and native white Britons (26% disagreeing)
  • 44% agreed that free speech in Britain is threatened by the influence of Muslims in the media (32% disagreeing)
  • 43% agreed that differences in culture and values make future conflict between British-born Muslims and white Britons inevitable (28% disagreeing)
  • 31% disagreed that British-born Muslims generally share the culture and values of the majority society (36% agreeing)
  • 30% agreed that British Muslims pose a serious threat to democracy (41% disagreeing)
  • 23% disagreed that Muslims make an important contribution to British society (41% agreeing)
  • 12% disagreed that the vast majority of Muslims are good British citizens (62% agreeing)
  • 12% agreed that British Muslims are part of an international plot to abolish Parliament (54% disagreeing)

Source: Online survey by YouGov of 1,691 Britons aged 18 and over on 20-21 November 2012. Detailed table (with breaks by gender, age, social grade, region, and vote) available at:

http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/public/Research/Europe/0313bp_goodwin_dataconflict.pdf

The first poll, likewise by YouGov and conducted online on 21-22 October 2012 among a sample of 1,666 Britons, focused on knowledge of and attitudes to the EDL. But it also posed several additional questions about Islam and Muslims, four of which are worth highlighting: 

  • 63% wanted the number of Muslims coming to Britain to be reduced
  • 57% considered Islam to present a serious danger to Western civilization
  • 52% believed higher Muslim birth rates threaten British national identity
  • 48% argued that Muslims are incompatible with the British way of life

The detailed tables from this poll are available as follows:

a) breaks by general demographics:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/nvm151779n/YG-Archive-221012-EDL-National-sample.pdf

b) breaks by general demographics and degree of support for the EDL:

http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/public/Research/Europe/0313bp_goodwin_dataissues.pdf

Goodwin’s Chatham House paper is at:

http://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/public/Research/Europe/0313bp_goodwin.pdf

Islamist terrorism

Britons are somewhat less apprehensive about the threat of terrorism than they were in 2010, on the fifth anniversary of the London bombings. Even so, 44% currently think that a terrorist attack within the UK is very or moderately likely to happen in the next year, while 70% anticipate an incident as deadly as the 2005 London bombings occurring during their lifetimes. The source of the threat is most widely perceived to be al-Qaeda and ‘other Islamic-based terrorist groups’, with 68% currently concerned about them compared with 3% for residual terrorist groups in Northern Ireland. Anxiety about Islamist terrorism builds steadily with age, from 50% of the 18-34s to 81% of the over-55s, but otherwise varies little by key demographics.   

Source: Online survey by Angus Reid Public Opinion among 2,013 Britons aged 18 and over on 26-28 February 2013. Report and full data tables published on 4 March 2013 and available at:

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/48686/fears-of-an-imminent-terrorist-attack-subside-in-britain/

Flesh and blood

Regular churchgoers in the UK are more likely to have given blood than the general public, according to new research. Whereas 9% of the former say they have given blood during the last year, no more than 4% of all adults have given blood in the past two years. Moreover, 33% of regular churchgoers claim to have registered as a blood donor (apparently with no statistically significant differences by denomination, gender, or age); while 48% report they have joined the NHS organ donor register, which is 17% more than in the population as a whole. Blood and organ donation is already considered as part of their personal Christian giving by 28% (rising to 35% of clergy and church leaders), with a further 42% being open to the idea. However, as experienced by these worshippers, three-quarters of churches do not mention or encourage either blood or organ donation.

Source: Survey of a representative sample of 3,171 UK Christians of all denominations attending church at least two to three times a month and agreeing that their faith is either the most important thing in their life or more important than most other things. They were drawn from the Christian Research Resonate panel of both church leaders and laity and interviewed online between 10 December 2012 and 9 January 2013. The study was undertaken on behalf of Kore in connection with the launch of the fleshandblood campaign, a partnership with NHS Blood and Transplant to mobilize the Church to increase the number of blood and organ donors in the UK. A summary report, Fleshandblood 2013 Research Results, was published on 5 March 2013 and is available at:

http://fleshandblood.org/resource/2013-research-results/

 

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Sex, Guilt, and Religion and Other News

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Our lead story today features the second instalment of findings from the YouGov survey commissioned for this year’s series of Westminster Faith Debates. There are also four other items of more general religious statistical news.

Sex, guilt, and religion

The second of this year’s Westminster Faith Debates, organized by Linda Woodhead and Charles Clarke with support from the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme and Lancaster University, took place last Wednesday before a capacity audience. The theme was ‘Too Much Sex These Days – the Sexualisation of Society?’ To provide context for the discussion, the organizers issued a press release which included the main findings from a survey commissioned from YouGov, in which 4,437 adults were interviewed online on 25-30 January 2013. The press release, which has been picked up by The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, and other media, can be read at:

http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/events/programme_events/show/westminster_faith_debate_27_2_2013_too_much_sex_press_release

The full data tables are located at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/f9g2ypxea3/University-of-Lancaster-Results-130130-Faith-Matters_sex-debate.pd

A particular focus of the questions asked was on the degree of guilt respondents would feel if they engaged in four different sexual activities, all of which are condemned by the Roman Catholic Church. But while those who affiliated to a religion were somewhat more likely to feel guilty than individuals who had no faith, Catholics did not generally experience a deeper sense of guilt than religious people as a whole. Indeed, it was Baptists, Pentecostals, and Muslims who stood out as most guilt-ridden, albeit the sub-samples were fairly small.

The least acceptable of the four sexual activities was extra-marital intercourse, the prospect of which incited guilt in 56% of all adults (64% of the religious and 48% of the non-religious). The other three activities precipitated guilt in only a minority of the sample: 26% said they would feel guilty if they used pornography for sexual stimulation (33% of the religious – albeit 55% of practising Anglicans – and 15% of non-religious); 13% if they engaged in pre-marital sex (20% of the religious and 5% of the non-religious); and 5% if they used contraception (6% of the religious and 3% of the non-religious).

Multivariate analysis filled out this picture in an intriguing way. It revealed that the group least likely to feel guilty about indulging in these sexual activities were men who regarded their own judgement or intuition as the authoritative guide, did not identify with nor participate in a religion, and were definite that there is no God. Most susceptible to guilt were women who described themselves as religious, regarded religious sources as authoritative, were active members of a religion, and definitely believed in God. They felt four times as much guilt as the most guilt-free men. 

Although religious and non-religious adults did not differ markedly in their agreement that sex is important to a fulfilled life (the national average being 68%), there was a big gender gap in those who strongly took this line, with men almost twice as likely as women to do so, and this was true of both religious and non-religious people. However, religious affiliates were more inclined than the norm (66%) to consider that the profile of sex is too high in society, rising to 70% for professing Anglicans, 74% for Catholics, 79% for Baptists, 81% for Muslims, and 81% for all religious respondents who currently participate in religious activities; these figures compare with 61% of the non-religious.

On the vexed subject of birth control, only 9% of nominal Catholics and 12% of practising Catholics entertained any reservations against using it, 89% and 87% respectively feeling no guilt. This bears out other surveys (such as that by the Von Hügel Institute for The Tablet in 2008, which found extensive recourse by mass-going Catholics to a variety of contraceptive practices). The religious body with most qualms about the use of contraception are now the Muslims, but even their guilt factor only reaches 23%.

This particular finding, together with the general claim in the press release that Catholic guilt about sex is a myth, will make uncomfortable reading for the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church which is in a state of some turmoil following the resignations of both the Pope and the most senior British Catholic leader. For Woodhead the clear message of the poll is that ‘most Catholics are taking authority more from their own reason than from the Church’s teaching’.

Jewish neighbourhoods

The Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) has recently (19 February 2013) published its second report on the Jewish population of England and Wales as revealed by the 2011 census, and correcting for non-response. It reveals that Jews are spatially concentrated, with nine-tenths living in under one-fifth of the country’s 8,500 wards, and one-half in just 66, although no individual ward actually contains a Jewish majority (Kersal in Salford has the highest Jewish density, of 41%).

The largest single Jewish neighbourhood is Golders Green in London, which experienced one-third growth between 2001 and 2011, now numbering 7,661 Jews. Even bigger decennial increases were recorded by Sedgley in Bury (42%) and New River in Hackney (35%), both predominantly haredi (strictly Orthodox) communities with 4,748 and 4,093 Jews respectively. Another haredi neighbourhood, Seven Sisters in Haringey, expanded by 103% from a lower 2001 base, to reach 3,162 Jews. By contrast, significant decline was recorded in some formerly dominant Jewish communities, notably by 43-55% in four Redbridge wards, and 26-29% in three Harrow wards. Natural increase and migration are identified as the two principal engines of Jewish demographic change.

The report 2011 Census Results (England and Wales): Initial Insights into Jewish Neighbourhoods by David Graham is available to download from:

http://www.jpr.org.uk/downloads/2011%20Census%20Jewish%20neighbourhoods%20Final.pdf

JPR intends to complement the information which can be gleaned from the census with its own National Jewish Community Study, sponsored by many major Jewish organizations, and to be conducted early this year.

Knowledge of historical documents

When it comes to key historical documents, the British public seems to have a better knowledge of those with ‘political’ as opposed to ‘religious’ interest. This is according to an Ipsos MORI survey for King’s College London which was reported recently, although the actual fieldwork took place on 20-24 October 2012. Telephone interviews were held with 1,005 adults aged 18 and over.

Read a list of eight historical documents, 90% professed to have heard of the United States Declaration of Independence, 89% of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, 87% of the Domesday Book, and 85% of Magna Carta (whose 800th anniversary will be commemorated in 2015). Knowledge was a little shakier about the actual details of Magna Carta, although 25% thought that it had guaranteed freedom of religion (presumably a reference to clause 1, which concerned the freedom of the English Church).

The other four documents on the list had a stronger religious component. Seven-tenths of the public were aware of the King James Bible (Authorized Version), a relatively high visibility which presumably owed something to the 2011 quatercentennial celebrations. However, far fewer claimed to know about the three manuscripts: 39% about the Lindisfarne Gospels (held at the British Library), 13% about the Codex Sinaiticus (substantially at the British Library, and bought for the nation following a public appeal in 1933-34), and 5% about the Textus Roffensis (at Medway Archives). The Textus is a hybrid document subsuming the oldest English law code and the oldest register of Rochester Cathedral.

As with all such polls about professed knowledge, we should be on our guard against inflated claims. These may arise either from an unwillingness to admit ignorance about something which people think they ought to know about (or believe they would be expected by others to know about) or from genuine confusion, misunderstanding, or misrecollection.

There is a blog about the survey, written by Sir Robert Worcester (chair of the Magna Carta 800th Anniversary Committee), at:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/newsevents/ca/1286/85-of-British-adults-say-they-have-heard-of-the-Magna-Carta.aspx

Pastoral Research Centre reports

The Pastoral Research Centre (PRC) Trust has started to make available a number of past PRC reports as free downloads via the Trust website. The first batch of three such downloads includes: Pastoral & Population Statistics of the Catholic Community in England & Wales, 1958-2002: A Report to Parishes, edited by Tony Spencer (2004); and Tony Spencer, Secrecy in the Catholic Church: The Case of Catholic School Statistics in England and Wales (2010). They can be found at:

http://www.prct.org.uk/free-downloads

Faith in Research Conference

The seventh annual Faith in Research Conference takes place on Thursday, 20 June 2013 (please note the new date) at Church House, Westminster. It has been organized by the Church of England’s Research and Statistics Department and the Oxford Centre for Ecclesiology and Practical Theology. Bishop John Packer will take the chair. The programme begins with a keynote session by Professor Linda Woodhead of Lancaster University on ‘The Church of England Today: A Changing Church in a Changing Culture’, followed by sessions on three parallel themes: Church and society; mission; and ministry. Full programme details are available at:

http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1668581/fir_programmeupdatedv1.pdf

The standard conference fee is £65 (£55 if paid before 5 April), or £25 for students. Registration is online at:

http://faithinresearch2013.eventbrite.co.uk/#

 

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Pope Benedict Departs and Other News

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Benedict XVI leaves the papal office today following his resignation earlier in the month, and it is fitting that he should be the lead story in our latest BRIN post. This mostly derives from YouGov’s February 2013 Eurotrack survey, but space has been found for a couple of miscellaneous items, too.

Pope Benedict departs

YouGov has taken the opportunity of Benedict XVI’s departure to ask the publics of six Western European countries (Great Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Finland, and Sweden) how they rate his pontificate. Questions were included in the regular online Eurotrack undertaken between 21 and 27 February 2013, with 1,704 Britons aged 18 and over being interviewed (among them 117 professed Roman Catholics). Results have been disaggregated by religious affiliation within country (but not by other demographics) at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/auqvjc212x/Eurotrack-February-2013.pdf

A press release about the survey has also been issued and can be found at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/onzs1ox195/Pope_press_release.pdf

Asked whether Benedict had been right or wrong to resign as pope, 68% of Britons said right, similar to Denmark (67%), but lower than in Finland (71%), Sweden (72%), France (75%), and Germany (82%). In Britain 77% of the religious contended that he had made the right decision, including 79% of Catholics, compared with 64% of the religiously unaffiliated (29% of whom did not know what to think). Only 8% of Britons said that Benedict had been wrong to resign.

When it came to assessing how well or badly Benedict had done during his eight years as pope, a plurality of Britons (41%) expressed no view, with 36% thinking he had done well, and 23% badly. The positive figure was better than Sweden (18%), Denmark (24%), and France (33%), but nowhere near as good as in Germany (52%, the country from which he hails). Benedict’s performance was rated as good by 72% of British Catholics, 50% of all those professing a religion, 28% of non-Christians, and 26% of people without faith.

On specific aspects of his pontificate, Benedict was often judged to have been too conservative and to have changed things too little. In Britain 43% said that this had been true of theological issues such as women priests; 47% of moral issues such as birth control, abortion, and homosexuality; and 33% of social issues such as wealth and poverty. Catholics were as inclined to reach this verdict as the rest of the population. Otherwise, a principal difference by religious affiliation was the large number of ‘don’t knows’ to be found among non-Christians and those without religion.

In terms of Benedict’s political clout, only 9% of Britons considered that leading politicians in Britain had paid a great deal or a fair amount of notice to the views of Benedict and the British Catholic hierarchy, less than in Germany (33%) or France (18%), but fractionally more than in the Scandinavian countries. The overwhelming majority of Britons (71%), and even 78% of British Catholics, accepted that politicians had paid little or no notice to the pope and his bishops. Moreover, three-fifths of all Britons and 72% of the irreligious thought that politicians had been right not to have taken such notice, albeit 57% of Catholics disagreed.

More generally, respondents were asked whether four groups of religious leaders play a positive or negative role in the life of each country. In Britain (as can be seen from the table, below) a majority in three cases and a plurality in the other selected neither of these options, replying instead that they did not know or that the leaders made a limited impact on national life or that their role was equally positive and negative. 

 

Positive

Negative

Other
Protestant bishops and archbishops

21

22

57
Roman Catholic bishops and archbishops

16

33

51
Leading Jewish rabbis

19

17

64
Leading Muslim clerics

10

44

46

Among those expressing a clear opinion, Roman Catholic and Muslim leaders were especially seen in a critical light. Not unexpectedly, people who espoused a religion tended to be disproportionately more positive about religious leaders and the irreligious disproportionately more negative; however, when it came to Muslim leaders, both religious and irreligious were similarly negative. Catholics were most positive about their own bishops and archbishops.

On the characteristics of the next pope, many Britons could not get hugely exercised. They became most animated (in the sense of 44% saying they would be delighted) at the prospect of a pope who wanted to permit Catholic couples to use contraception. The proportion expressing delight at other scenarios was: a pope who advocated much stronger action to redistribute money within countries from rich to poor (24%); a pope who advocated that rich countries should spend far more on overseas aid (17%); a pope from Africa (11%); and a pope from South America (9%).

Religion and the current politico-economic situation

The YouGov Eurotrack study also included questions about current political and economic issues in Europe, the answers to which will be of interest to BRIN readers because they have been broken down by religious affiliation. Here we report on some of those for Britain alone, albeit the same level of detail is also available for the other five countries included in the survey.

Although most Britons (60%) disapprove of the Coalition Government’s record to date, the proportion is notably higher among those without a religion (65%) than those who profess some faith (56%), apart from Roman Catholics (68%, whose politics tend to be left-of-centre – see the next item, on the religious right). There is a corresponding gap in approval ratings of the Government: 32% by the religious (rising to 35% of non-Catholic Christians) and 20% of the faithless, with a national mean of 24%.

These judgments on the Government do not appear to correlate with perceived changes to the financial situation of respondents’ households during the previous twelve months. Whereas the religious are relatively more positive about the Government than the irreligious, it is the former whose households have suffered most: 60% reported that their finances had worsened a lot or a little against 51% of the religiously unaffiliated, with the number observing an improvement standing at 9% and 12% respectively.

On Britain’s membership of the European Union, people without religion (41%) were more likely than those with (33%) to say that they would vote in favour of continuing membership, in the event of a referendum being held, the national average being 36%. Nationally, 42% stated that they would vote to leave the European Union, comprising 49% of the religious and 38% of the irreligious. Among the religious, Catholics were most in favour of leaving (55%) and non-Christians the least (34%, with 43% wishing to stay in membership).

Naturally, it cannot be assumed that this spread of opinions is solely the function of the religion/irreligion factor, which is the only variable to be included in the YouGov tables. We know from other surveys that both religion and politics are independently impacted by secular demographics, and they will doubtless explain some of the variance noted above.

Religious right

In a new report from the Theos think-tank, Andy Walton (with Andrea Hatcher and Nick Spencer) asks Is There a ‘Religious Right’ Emerging in Britain? The question is answered in the negative, in the sense of there not being an American-style religious right at present, and the judgment being that there is little chance of one developing in the immediate future. Part of the evidence base for this conclusion is a ‘brief foray’ (pp. 34-45) into relevant social surveys, particularly the British Social Attitudes Surveys and the British Election Studies, although some use is also made of BRIN.

The findings which the authors particularly highlight are: a) the number of committed Christians in Britain is a relatively small proportion of the electorate, particularly in terms of evangelicals and Catholics, who form the backbone of the US religious right; b) only 9% of Britons with a religious affiliation say religion is very important in making political decisions, with less fixation with some of the specific issues which dominate the US political scene; and c) practising believers, albeit socially conservative, disproportionately espouse economic views which are left-of-centre, especially among Catholics. Is There a ‘Religious Right’ Emerging in Britain? can be found at:

http://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/files/files/Reports/IS%20THERE%20A%20RELIGIOUS%20RIGHT%20(NEW).pdf

Religion and education

The December 2012 issue (Vol. 33, No. 3) of Journal of Beliefs & Values is a special number, guest-edited by Elisabeth Arweck and Robert Jackson, devoted to religion and education. Specifically, it comprises a dozen articles reporting research projects which have been funded by the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society Programme. Although the majority of contributions are of a qualitative nature, several authors deploy quantitative methods to varying degrees. From this standpoint, BRIN readers will probably be most interested in the two articles on young people’s attitudes to religious diversity by Leslie Francis and members of his research group (pp. 279-92, 293-307), which apply techniques from the psychology of religion and empirical theology. The papers include details of the theoretical underpinning, design and scope, and preliminary results of a study of approximately 10,000 years 9 and 10 pupils (aged 13-15) in state-maintained secondary schools in London, England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. They report, respectively, on interim datasets of 3,020 and 5,993 cases.

An interesting revelation from the first paper is that ‘a negative view of Muslims is more prevalent among secular young people than among young people who are practising members of Christian churches. In this sense, Christianity is seen to promote acceptance, not rejection, of adherents of Islam.’ The second article illustrates how empathic capacity (in terms of attitudes to other religious groups) is more strongly related to God images than to religious affiliation or religious attendance. Secular factors (such as gender, neuroticism, and psychoticism) also make a difference in predicting the empathy of individuals. For titles, abstracts, and access options for all the articles in this special issue, go to:      

http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjbv20/33/3

 

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Climbing the Papal Mountain and Other News

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Clive D. Field

 

Today’s post covers three news stories, two of which test public reactions to the religious landscape following, respectively, the resignation of the Pope and last month’s four cases of alleged religious discrimination appealed to the European courts.

Climbing the papal mountain

As Pope Benedict XVI prepares to leave office at the end of this month, following the announcement of his resignation, his successor will have a veritable mountain to climb, if he is to hold together the Roman Catholic Church and improve its image and influence with non-Catholics.

In a post-resignation poll only about one-fifth (22%) of adults in Britain now consider the Catholic Church to be a force for good in the world, 45% disagreeing (and thus implicitly saying it is a force for ill), and 32% undecided. If we assume that all professing Catholics reckon their Church to be a force for good, then the corollary is that not much more than one-tenth of the rest of the population does so.

Among all Britons, the number in agreement with the proposition never rises above 28% for any major demographic group (and that for the over-65s, Welsh, and Scots), while dissentients represent a majority of the 45-64s, in the South and North-East of England, and among supporters of several smaller political parties.

Comparison with surveys around the time of the papal visit to Scotland and England in September 2010 indicates that the public standing of the Church has taken a real battering during the final two and a half years of Benedict XVI’s pontificate.

The current 22% positive rating of the Catholic Church contrasts with 31-33% recorded by Opinion Research Business in identical questions about the Church as a force for good on 14-16 and 22-24 September 2010 and 9-11 September 2011; with 41% by Ipsos MORI on 20-26 August 2010; and 47% by Populus on 10-12 September 2010.

Some commentators have argued that modernization of the Catholic Church demands the appointment of the next Pope from the developing rather than the developed world, reflecting the fact that it is in the former that the Church is growing while in the latter it is in decline, notably losing the battle against secularism in Western Europe. The possibility of an African Pope is often mentioned in this context, with Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana the most cited name and, currently, a bookie’s favourite.

Britons, however, do not seem hugely enthusiastic about the prospect of the Church moving in this direction. Asked whether ‘it would be a positive step for the Catholic Church if they chose an African for their next Pope’, 33% agree, with 19% disagreeing, and 48% having no opinion (and probably no real interest in the matter either). The groups most in favour of an African Pope are the 25-34s (42%), Scots (41%), and Labour voters (43%). Most opposed are men (24%), residents of South-West England (28%), and UKIP supporters (26%).

Source: The two questions about the Roman Catholic Church were included in the online regular political survey by ComRes for The Independent on Sunday and Sunday Mirror on 13-14 February 2013, although it appears that, in the end, neither newspaper made use of these particular findings. The sample comprised 2,002 Britons aged 18 and over. Full data appear on pp. 89-96 of the tables at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/IoS_SM_Political_Poll_Feb_2013.pdf

Wearing religious clothing and symbols at work

Public attitudes to the wearing of religious clothing and symbols in the workplace vary according to the clothing or symbol concerned and to the occupation of the person wearing it.

So finds new research commissioned in the wake of the four British cases of alleged faith discrimination recently adjudicated by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In one of them, the ECHR found against the UK Government in the action brought by Nadia Eweida, who was sent home by her employer (British Airways) in 2006 for refusing to remove a chain necklace with a small silver Christian cross.

In the study, opinion was sought about the entitlement to wear three religious items (a chain necklace with a Christian cross, a Jewish kippah/skullcap, and an Islamic burka) in four professional situations: flight attendant, nurse, teacher, and accountant. The number believing that people in the UK should be allowed to wear the item under each circumstance is as follows: 

 

Cross

Kippah

Burka
Flight attendant

81

68

22
Nurse

70

60

18
Teacher

77

68

22
Accountant

85

77

47
Mean

78

68

27

The table reveals greatest comfort with individuals wearing the Christian cross at work, albeit this is deemed somewhat less acceptable for a nurse than for the other three occupations. This caveat doubtless reflects recall of the case of Shirley Chaplin whose employers, Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital, had ordered the removal of her crucifix and chain on health and safety grounds. Chaplin had also appealed to the ECHR but, unlike Eweida, unsuccessfully. Opposition to a nurse wearing a cross peaked at 30% among the 18-24s and Liberal Democrat voters.

The Jewish article of clothing, the kippah, is deemed slightly less acceptable than the Christian symbol, with a mean score ten points lower. Some may find a slight hint of anti-Semitism here. However, a majority of adults still support its wearing in all four contexts, even by nurses where disagreement is greatest (30% overall, and rather more among the over-60s and Conservative voters).

But the burka worn by female Muslims finds no real favour at all, even when worn by an accountant, who is presumably less likely to come into regular contact with the public than a flight attendant, nurse, or teacher. Of course, the fact that the burka is so much larger and more ‘intrusive’ than the other two items (respondents were reminded that it covers the body and face) may well have influenced thinking.

Nevertheless, a plurality (47%) do endorse an accountant wearing a burka, whereas for the other three occupations opposition ranges from 67% to 72%. The over-60s are especially hostile, from 81% to a burka worn by a flight attendant to 86% when worn by a nurse, and a majority (51%) even arguing an accountant should not be allowed to wear it.   

Public hostility to the burka has been evidenced in numerous other opinion polls during recent years, as already noted by BRIN. The garment is clearly widely seen as ‘un-British’ and as a manifestation of Muslim reluctance to integrate into mainstream society. Therefore, attitudes to the burka are inextricably bound up with views of Islam, about which there continue to be many reservations relative to Judaism and, still more, to Christianity which is still implicitly regarded as defining Britain’s heritage and culture. 

The research is an interesting example of how principles of religious equality and liberty, to which most Britons would doubtless say they are committed, can be qualified when translated into real-life situations which are the cause of controversy and annoyance.

Source: Three online surveys undertaken among Britons aged 18 and over by YouGov for the YouGov-Cambridge think-tank: on 29-30 January 2013 (n = 1,939, on attitudes to the cross); 3-4 February 2013 (n = 1,712, on attitudes to the kippah); and on 30-31 January 2013 (n = 1,914, on attitudes to the burka). The results are discussed in a YouGov-Cambrdige blog post of 20 February 2013 at:

http://www.yougov.polis.cam.ac.uk/?p=4412

The detailed data tables are located at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/3xu7auqj0x/YGCam-Archive-results-300113-European-Court-Human-Rights.pdf

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/es1qzi4mv7/YGCam-Archive-results-040213-European-Court-Human-Rights-Kippah.pdf

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/ep1emkef5f/YGCam-Archive-results-310113-European-Court-Human-Rights-Burka.pdf

Anglican church-led social action

Four-fifths (82%) of parishes in the Church of England have provided informal support to people in their community who have requested help, and 54% run organized activities to address at least one local social need. The latter figure ranges from 39% of churches whose congregation numbers fewer than 50 people to 94% where it exceeds 250; and from 80% in parishes based on council estates to 47% in the most rural areas. More than one social need is being formally met in 29% of parishes. Activities most commonly offered are: support with school work (69%), care for the elderly (54%), and parent and toddler groups (51%). Food banks are managed by 28% of parishes, although this is now likely to be an underestimate.

Community problems being tackled, formally or informally, by more than two-thirds of parishes comprise lack of self-esteem/hope, homelessness, mental health, and family breakdown/poor parenting. At the other end of the spectrum, more than one-half of parishes admit to doing very little or nothing to alleviate poor housing, benefit dependency, unemployment, unhealthy lifestyles, low education, crime/anti-social behaviour, or low income. While working relationships with schools are active and very close in three-quarters of parishes, the same is true of less than one-fifth in the case of the police, poverty charities, councils, local businesses, and social services.

Source: Online sample survey of Anglican incumbents undertaken by the Church Urban Fund (CUF) on behalf of the Church of England in December 2011. Of the 2,960 clergy invited to participate, 865 or 30% did so. There was an under-representation of rural parishes and small churches in the responses. Key findings are summarized in Bethany Eckley, The Church in Action: A National Survey of Church-Led Social Action, newly published and available at:

http://www.cuf.org.uk/sites/default/files/Research/The_Church_in_Action_Church_Urban_Fund_2013.pdf

It should be noted that this is actually the third report to have been issued by CUF on this survey. The first was Growing Church Through Social Action: A National Survey of Church-Based Action to Tackle Poverty, prepared by Benita Hewitt of Christian Research Consultancy, the agency which undertook the fieldwork; and the second a four-page summary of it, Growing Church Through Social Action. As their titles imply, their focus was especially on the church growth aspects of the research. These earlier reports have already been discussed on BRIN at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2012/church-growth-and-social-action/

 

 

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Trust in Clergy and Other News

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Clive D. Field

While waiting for the first tests of public opinion to the sudden resignation of Benedict XVI as Pope, here is a batch of six recently-published sources of British religious statistics on a miscellany of subjects.

Trust in clergy

Clergy/priests are the sixth most trusted group in a list of seventeen read out by Ipsos MORI in a telephone survey of 1,018 Britons aged 18 and over conducted on 9-11 February 2013 and published on 15 February. Clergy/priests were trusted to tell the truth by 66% of the sample, a figure exceeded only for doctors (89%), teachers (86%), scientists (83%), judges (82%), and television news readers (69%).

As might have been anticipated, the list was propped up by estate agents, MPs in general, bankers, journalists, and politicians in general; in each of these cases seven-tenths or more of adults stated that they did not trust these groups to tell the truth. However, 27% also said the same about clergy/priests, with 7% expressing no opinion.

The truthfulness of clergy/priests was not subject to major demographic variations, but it is interesting to note that some of the highest scores came from the 18-24s (72%), owner occupiers (70%), Scots (74%), intending voters for the Conservatives (76%) and UKIP (72%), and from those satisfied with the Coalition Government (75%).

For both topline and detailed data, go to:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3133/Politicians-trusted-less-than-estate-agents-bankers-and-journalists.aspx

Although clergy/priests might well take comfort from their relatively positive performance in this poll, they should not get too complacent. An Ipsos MORI time series clearly shows that trust in them to tell the truth has fallen fairly steadily from 85% in 1983, with the level of distrust rising from 11% in the same year. See:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/Veracity2011.pdf

Beginning of life

People of faith are more likely than those without religion to say that human life begins at conception. Overall, a plurality (44%) of Britons takes this view, but the proportion rises to 50% among Anglicans and Muslims and 60% among Catholics and Baptists, whereas for the ‘nones’ it falls to 34%. For the ‘very religious’, it is higher still: two-thirds of those who say they get some guidance in life from God, religion, religious leaders, or religious teachings. This same set of groups is also three times more likely than the norm to want to see abortion banned altogether: one-fifth or more as opposed to 7% for all respondents.

For adults as a whole, life is thought to start at some point during pregnancy by 30% but not until the baby is born by 17%, both options being selected by an above-average number of persons professing no religion (36% and 21% respectively). Don’t knows amounted to 8%, including one-third of those who preferred not to declare what their religious affiliation was.

The data come from the YouGov survey of 25-30 January 2013 for the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, the abortion aspects of which we have already covered in our post of 12 February. The full data tables for all these questions were released on 14 February and are available at:  

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/a0c0uf8c2g/YouGov-Survey-University-of-Lancaster-Results-130130.pdf

Lenten intentions II

Further to the coverage in our post of 9 February, YouGov has conducted a second online poll about the intended observance of Lent this year. Fieldwork took place on 10-11 February 2013 (before the start of Lent on 13 February) among 1,691 adult Britons aged 18 and over. Of these 27% said that they had plans to give something up for Lent, not dissimilar to the 24% recorded in the earlier poll. Full data tables (which also cover the anticipated consumption of pancakes on Shrove Tuesday) are available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/9szci1h69s/YG-Archive-110213-Pancake-Day.pdf

Religious affiliation

The latest survey to collect information about religious affiliation was conducted by ComRes for Marie Curie Cancer Care on 6-8 February 2013. A total of 2,601 Britons aged 18 and over was interviewed online. In reply to the question ‘which of the following religious groups do you consider yourself to be a member of?’ 53% said Christian, 8% non-Christian, and 37% none, with 2% preferring not to say.

The number professing no religion peaked among the under-45s (49% for the 18-24s, 46% for the 25-34s, 43% for the 35-44s), falling to 22% with the over-65s. There was also an above-average proportion of ‘nones’ in the lowest (DE) social group (42%), among private sector workers (42%), in the North East (42%), and in the South East (44%).

People who reported that somebody close to them (a relative or friend) had died in the last three years were somewhat less likely to declare themselves to have no religion (35%) than those who had not been bereaved on this timescale (39%); they were also more prone to say that they were Christian (55% against 52%). Perhaps the proximity of death still exercises a marginal pull towards the religiosity end of the religious-secular spectrum? For more detail, see Table 43 in the dataset at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Marie_Curie_Perceptions_of_Death_Data_February_2013.pdf

Inflated churchgoing

The tendency for respondents in sample surveys to exaggerate the frequency with which they attend public religious services is a well-known fact. It is described, somewhat euphemistically, as ‘measurement error’.

The outcome of the ‘prestige effect’, whereby people are still reluctant to admit that they are not so ‘religious’ as they or society feel they should be, the gap between reality and aspiration can be clearly seen by comparing the number who attended church on a typical Sunday in the last (2005) English Church Census with those claiming to worship weekly in polls around the same time.

However, the phenomenon is by no means peculiarly British but can be found internationally, too, including in North America. Philip Brenner, a sociologist from the University of Massachusetts Boston, is one of the scholars who has studied it, with his most recent research reported in the Winter 2012 issue (Vol. 72, No. 4, pp. 361-83) of Sociology of Religion: ‘Investigating the Effect of Bias in Survey Measures of Church Attendance’. It is far from being a light read and will win no prizes for linguistic accessibility! Although this is normally a subscription journal, Brenner’s article is, at the time of writing, free to view (apart from the three appendices) at:

http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/73/4/361.full.pdf+html

Brenner’s approach is to compare the reports of churchgoing in time use diaries with claims made in national sample surveys between the 1970s and early 2000s. Fourteen countries are investigated (United States, Canada, and twelve in Europe). In the case of Great Britain, the evidence derives from a comparison of time diaries for 1974-75, 1983-84, 1987, 2000-01, and 2005 with fifteen multinational surveys of adults from 1975 to 2006 in which fieldwork was undertaken in Britain.

The author’s particular concern is to establish whether the over-reporting of church attendance in surveys is related to the individual demographic ‘predictors’ commonly associated with religious practice. He has therefore compared the replies of sub-groups with regard to Sunday churchgoing in both the diaries and the surveys by means of logistic regression models. The demographic variables employed were: gender, age, marital status, presence of children in the household, educational attainment, and household income. Religious affiliation was excluded through insufficiency of data.

The core of this analysis is to be found in Table 1, which is entitled ‘testing the equality of residual variation assumptions and equality of underlying coefficients’. His principal conclusion (to paraphrase) is that there is very little evidence to suggest that demographic sub-groups respond differentially when reporting churchgoing in sample surveys against time diaries.

The over-reporting of church attendance which Brenner presupposes to exist in North American surveys (but generally not in European ones) is said at one point of the text not to be rooted in demography but to reflect the tendency of North Americans to ‘view religiosity as a more central part of their identities’.

However, in the conclusion, it is admitted (perhaps somewhat contradictorily) that the gap between time diaries and survey results probably reflects differences in data collection method, between directive (in the surveys) and non-directive (in the diaries) techniques.

Anglican episcopate

‘Bishops are a touchy subject within the Anglican Church. They wield a lot of power and matter more than most people realise, but because of this their origins have rarely been studied in a dispassionate way nor their present functions honestly weighed up in the light of the needs of the Church within a modern society’.

In his new book, deriving from his D.Min. thesis at the University of Wales Bangor in 2009, Michael Keulemans (an associate priest of the Church in Wales) attempts to rectify these deficiencies. Bishops: The Changing Nature of the Anglican Episcopate in Mainland Britain (2012) is available in hardcover, softcover, and ebook editions from http://www.XlibrisPublishing.co.uk

Apart from a good deal of historical context, two major surveys are included in the work. The first examines the background and careers of diocesan bishops in England, Wales, and Scotland at twenty-year intervals between 1905 and 2005 (chapters 6, 7, and 8). The second, employing a self-completion postal questionnaire, looks at attitudes towards the bishop’s role of 255 serving clergy and 358 leading laity (churchwardens or equivalent) in four Anglican dioceses (two in England, one each in Wales and Scotland), and compares them with those of 25 bishops who retired between 2000 and 2008 (chapters 10 and 11).

Although now around five years old, the second survey inevitably touches on a couple of issues which remain (controversially) current in the Anglican Communion: practising gay and women bishops. On the latter, 72% of clergy, 67% of laity, and 84% of retired bishops endorsed female bishops. Respondents from the Scottish diocese (Edinburgh) were notably supportive (83% of clergy and 82% of laity). There was much less enthusiasm for practising gay bishops: 30% of clergy, 17% of laity, and 25% of retired bishops.

 

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Abortion and Other News

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Clive D. Field

Our lead religious statistical news story today concerns the first release of data from the YouGov poll specially commissioned for the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, which commences tomorrow. There will be further releases of data in connection with every debate, each covering a specific area of religion and personal life.

Abortion

A new survey has revealed that most religious people are not against abortion and that their views on the topic are not markedly different from those of the public as a whole. The research (in which 4,437 adult Britons were interviewed online on 25-30 January 2013) was commissioned from YouGov by Professor Linda Woodhead of Lancaster University in connection with the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, which Woodhead has organized in conjunction with Rt Hon Charles Clarke.

According to the poll, 43% of people who identify with a religion are in favour of keeping or raising the current 24-week upper time limit on abortions (compared with 46% of the general population), 30% would like to see it lowered (28%), and 9% support a complete ban on abortion (7%). The remainder is undecided.

Of particular faith traditions, Catholics, Muslims, and Baptists are the most hostile to abortion, but still only about half of them would like to see the law on abortion changed. Even though the Roman Catholic Church teaches that abortion is always wrong, just 14% of Catholics in this country favour a ban, with 33% wanting to see the 24-week limit lowered. Among Muslims 30% support a ban and 16% would like to see the 24-week limit reduced.

Standard (secular) demographics – such as gender, age, and voting preference – do not make much difference to attitudes to abortion. Individuals most likely to be opposed to it are those: who believe in God with most certainty, who rely most heavily on scripture or religious teachings for guidance in their daily life, and whose religion has a strong anti-abortion message. A mere 8% of the population fits this profile, and of this 8% no more than one-third endorse a ban on abortion.  

Among the population as a whole, anti-abortion sentiment is declining and support for current abortion law is growing. Comparisons with earlier YouGov polls reveal that the percentage of adults who would like to see a ban on abortion has fallen from 12% in 2005 to 7% today. Of those who express a view, support for keeping (or even relaxing) the current 24-week limit has risen by about one-third to a clear majority (57%) today.

The full press release about the abortion results of the survey is available at:    

http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/events/programme_events/show/westminster_faith_debate_13_02_13_stem_cell_research_abortion_press_release

In an interview with Ben Quinn of The Guardian, Woodhead has commented: ‘The impression one gets from many religious leaders and spokespeople is that most religious people are opposed to the liberalising trend in society. That is just not true and statistics like this give the lie to that view.’ For The Guardian’s coverage, go to:

http://m.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/12/anti-abortion-feelings-declining

The poll findings have been released in connection with the first of the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, on ‘Stem cell research, abortion and the “soul of the embryo”?’ This takes place tomorrow (13 February 2013). However, BRIN readers should note that the debate is full, although names are still being taken for a reserve list.

Anti-Semitic incidents, 2012

The number of anti-Semitic incidents in the UK rose by 5% in 2012, to reach 640, the third highest total since records began in 1984, according to Antisemitic Incidents Report, 2012, published by the Community Security Trust (CST) on 7 February 2013. However, the figure of 640 included ‘100 anonymised incident reports provided by the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) as part of an incident data exchange programme introduced between CST and MPS in London in 2012. Removing these 100 “extra” incidents – which had been reported to MPS but not directly to CST – to give a “like for like” comparison with 2011, suggests an 11 per cent fall in real terms in the UK-wide antisemitic incident total in 2012.’ Abusive behaviour accounted for the majority of incidents in 2012 (73%), followed by assaults (10%), damage and desecration (8%), and threats (6%). Eighty incidents involved the use of internet-based social media, compared to just 12 in 2011. The 32-page report, containing exhaustive quantitative and qualitative analysis, is available at:

https://www.thecst.org.uk/docs/Incidents%20Report%202012.pdf

Believing in belonging

BRIN readers may like to know that a paperback version of Abby Day’s acclaimed 2011 book Believing in Belonging: Belief and Social Identity in the Modern World was published by Oxford University Press on 7 February 2013 (ISBN 978-0-19-967355-1, £25.00). It has a certain topicality in helping to unpack the results of the recently-released religion census of England and Wales in 2011 through its research into ‘performative, nominalist Christianity’ in the 2001 census. Indeed, the central ‘puzzle’ which underpins the work is, considering ‘all forms of public Christian religious participation have been declining for at least the last fifty years’, ‘why would so many non-religious people choose to claim a Christian identity on the census?’ The conundrum is explored by means of a critical reappraisal of the secondary literature (empirical and theoretical) and by qualitative interviews undertaken in North Yorkshire between 2002 and 2005. The 2001 census features particularly in chapters 3 and 9. One of Day’s findings is that, when asked how they had recorded their religious identity at the 2001 census, ‘half of my informants who answered “Christian” were either agnostics or atheists, who either overtly disavowed religion or at least never incorporated religion, Christianity, God, or Jesus into our discussions. They were … functionally godless and ontologically anthropocentric.’   Day feels that the language, form, and location of the questions used in the 2001 census (they varied between the home nations) may have contributed to ‘a false picture of an enduring Christian Britain’ by breaking ‘a number of fairly rudimentary rules about questionnaire design’. Likewise, there are useful summaries in the book of the background to the taking of the 2001 religion census and the ways in which its results were subsequently used in public discourse and policy formation.

BRIN in the media

On the morning of 10 February 2013 Clive Field was interviewed on ten BBC local radio stations about the religious dimensions of the same-sex marriage debate in terms of public opinion, and in the wake of the Second Reading debate in the House of Commons on the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill. The discussion centred around four main questions:

  • Has society become more accepting of same-sex marriage?
  • The growing acceptance of same-sex marriage has coincided with a decline of religion – are the two linked?
  • The Church of England and the Coalition for Marriage claim that public opinion does not support same-sex marriage – are they right?
  • What impact will same-sex marriage have on society as a whole?

Field had previously done a series of interviews on Radio 4 and eight BBC local radio stations on 16 December last about the initial results of the 2011 religion census for England and Wales.

 

Posted in News from religious organisations, Official data, Religion in public debate, Religion in the Press, Religious Census, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Clive D. Field

The increasingly heated controversy over the Coalition Government’s Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill for England and Wales shifts to Parliament tomorrow (5 February 2013), with the Second Reading debate in the House of Commons. It therefore seems a good point to take stock of what we know about the religious dimensions of the same-sex marriage issue.

Attitudes of faith groups to same-sex marriage

In terms of British public opinion overall, most recent polls are reporting that an absolute majority of adults now favours the legalization of same-sex marriage. YouGov’s last three polls (between December 2012 and February 2013) have all recorded 55% for and 36% against. The latest surveys (December 2012) by Survation, ICM, and Ipsos MORI found majorities of 60%, 62%, and 73% respectively. Where trend data exist, holding question-wording constant, they reveal that support for same-sex marriage has been building slowly but steadily over time.

Notwithstanding there have been many polls on the subject, and that religious leaders have been at the forefront of opposition to same-sex marriage, few data exist about the attitudes to it of adherents of particular faiths. A notable (but limited) exception has been YouGov, whose surveys in March and November 2012 both included breaks for professing Anglicans, who were less positive than average about same-sex marriage.

For example, in November 2012, when 51% of all adult Britons wanted the law changed to permit same-sex marriage, the proportion among Anglicans stood at only 41%, with a plurality of Anglicans (47%) actually opposed to the legislation. Back in March 2012, a mere 24% of Anglicans said that they would support same-sex marriage, against 46% who endorsed civil partnerships. Moreover, 65% vindicated the Church of England’s stance in defending marriage as an institution for just heterosexual couples (18% more than in the population as a whole).

Another YouGov poll (November-December 2011) contrasted the views of those professing some religion and those who had none. At that stage, 71% of Britons agreed with Government plans to ‘extend the legal form and name of civil marriage to same-sex couples’, but the number rose to 82% among those with no religion and fell to 58% for those professing some faith. Similarly, 15% more of the former than the latter (88% versus 73%) backed civil partnerships.

Beyond that, at least in terms of poll data which have fully entered the public domain, one has to go back to the British Social Attitudes Surveys in 2007 and 2008 for a full profile of attitudes to same-sex marriage by religion. Different questions were asked in each year, so direct comparison is not possible. However, in 2007 people of no faith had an 11% more positive attitude to same-sex marriage than the norm and in 2008 9% more. Almost at the other end of the spectrum, Anglicans had, respectively, 27% and 22% less positive views than those without a religion. Christians other than Anglicans and Catholics were also relatively unsympathetic to same-sex marriage at that point.

An even firmer line has been taken by regular churchgoers, surveyed by ComRes in October 2011 and June-July 2012. At the former date, 83% declared their opposition to Government plans to legalize same-sex marriage, 93% fearing that ministers of religion would have to conduct gay marriages against their conscience, 88% that schools would be required to teach children that same-sex relationships are on an equal footing as heterosexual relationships, and 85% that the value of marriage would be further undermined.

As many as 57% of regular churchgoers in October 2011 claimed that they would be less likely to vote Conservative as a result of Prime Minister David Cameron’s commitment to legalize same-sex marriage, and the figure was still 58% in June-July 2012. At this second date, 75% reported that their perceptions of Cameron had worsened in the light of his Government’s desire to change the definition of marriage, while 65% said the same about Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. The suggestion that the threat to the institution of marriage posed by same-sex unions might have been overblown was dismissed by 69%.

Same-sex marriages in places of worship

In an endeavour to placate religious opinion, the Government, in drafting the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, has tried to ensure that no religious body would be forced to conduct same-sex weddings in places of worship against its will. The measure contains a so-called ‘quadruple lock’ to guard against this possibility, including clarification that the duty of the Church of England and the Church in Wales to marry parishioners ‘does not extend to same-sex couples’, thereby (it is claimed) protecting them from legal challenge.

The ‘compromise’, albeit most faith bodies do not necessarily regard it in that light, seems to have muddied the waters somewhat so far as public opinion is concerned. In its latest poll (January-February 2013) YouGov charted a spread of views: 9% feeling that all religions should be required to conduct same-sex marriages; 40% that all religions should be empowered to perform such ceremonies if they wished to; 24% that religions should be so empowered but that the law should protect the freedom of those bodies who wished to prevent same-sex marriages occurring on their premises; and 20% that no religion should be entitled to conduct same-sex marriages.

Ipsos MORI’s poll in December 2012 revealed a bigger proportion (28%) wanting the law to require religions to provide weddings for same-sex couples, but far more (45%) wished to see no such requirement, the residuum of 24% opposing same-sex marriages in any location. On the other hand, as many as 40% of Britons in the OnePoll study in May 2012 wished to see same-sex couples having the opportunity to get married in church if that is what they desired to do.

In another YouGov survey (December 2012), which predated publication of the Bill, the topic was approached in a different way. British adults were then inclined, in the matter of religious marriages, to put the interests of faith bodies above sexual equality: 46% believed that, ultimately the right of Churches to restrict religious marriages to men and women should take precedence over the rights of same-sex couples, with only 27% taking the opposite line. A slim plurality (45%) wanted the law to keep religious weddings to those between a man and a woman, just 4% ahead of those who disagreed. However, a majority (53%) also wanted religions to have the legal option to offer same-sex marriages, if they wanted, albeit this was 18% down on the level in the YouGov survey of November-December 2011.

As for the position of the Church of England, Survation found in December 2012 that a majority (58%) defended its entitlement to oppose same-sex marriage, twice the number in disagreement, but in a YouGov poll in November 2012 more said that the Church was wrong (48%) than right (39%) to oppose same-sex marriage. At the same time, certainly by December 2012, most Britons wanted individual Anglican clergy to have the discretion to offer religious weddings to same-sex couples if they could do so in good conscience: 62% expressed this desire in a ComRes poll and 54% in the Survation one (with 35% arguing the opposite, that the Government should make it illegal for any Anglican clergy to conduct same-sex marriages until such time as the Church’s governing body approves the idea).

The concern for faith bodies, of course, is that however confident the Government may be about the security of its ‘quadruple lock’, the courts – whether British or European – might have other ideas. The public feels that there may be some ground for this anxiety, 34% in YouGov’s poll in December 2012 considering there was a risk, following legislation, that the courts would force places of worship to conduct same-sex marriages whether they wanted to or not; 43% deemed the prospect unlikely, with 23% undecided.

Regular churchgoers have particular concerns in this regard. In the ComRes survey of June-July 2012, 79% disbelieved Government assurances that places of worship would not be forced to conduct same-sex marriages, and 86% were apprehensive that the courts in Britain or the European Court of Human Rights would overturn any legal protections.

These churchgoers will be further discouraged by the fact that 50% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual people (LGBs) interviewed by ComRes in January 2013 fully expected the European courts eventually to remove any statutory restrictions on access to same-sex weddings in places of worship. Three-fifths of LGBs at that time, and in another ComRes poll in April-May 2012, contended that true marriage equality would only be achieved when same-sex couples had the identical choice of marriage locations as heterosexuals. Indeed, 35% of LGBs at the earlier date wanted the Government to force faith groups to offer religious ceremonies from the start.

Conclusion

Although more research is needed into the attitudes of members of faith groups to same-sex marriage, it seems undeniable that the opposition to the Government’s plans does come disproportionately from people of faith, and that the more committed that faith (for example, in terms of regular churchgoing), the stronger the defence of the ‘traditional’ concept of marriage between a man and a woman. Even 42% of all Britons interviewed by Survation in December 2012 recognized that ‘marriage is a sacred act between a man and a woman and cannot be a sacred act between same-sex couples’.

The opposition to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill on the part of most major faith bodies (the exceptions are really quite small in terms of their active memberships) has undoubtedly been accentuated by fears that the ‘quadruple lock’ would not withstand serious legal challenge, particularly from Europe, and by what appear to many to be the muddying of the divide between civil and religious marriages in the provisions of the Bill. The latter undoubtedly seem to have triggered quite a wide range of views.

In practice, most pundits expect that, notwithstanding the prospect of blood on the Conservative benches, the Bill will clear the House of Commons, thanks to Liberal Democrat and Labour MPs’ support. In its blog of 16 January 2013, the Coalition for Equal Marriage, the pro-same-sex marriage lobby, reported that ‘for the first time, a majority of MPs have committed to vote for a change in the law to lift the ban on same-sex marriage in England and Wales’. The Bill’s passage in the House of Lords is less predictable. As BRIN noted on 12 January, the latest ComRes survey among peers suggests there could be major resistance on the Conservative benches.

It is hopefully superfluous to caution that it would be potentially misleading to generalize from attitudes to the specific measure of same-sex marriage to opinions of gay rights as a whole. It does not follow that, because faith bodies have significant objections in principle to what they see as the undermining of the traditional view of marriage, they are homophobic. We will have to leave for another day a broader review of the changing perceptions of homosexuality among faith groups. In the meantime, interested readers could start with the research by Dr Ben Clements of the University of Leicester, which was posted on BRIN on 12 June 2012.   

In order to keep this post relatively brief and uncomplicated, source references have not been given to the many opinion polls mentioned above. In most cases, topline and/or disaggregated data can be found on the websites of the polling agencies concerned. BRIN has collated all recent opinion polls on the subject of same-sex marriage, not just those pertaining to the religious aspects, in connection with research for the 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates. This collation will eventually appear on the BRIN website.

 

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More Census Data and Other News

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Clive D. Field

It is a matter of two quantitative steps forward and one back this week. On the upside, more religion data have been released from the 2011 census and new survey research has been commissioned for the 2013 Westminster Faith Debates. On the downside, the standard published source of national-level Roman Catholic statistics in England and Wales has been discontinued.

More census data

The Office for National Statistics released further micro-level data from the 2011 religion census of England and Wales on 30 January 2013. The following religion reference tables are now available in Excel format by clicking the links to ‘key statistics’ and ‘quick statistics’ at:

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census/key-statistics-and-quick-statistics-for-parishes-and-parliamentary-constituencies-in-england-and-wales/index.html

TABLE KS209EW – 9 category classification of religion for:

  • regions, counties, London boroughs, districts, and unitary authorities in England and Wales
  • unitary authorities in Wales

TABLE QS210EW – 58 category classification of religion for:

  • regions, counties, London boroughs, districts, and unitary authorities in England and Wales
  • regions, counties, London boroughs, districts, unitary authorities, and wards in England and Wales
  • regions, districts, Middle Layer Super Output Areas, and Lower Layer Super Output Areas in England and Wales
  • unitary authorities in Wales
  • unitary authorities and electoral districts in Wales
  • Middle Layer Super Output Areas, Lower Layer Super Output Areas, and Output Areas in London
  • Ditto in Eastern England
  • Ditto in the East Midlands
  • Ditto in the North East
  • Ditto in the North West
  • Ditto in the South East
  • Ditto in the South West
  • Ditto in the West Midlands
  • Ditto in Wales
  • Ditto in Yorkshire and the Humber

Meanwhile, church statistician Peter Brierley has continued his analysis of the 2011 religion census data in the current issue (No. 25, February 2013) of FutureFirst, the bimonthly bulletin of Brierley Consultancy. There is an article on ‘Census Sense’ on pp. 1-2 of the main bulletin, and further detail on pp. 1-2 of an accompanying paper on ‘Religion, Age, and Gender from the 2011 Census’. Brierley is also offering (for £2) a 2,800-word report on Making Sense of the Census. For more information, contact Brierley Consultancy, 1 Thorpe Avenue, Tonbridge, Kent, TN10 4PW, email peter@brierleyres.com

In ‘Census Sense’ Brierley hypothesizes that the decrease of 3.8 million in the number of professing Christians in England between 2001 and 2011 is accounted for by an addition of 1 million new Christians less 4.3 million Christians who died during the decade less 0.5 million other losses to Christianity between 2001 and 2011.

In ‘Religion, Age, and Gender’ Brierley directly addresses the question of whether Christianity in Britain will die out. He concludes: ‘We are not yet in the final generation of Christians, and the next generation will not be the last either, but the Christian scene is likely to alter very considerably over the next 20 years or so’. He further suggests that ‘the Church of England’s actuaries forecasting that Anglican church attendance could drop 58% by 2030 is about right for most of the other denominations also’.

Westminster Faith Debates

The 2013 series of Westminster Faith Debates, which aims to ‘bring the best research and thinking on religion into public debate’, is about to commence. Organized by Professor Linda Woodhead of Lancaster University and Rt Hon Charles Clarke under the auspices of the Religion and Society Programme, the theme of the series is ‘Religion and personal life’. The debates take place in central London, as follows:

  • Wednesday, 13 February: ‘Stem cell research, abortion, and the “soul of the embryo”?’
  • Wednesday, 27 February: ‘Too much sex these days – the sexualisation of society?’
  • Thursday, 14 March: ‘Is it right for religions to treat men and women differently?’
  • Wednesday, 27 March: ‘What’s a traditional family and do we need it?’
  • Thursday, 18 April: ‘Do Christians really oppose gay marriage?’
  • Thursday, 2 May: Should we legislate to permit assisted dying?’

For full details of speakers and how to register to attend, go to:

http://www.religionandsociety.org.uk/faith_debates

To inform this year’s series of debates, the organizers have commissioned YouGov to conduct original online research into the issues which will be covered. Fieldwork took place on 25-30 January 2013 with 4,437 adult Britons, a much larger sample than in most opinion polls. In addition to three or four topical questions for each debate, there are a dozen or so background questions to measure the religion of respondents, thus permitting multiple cross-tabulations.

Results of this YouGov survey will be incrementally released in connection with each of the debates and will also be selectively covered on BRIN at the same time. To contextualize the findings, BRIN has researched comparative poll data for Britain since 2005. Also watch out for the series of articles linked to the debates which will be published in The Tablet on 9 and 23 February, 9 and 23 March, and 13 and 27 April.

Roman Catholic statistics

The 2013 edition of the annual (commercially published) Catholic Directory of England and Wales is the first for exactly a century not to include a section on Catholic statistics. In the absence of any central statistical unit in the English and Welsh Church, the Catholic Directory has long performed a useful public service in collating the figures gathered annually by each of the 22 dioceses. The volume and range of this information had already been thinned out by the Catholic Directory over recent years, but now it has come to a grinding halt.

The editor of the publication explains the decision to discontinue the statistical section thus: ‘For some time I have been troubled by the lack of consistency from one year to the next. Rather than publish potentially misleading information, it would be better to apply to the individual dioceses for up-to-date details as and when required’.

Even though the data were known to be of variable quality, and have been extensively critiqued by commentators such as Tony Spencer, the Catholic Directory has been an accessible national-level source, especially for those outside the Church. The editor’s advice to make enquiries of multiple dioceses is hardly helpful or practicable, especially for the all important pastoral and population statistics.

One can but hope that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales will now act to plug the hole. We understand that the Conference’s Department of Evangelisation and Catechesis is in the process of scoping a project to obtain a more accurate picture of the make-up of the Catholic community in England and Wales. This is to be warmly welcomed and, if implemented, would address the internal data requirements of the Church as well as the public interest, thereby avoiding potentially ill-founded estimates.

 

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