Anti-Semitic Incidents, 2011

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Clive D. Field

For the first time ever since reporting began, there were more anti-Semitic incidents in Greater Manchester than in Greater London in 2011, even though the Jewish population of the capital is seven times the size of Manchester’s.

This is one of the findings which has been grabbing the media headlines from the Community Security Trust (CST)’s Antisemitic Incidents Report, 2011, published on 2 February 2012 and available at:

http://www.thecst.org.uk/docs/Incidents%20Report%202011.pdf

CST, which has been recording anti-Semitic incidents in the UK since 1984, logged 586 of them in 2011, 9% fewer than in 2010 and 37% less than in 2009, when there was a spike in anti-Semitism as a result of Israel’s military operations in Gaza. The fall is attributed by CST to the absence of similar ‘trigger events’ in 2011.

The figures exclude potential incidents reported to and investigated by CST but not ultimately classified by it as anti-Semitic (in terms of motivation, targeting or content), although some were anti-Israel. There were 437 of these in 2011, bringing the total of reported incidents to 1,023.

201 of the 586 anti-Semitic incidents (34%) took place in Greater London, a decrease of 9% from 2010, and 244 (42%) in Greater Manchester, 13% more than the year before. There were 141 incidents (24%) in the rest of the UK.

According to CST, the Manchester peak was ‘mainly the result of improved reporting of incidents by Manchester’s Jewish community to CST and to Greater Manchester Police, and a close working relationship between CST and GMP’.

Incidents were categorized by type as follows: extreme violence (one incident), assault (16%), damage and desecration to Jewish property (11%), threats (5%), abusive behaviour (67%), and mass-produced literature (1%).

Victims of incidents were: high-profile public figures (3%), random Jewish individuals in public (37%), people in private homes (12%), schools and schoolchildren (12%), synagogues and congregants (18%), students and academics (6%), Jewish organizations and communal events (11%), and Jewish cemeteries (1%).

Where information was available, 85% of perpetrators were found to be male and 5% mixed gender groups. 61% were white and 39% black, Asian or Arab. 63% were described as adults and 36% as minors (but the latter accounted for two-thirds of anti-Semitic assaults).

 

Posted in News from religious organisations | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Catholic Directory, 2012

Posted on January 28, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Pope Benedict XVI’s state and pastoral visit to Britain from 16 to 19 September 2010 seems to have done little to improve the religious practice of English and Welsh Roman Catholics, to judge by average weekly mass attendance over four weekends in October 2010 which was 1.5% lower than in October 2009. At 885,169 mass attenders represented 1.6% of the national population and 21.9% of the estimated Catholic population.

The number of attenders fell in 14 of the 22 dioceses (and by as much as 10.0% in Northampton, 9.3% in Middlesbrough, and 7.5% in Leeds). Five dioceses (Birmingham, Clifton, Liverpool, Plymouth, and Southwark) returned identical figures for both years, and three (East Anglia, Salford, and Wrexham) reported modest growth (ranging from 0.4% to 1.9%).

This assessment derives from a comparison of the ‘recapitulation of statistics’ section of the recently released 2012 edition of the Catholic Directory for England and Wales with the 2011 volume. They print, respectively, pastoral data for 2010 and 2009. The Catholic Directory is published by Gabriel Communications on behalf of the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and is thus quasi-official.

Among the other statistics included in the Catholic Directory are estimates of the Catholic population, practising or lapsed, as known to and returned by parish priests. In 2010 the number was 4,034,069, 1.2% down on 2009 and equivalent to 7.3% of the population of England and Wales.

A note which has appeared in the Catholic Directory for several years claims that the aggregate of priests’ figures for Catholic population is a generally agreed underestimate and suggests 12% as the correct proportion. This seems to equate to the number of self-identifying Catholics in some, but by no means all, opinion polls. In the 2010 British Social Attitudes (BSA) Survey it was 9% (as it has mostly been in the BSA for the past two decades).

Decline between 2009 and 2010 was also manifest on some other indicators, with diocesan priests down by 6.9%, parish and other churches open to the public by 3.8%, and baptisms to seven years by 0.1%.

But receptions into full communion rose by 10.7% (perhaps this was the fabled ‘Benedict bounce’?) and marriages by 3.3% (the latter mirroring the Church of England’s recent experience).

We should, perhaps, end this post on a note of caution. Although the contemporary data in the Catholic Directory may be the best we currently have, they have not been compiled by professional statisticians, and they can present deficiencies and anomalies.

From this perspective, BRIN readers are encouraged to look at Tony Spencer’s criticisms in his Facts and Figures for the Twenty-First Century: An Assessment of the Statistics of the Catholic Community of England and Wales at the Start of the Century (£10.00 from Pastoral Research Centre, Stone House, Hele, Taunton, Somerset, TA4 1AJ).

 

Posted in church attendance, News from religious organisations | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Lords Spiritual

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Clive D. Field

‘Six out of ten Brits think bishops should be booted out of the House of Lords after defeating plans to cap benefits at £26,000 a year.’ So declared The Sun on 25 January 2012, following the poll it commissioned from YouGov on the public’s reactions to the Welfare Reform Bill.

The survey was undertaken online on 24 January 2012, among a sample of 749 adults aged 18 and over, and in the wake of the amendment to the Bill passed by the House of Lords the previous night, which had the effect of excluding child benefit from the £26,000 cap being proposed by the Government. Data tables have been posted at:

http://cdn.yougov.com/cumulus_uploads/document/pbzn4ckvyb/YG-Archives-Pol-Sun-BishopsHouseLords-260112.pdf

Five of the 26 senior bishops of the Church of England who are entitled to sit in the House of Lords had voted in favour of the amendment, and one of them (Rt Rev John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds) had actually proposed it. Three-fifths of YouGov’s interviewees opposed the amendment, and 74% supported the Government’s original cap.

Against this somewhat charged backdrop, YouGov asked whether bishops should still be allowed to sit and vote in the Upper Chamber. Only 26% of respondents said that they should, with 60% wanting them excluded, and 14% uncertain.

Removal of bishops from the House of Lords particularly appealed to Conservative and Liberal Democrat voters, 67% and 68% respectively. This was unsurprising, given that these are the two parties which form the Coalition Government, which had been on the receiving end of episcopal votes against the welfare cap.

Men were also more inclined than women to want the bishops unseated (64% versus 56%), while – less predictably – the anti-bishop lobby built by age, rising from 45% among the 18-24s to 70% with the over-60s. This partly reflected the large number of don’t knows (29%) in the 18-24 cohort.

The sample size for this poll was fairly small, and the context may have influenced the results. However, in an ICM survey for the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust in March 2010, just 33% believed it important for Anglican bishops to have a role in the House of Lords and 74% said that it was wrong for some of them to have automatic seats there. See BRIN’s coverage at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2010/religion-in-public-life-another-poll/

 

Posted in Religion and Politics, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Census and Social Science

Posted on January 25, 2012 by Clive D. Field

The Salvation Army’s Research and Development Unit and the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) in association with the Board of Deputies of British Jews were among the 42 respondents to the call for written evidence by the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee’s enquiry into the census and social science, which was launched on 9 November 2011. This written evidence was published on 19 January 2012 at:

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmsctech/writev/1666/1666.pdf

The Committee’s investigation follows the government’s announcement that it is reviewing alternatives to the decennial population census, which has taken place since 1801 (apart from 1941). A question on religious affiliation was included in 2001 and 2011. The Committee, which is currently taking oral evidence, is seeking to understand how the ending of the census would impact on social science research.

The Salvation Army’s response focused on its need for general socio-demographic information from the census, but JPR and the Board of Deputies strongly and specifically emphasized the criticality of collecting data on religion. It is worth quoting a few extracts from their joint submission:

‘We maintain that, as data on religion are not routinely captured, all religious groups will be disadvantaged as a result of potential discontinuation of the census and the religion question contained within it. This is particularly important to religious minority groups which plan and provide group-specific services.’

‘We would further maintain that the gathering of data on religious groups should be in the government’s interest. Given Britain’s multicultural nature and some of the challenges that exist within and between religious minorities, it is surely essential to have access to data that provide a detailed view of the internal dynamics of each sub-population.’

‘The potential discontinuation of the national census is a cause of major concern to JPR and the Board of Deputies. A viable alternative to the census (such as a population register of the kind maintained in several Scandinavian countries) must include the collection of data on religion if the community is not to be put at a significant disadvantage in its data gathering capacity.’

Some of the other submissions to the Committee, from individuals and ‘secular’ organizations, also stressed the value of religion data in the census. It is a pity, however, that there was no response to the call for written evidence from other faith communities, although it has to be conceded that a fairly short deadline was set by the Committee.

Meanwhile, The Jewish Chronicle for 20 January 2012 included a report that JPR is to conduct later this year the first national survey of British Jewry since 1995, to be used in conjunction with outputs from the 2011 census. The project is being funded by JPR, the Pears Foundation and leading Jewish charities, including Nightingale, Norwood, UJIA and Jewish Care.  

 

Posted in Official data, Religion and Politics | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Loyal Subjects

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Churchgoing Christians are mostly (81%) convinced that there is such a thing as a ‘British’ identity, and they retain a strong sense of commitment to the monarchy in general, and the present Queen in particular, according to a Cpanel survey by ComRes for Premier Christian Radio, which was published on 20 January 2012.

Fieldwork was conducted online between 2 and 14 December 2011 with a sample of 559 UK Christians. The full data tables, the third set from this poll (others, previously featured on BRIN, have covered attitudes to Christmas and the Occupy London movement), have been posted at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Premier_C-Panel_Monarchy_Dec11.pdf

74% of churchgoers said that they were proud of the monarchy as a whole, the proportion being below average for the 16-44 age cohorts and peaking at 85% among the over-65s. Denominationally, one of the lowest figures (69%) was recorded by Roman Catholics. 24% of the whole sample said that they were not proud of the monarchy.

As with the general public, attitudes to the monarchy are largely conditioned by positive views of Queen Elizabeth II. 85% of Christians were proud of her (including 96% of the over-65s but only 72% of Catholics) and 13% not proud.

Her son, Prince Charles, is much less highly regarded. Just 41% of churchgoers were proud of him and 58% not proud. This relatively poor rating is probably a legacy of hostile reactions to his adultery and divorce in the 1990s. His son, Prince William, fared better, with 77% proud and 17% not proud of him.

Despite this admiration for the monarchy, no more than 31% thought that the monarch should continue to be head of the Church of England, with 55% opposed. The main groups registering a small majority in favour of the status quo were the over-65s (45% for, 42% against) and Anglicans (44% versus 38%). 61% of non-Anglicans, 64% of men and 67% of the 35-44s wanted the current arrangement to cease.

Opinion was more balanced when it came to the question of disestablishment, 43% of Christians supporting it and 45% negative. Not unexpectedly, Anglicans strongly favoured an established church (by 59% to 30%) and non-Anglicans slightly backed disestablishment (by 48% to 40%). Women (51%) also endorsed establishment more than men, and the over-65s (55%) more than the young.

 

Posted in News from religious organisations, Religion and Politics, Religion in public debate, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

ONS Opinions Survey Religion Module

Posted on January 24, 2012 by Clive D. Field

On 18 January 2012 the Economic and Social Data Service released for secondary analysis the dataset from the ‘ONS Opinions Survey, Census Religion Module, April, May, June and July, 2009’. This is available, under special licence access to approved UK researchers (accredited by the UK Statistics Authority), as SN 6938. For further information, see:

http://www.esds.ac.uk/findingData/snDescription.asp?sn=6938

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Opinions Survey (OPN), previously known as the ONS Omnibus Survey, is a regular, multi-purpose study carried out by the ONS Social Survey Division. It started operating commercially in 1990 and was conducted for eight months of the year until April 2005 and monthly thereafter.

A census religion module (MCG/MCGb) was included in the OPN for April-July 2009 inclusive, as part of the final testing of question-wording for the 2011 population census. Citizenship was also covered in the same module (in April and May). A total of 4,235 Britons aged 16 and over living in private households were interviewed face-to-face.

The question which was tested on religion is one which is not often used in sample surveys. ‘Which of these best describes you?’ was followed by eight reply options: Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, any other religion (specify), and no religion. In the May and July 2009 surveys no religion was made the first option, ahead of Christian. Any spontaneous comments made by the respondent to the question were also captured by the interviewer.

As well as through the OPN, ‘Which of these best describes you?’ was evaluated through: a postal test in England in March 2009 (with no religion given as the first option), cognitive testing, and engagement with key stakeholders. For comparative purposes, another question – ‘What is your religion, even if not currently practising?’ – was included in the core questionnaire for the April-July 2009 OPN.

In the end, ONS decided against using ‘Which of these best describes you?’ in the 2011 census and in favour of ‘What is your religion?’ – which many commentators regard as potentially leading. The ONS rationale for doing so is set out in the October 2009 report Final Recommended Questions for the 2011 Census in England and Wales: Religion, which is available through the Government web archive at:

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110109084035/http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/2011-census/2011-census-questionnaire-content/question-and-content-recommendations-for-2011/index.html

In Annex A of this document ONS tabulated the results from the core and module questions on religion in the April-July 2009 OPN. ‘Which of these best describes you?’ was found to increase the proportion professing no religion compared with ‘What is your religion, even if not currently practising?’ But the difference was especially noticeable in May and July, when no religion headed the list of options. In this instance, perhaps it was the running order of options more than the question-wording per se which most affected the results.

So, these April-July 2009 OPN data do not simply have historical significance. They remain important methodologically in demonstrating how variations in questionnaire design can impact upon the statistics generated by enquiries into religious affiliation. Doubtless, the first results from the religion question in the 2011 census, when they come, will reignite the debate about what is the ‘right’ way to formulate this question.

 

Posted in Measuring religion, Official data, Survey news | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Faith in Research Conference

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Clive D. Field

The Research and Statistics Department of the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England and the Oxford Centre for Ecclesiology and Practical Theology will be hosting the next annual Faith in Research Conference at The Mothers’ Union, 24 Tufton Street, London, SW1P 3RB on Wednesday, 9 May 2012, from 10.30 a.m. to 4 p.m. The cost of the day will be £45 (including buffet lunch, coffee and tea) or £20 for unsalaried postgraduate students.

After opening remarks from John Packer (Bishop of Ripon and Leeds), who will be chairing the event, the proceedings will begin with a plenary session on the ‘Experiences of Ministry Research’ being conducted from the Department of Management, King’s College London, with Dr Mike Clinton as principal investigator. This is a five-year project, including three online surveys of Anglican clergy, the first of which was completed in May-July 2011, with 2,916 responses (with further surveys due in 2013 and 2015). There is a brief report on the 2011 data, focusing on engagement, workload, burnout and growth, at:

http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1373865/microsoft%20word%20-%20ems%20respondent%20report%202011%2024%2011%2011.pdf

An overview of the project as a whole will be found at:

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/sspp/departments/management/research/experiencesofministry.aspx

Three more substantive sessions are planned for the day, each sub-divided into three parallel streams. These will comprise a mix of theoretical, qualitative and quantitative insights. One of the papers will be by David Walker (Bishop of Dudley), comparing and contrasting (statistically) occasional and regular churchgoers from the perspectives of religious beliefs, attitudes, orientation and practices. He has already produced some interesting research on attenders at harvest festival services in the Diocese of Worcester in 2007 – see http://www.brin.ac.uk/sources/2808

The full programme for the Faith in Research Conference is available at:

http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1378773/FiR2012programme.doc

 

Posted in News from religious organisations | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Swindon Churches Audit

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Clive D. Field

‘Christians are highly motivated to make a difference in their communities, stepping forward in response to need and to fulfil the divine injunction to love our neighbours as ourself.’

So writes Rt Rev Dr Lee Rayfield, Bishop of Swindon, in his introduction to a report prepared by the Churches’ Council for Industry and Responsibility on behalf of Swindon Churches Together, and formally launched on 16 January 2012.

Entitled Swindon Churches Audit, 2011: A Survey of the Churches’ Contribution to Community Life in Swindon, this 39-page document is available on request as a PDF file by emailing barbaraaftelak@ntlworld.com

The data mainly derive from a questionnaire completed by 49 (or 57%) of the 83 churches and four church organizations in Swindon, from which statistics were extrapolated to borough level. Some interviews were also conducted.

Average weekly attendance at all services was estimated as 8,300 or 4.2% of the population. 37% of these congregants were over 65. However, including worship, approximately 16,000 individuals attended 670 church-run activities each week.  

Swindon churches supported 325 and ran 280 community projects or community-focused activities. On average, each church supported or ran six such activities. 360 community groups also used Christian places of worship for their work or programmes on a regular basis.

4,780 people were believed to be involved in church-based volunteering (930 in a management capacity and 3,850 in other roles), while 3,000 church members and attenders routinely participated in voluntary work outside the church. The total volunteer hours which they offered each year was calculated as 610,000, representing a value of £6 million to the local economy were this effort to be costed realistically.

The Swindon findings are broadly consistent with other local audits of religion as social capital, for example the more multifaith surveys carried out by universities in Oxfordshire and Plymouth in 2010 and already featured by BRIN at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2010/faith-in-oxfordshire/

and

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2010/plymouth-faith-action-audit/

These and similar studies play into the Government agenda for social action, which positions faith at the heart of community engagement. This policy has recently manifested itself in the announcement by Eric Pickles, Communities Secretary, on 13 January that throughout 2012 faith bodies will lead a series of volunteering days, encouraging communities to come together to help improve their local neighbourhoods.

 

Posted in News from religious organisations, Religion and Social Capital | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Anglican Churchgoing in 2010

Posted on January 21, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Attendance in the Church of England continues on its gently declining path, although there are one or two glimmers of hope, according to the 2010 provisional statistics which were released by the Research and Statistics Department of the Archbishops’ Council on 19 January 2012 as a set of 19 pages of tables and maps, disaggregated by diocese. They are available at:

http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1385577/2010provisionalattendanceandaffliation.pdf

In terms of congregations at ‘ordinary’ services, the best figure was for all-age monthly attendance. At 1,645,000, this was 0.4% down on 2009 (made up of a decline of 0.7% for adults and an increase of 0.3% for children and young people). The decrease since 2000 was 11.3%. The Government’s estimate of England’s population in mid-2010 was 52,234,000, 3.1% of whom therefore worshipped in Anglican churches once a month.   

A variety of other attendance measures is also compiled. Average weekly attendance stood at 1,116,000 in 2010, a reduction of 1.3% over the previous year (1.1% for adults and 2.0% for children and young people). Highest all-age Sunday attendance was 1,283,000, 1.7% lower than in 2009 and 12.4% than in 2000. Average Sunday attendance fell by 2.2% between 2009 and 2010 and usual Sunday attendance by 1.7%.    

Since attendance counts in the Church of England take place at traditional services during a four-week period in October, it is conceivable that they may miss some worshippers. In particular, there has been a concern among the Anglican hierarchy that those involved with Fresh Expressions of church, but who do not take part in regular services, may be omitted. In 2010 these were covered for the first time in the figures. 1,000 such Fresh Expressions linked to the Church of England were identified, attended by 30,000 people who would not otherwise attend church.

As for religious festivals, all-age Christmas Day/Eve attendance in 2010 was 2,298,000, 5.1% less than in 2009. Extremely harsh weather in 2010 will have contributed to the drop, but the trend is longer-term, with Christmas attendance in 2010 19.4% lower than in 2000. Easter Day/Eve attendance was 1,395,000, 1.2% down on 2009. There were fewer festival communicants than attenders, 903,000 on Christmas Day/Eve and 999,000 on Easter Day/Eve, albeit communicants formed a much higher proportion of attenders at Easter than at Christmas.

Electoral roll membership rose by 17,500, or 1.4%, between 2009 and 2010, to reach 1,214,000. However, the real test of what is happening will probably come in 2013 when the next six-yearly wholesale revision of the roll will be undertaken. There was a big fall in the number of confirmands (10.4%) from 2009 to 2010.

The picture for rites of passage was mixed. Total baptisms were unchanged between 2009 and 2010, although infant baptisms declined by 0.6%. Marriages in Anglican churches were up by 3.8% on the year, and restored to the level in 2006-07, perhaps reflecting the success of the Weddings Project of the Archbishops’ Council and the introduction of the 2008 Marriage Measure. Funerals were down 3.0% overall and those conducted in crematoria by 3.6%.

 

Posted in church attendance, News from religious organisations, Rites of Passage | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Christian Attitudes to Poverty

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Attending church appears to do little to change people’s underlying attitudes to poverty and inequality, with no great differences between the views of churchgoers and non-churchgoers, and – in particular – sharp divergences between those of clergy and their congregations.

These are among the key findings of a new research report from the Church Urban Fund (CUF) in association with Church Action on Poverty, previewed in the Church of England Newspaper and Church Times of 16 December last but only just released in full. Entitled Bias to the Poor? Christian Attitudes to Poverty in this Country, it can be downloaded from:

http://www.cuf.org.uk/sites/default/files/documents/PDFs/Bias_to_the_poor.pdf

CUF’s data derive from a survey of 170 Church of England clergy, carried out at deanery chapter meetings in 2011, and for regular (at least monthly) churchgoers of all denominations and non-churchgoers or professing non-religious from secondary analysis of NatCen’s British Social Attitudes (BSA) Survey (seemingly for 2009). Among the headline statistics are:

  • 73% of clergy said poverty is mainly due to social injustice, compared with only 22% of regular churchgoers and 20% of non-religious
  • 38% of churchgoers and non-religious have a fatalistic or passive attitude to poverty, regarding it as ‘an inevitable part of modern life’, against 16% of clergy
  • 23% of churchgoers and 27% of non-religious attribute poverty to laziness or lack of willpower (1% of clergy)
  • 83% of clergy assessed that large income differences contribute to social problems like crime, versus 56% of churchgoers and 65% of non-religious
  • 77% of clergy described large income differences as unfair, compared with 50% of churchgoers and 51% of non-religious
  • 73% of clergy believed that large income differences are morally wrong, twice the figure (36%) for both churchgoers and non-religious
  • 79% of churchgoers and 75% of non-religious saw large income differences as inevitable, against 34% of clergy
  • 64% of churchgoers and 60% of non-religious thought large income differences incentivized people to work hard (just 19% of clergy taking the same position)
  • 76% of clergy acknowledged that there is ‘quite a lot’ of child poverty in Britain, against just 37% of churchgoers and 38% of non-religious (in fact, official statistics prove that nearly one in three children are living in poverty)

Comparing results with BSA surveys for 20 years ago, sympathy for the poor among churchgoers is revealed to have declined. Attitudes to benefits have especially hardened, 57% of churchgoers in 2009 arguing they are too high and discourage work (versus 30% in 1987). 

CUF concludes: ‘Our findings show that clergy understand poverty and inequality very differently to their congregations, and that church attendance has little impact on people’s underlying attitudes to these issues (in stark contrast to other moral issues, like euthanasia, censorship, and marriage, where there are very marked differences between churchgoers and non-churchgoers).’

‘The majority of churchgoers do not recognise the extent of poverty in this country and only a small minority attributes poverty to social injustice. If, as we believe, tackling poverty is at the heart of the gospel message, then there is a clear need for churches to do more to raise awareness and understanding of these issues among their congregations.’

 

Posted in church attendance, News from religious organisations, Religion and Social Capital, Survey news | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments