By George!

Posted on April 23, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Today, 23 April, is St George’s Day, the traditionally accepted date of his Christian martyrdom in the fourth century AD. This remains the case in most diaries, even though the Anglican and Roman Catholic calendars have moved the English national saint’s feast day to 2 May this year, to avoid a clash with Holy Saturday (Easter being so late in 2011).

Concerted attempts have been made in recent years, including by some politicians and ecclesiastics, to raise the profile of St George and his day, as part of a more general campaign to celebrate a positive spirit of ‘Englishness’. Unfortunately, new surveys demonstrate that public consciousness of St George still remains quite low.

For example, in an online poll by Opinium Research conducted among 2,012 UK adults, only 48% of English residents could name the date of St George’s Day, even though 57% knew when St Patrick’s Day is (17 March).

This contrasted with four-fifths in Wales knowing the date of St David’s Day (1 March) and everybody in Northern Ireland being aware of when St Patrick’s Day falls. [Sources: Daily Express and Daily Mail, 23 April 2011]. 

Things were even worse in a survey by OnePoll for This England magazine. One in ten of the 2,000 English adults quizzed online thought that St David rather than St George was England’s patron saint. [Source: Daily Express, 18 April 2011].

Notwithstanding, 64% of Britons backed the Archbishop of York’s call for St George’s Day to be observed as a public holiday, in an online poll by ComRes last month for Premier Christian Media, among a sample of 2,064 adults.

The proportion rose to 71% among professing Christians and 69% for people living in England. The Welsh (45%) and Scots (28%) were less enthusiastic about the idea. [Sources: Church of England Newspaper and Church Times, 8 April 2011; and http://www.comres.co.uk].

For 2009 and 2010 polls about St George, see BRIN’s coverage at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=235

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School Workforce in England

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Just 32% of teachers of religious education in publicly funded secondary schools in England have a degree in a relevant subject, 13% have another relevant post-A Level qualification, but 55% have no relevant post-A Level qualification.

This is according to provisional statistics released by the Department for Education on 20 April 2011 and derived from the annual School Workforce Census inaugurated in November last year. The full report (with tables in PDF and Excel formats) is available at:

http://www.education.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000997/SFR62011.pdf

The proportion of religious education teachers with a relevant degree is the sixth lowest of all thirty subjects in the tables, only ICT (23%), modern languages other than French, German and Spanish (23%), engineering (18%), media studies (15%), and citizenship (4%) faring worse. 80% was the highest subject figure recorded.

There are 15,500 teachers of religious education in English secondary schools. This is equivalent to 6.5% of all subject teachers, although the number of hours they teach religious education in a typical week (124,100, or 8.0 per teacher) represents only 3.2% of the total hours taught.

This does not imply that religious education teachers are underemployed. The apparent discrepancy arises from the fact that many will be teaching other subjects, also.

79% of religious education teachers teach to Key Stage 3 (years 7-9), 67% to Key Stage 4 (years 10-11), and 25% to Key Stage 5 (years 12-13). About half of all hours taught in religious education are at Key Stage 3.

Of all the hours of religious education taught across Key Stages 3-5, 53% are taught by teachers with a degree in a relevant subject, 20% by those with another relevant post A-Level qualification, and 27% by those with no relevant post A-Level qualification.

Thus, 73% of religious education lessons are delivered by the 45% of teachers who have a relevant post-A Level qualification in the subject. This figure is exceeded by twenty-two other subjects, the best being 96%.

0.3% of religious education posts were vacant in November 2010, compared with 0.4% for all subjects.

These data from the School Workforce Census seem likely to fuel the current protests within faith communities against Government policy in a) excluding religious education from the English Baccalaureate and b) drastically cutting the number of secondary teacher training places in religious education from 2011/12.

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Threats to the European Union

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Islamist terrorism is viewed as the second greatest threat to the European Union (EU) over the next few years, according to a five-nation European poll conducted online by ICM Research for The Guardian between 24 February and 8 March 2011. The sample comprised 5,023 adults aged 18-64, including 1,001 in Great Britain.

Across the weighted aggregate of the five countries 33% were concerned about increasing government debt, 32% about Islamist terrorism, 26% about immigration from non-EU countries, 24% about political and civil unrest, and 21% about the growth of China’s economy.

But in France and Poland Islamist terrorism was the number one worry, at 34% and 38% respectively. Germany also stood on 34%, Spain on 30%, with Britain (at 25%) the least anxious about Islamist terrorism. Even so, it was still the third major concern for Britons, after immigration from non-EU countries (33%) and rising government debt (32%).

For the topline national results, see table 22 of the dataset at:

http://www.icmresearch.co.uk/icmresearch/files/pdfs/guardian_march_european_poll.pdf

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Church Buildings Surveyed

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The National Churches Trust (NCT, formerly the Historic Churches Preservation Trust, established in 1953) has today published a 72-page report on its survey of the UK’s estimated 47,000 places of Christian worship.

The study was conducted between 16 April and 28 July 2010, with the assistance of McKinsey & Company (on a pro bono basis). The report, and associated press release, will be found at:

http://nationalchurchestrust.org/explore-and-discover/national-survey.php

The survey was primarily completed online. Churches were either contacted directly, by email (in 17,000 cases) or post (3,200), or indirectly through 26 denominational networks (representing an additional 13,000 places of worship).

There were 7,200 useable responses, equivalent to 15% of the whole universe (not all of which was reached) or 22% of places of worship which were actually approached, directly or indirectly.

This is a not untypical and thus quite respectable ‘response rate’ for a survey using this type of methodology. Of this total of 7,200, 77% replied to an email, 11% by post and 12% self-registered online.

The key issue, of course, is how representative these replies were, especially bearing in mind the debate about potential non-response bias which took place in the columns of the Church Times when the survey was first announced. See BRIN’s coverage of the correspondence at http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=165

NCT believes that responding churches did broadly reflect the UK scene in terms of denominational and geographical spread, building age and congregational size. A sample balancing process, rather cursorily explained in Appendix 1 (p. 55), was used to calculate national totals. 5,100 returns had sufficient data to be included in this balanced dataset.   

The scope of the survey was wide and often innovative, extending to the maintenance, funding and management of places of worship and their contribution to their local communities. A copy of the survey instrument (which ran to 45 questions) is reproduced in Appendix 2 (pp. 58-65) of the report.

Only a few key findings can be highlighted here:

  • Nine-tenths of churches were used for a religious service at least once a week, including 100% of Roman Catholic places of worship and virtually all Free Church buildings (about one in six Anglican churches had between one and three services a month)
  • Nearly four-fifths of churches were used for purposes other than worship, including community activities, but more so in unlisted than listed buildings and in urban than rural areas 
  • Community activities were most likely to be found in the Free Churches, followed by Anglican and Roman Catholic premises, with private events also being most prevalent in the Free Churches but more numerous in Catholic than Anglican places of worship 
  • Among non-worship events, young people’s activities (54%), educational services (43%), arts, music and dance (43%), and support and counselling services (42%) were most common 
  • The lack of volunteer time (33%), of suitable space (33%) and of suitable facilities (28%) were cited as the main impediments to further community engagement by the local church 
  • The average church building had 33 volunteering in it in any capacity, of whom 28 were from the congregation, suggesting a possible 1,600,000 individuals involved in church volunteering nationally, including 200,000 non-churchgoers 
  • 92% of churches were self-assessed as in good or fair condition, but 8% were deemed to be in a poor or very poor state, disproportionately listed buildings, with the average cost of urgent repairs estimated at £80,000 each

The report contains 42 charts, many of them including disaggregated results (for example, by church location). BRIN readers will probably feel the desire for more methodological detail and greater access to the raw data, and hopefully the NCT will be able to facilitate this in due course.

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Does Christianity Have A Future?

Posted on April 17, 2011 by Siobhan McAndrew

BRIN readers who happen to catch this post before 10.25pm this evening (Sunday 17 April) may be interested in tonight’s programme, DOES CHRISTIANITY HAVE A FUTURE?, which discusses the decline and resilience of Christianity in the UK. It is to be aired on on BBC1 (except Scotland), and hosted by Ann Widdecombe on a return to more serious material after her extended stint on STRICTLY COME DANCING. A seminar at the University of Manchester, hosted by BRIN co-director David Voas, was recorded for the programme, so I’ll be taking an especial interest.

More information is available here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010n3qr

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Britain as a Christian Country

Posted on April 16, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The recent census question on religion sparked some debate about the persistence of cultural Christianity. That phenomenon can be defined both at the level of the individual and in terms of national character – whether Britain remains a ‘Christian country’.

One-half of the British population seemingly still regards Britain as a Christian country and wants it to remain so, according to a ComRes poll undertaken for the campaign group Christian Concern and published on 8 April.

Fieldwork was conducted by telephone between 18 and 20 March 2011 among a representative sample of 1,002 adults aged 18 and over. The data tables are available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/christianconcernequalitiespollapr11.aspx

Asked whether it was preferable for Britain to be regarded as a Christian rather than an atheistic country, 52% agreed, 37% disagreed and 11% expressed no opinion.

Views varied considerably by age. Whereas among the 18-24s only 20% agreed and 67% disagreed, among the over-65s the figures were 72% and 19% respectively.

Social class also made a difference, the top (AB) social group recording a margin of just 8% in favour of a Christian country (49% versus 41%) while among the DEs those in agreement outnumbered dissentients by two to one (62% against 29%).

Respondents were then faced with the statement ‘It does not matter whether or not Britain remains a Christian country in terms of its legal and cultural heritage’. 48% disagreed, 43% agreed and 9% were undecided.

Demographic variations were not quite as marked as for the first statement, but there was still some age effect. Those in disagreement peaked at 55-56% among the 35-44s and over-55s, with 60% of 18-24s and 55% of 25-34s agreeing that it did not matter whether Britain remained a Christian country.

Interviewees were not asked on this occasion whether Britain could actually be described as a Christian country, but this question was put in an earlier ComRes/Christian Concern poll on 26-29 November 2010. 50% then replied in the affirmative and 47% in the negative. See our previous post at: http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=804 

The four remaining statements in this year’s survey dealt with public attitudes to equality legislation. These were informed by the recent High Court case involving Owen and Eunice Johns, Christian foster-carers from Derby who hold that homosexual activity is morally wrong.

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Trends in Anglican Confirmations, 1872-2009

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Siobhan McAndrew

There has been some discussion in the press regarding Kate Middleton’s recent confirmation as an Anglican, and so I thought I would look up the extant data.

Confirmations-1872-2009

 

My knowledge of Anglican confirmation is fairly limited. I remember Noel Streatfeild’s autobiographical A Vicarage Family (1963) at school, where the teenage Vicky (Streatfeild’s alter ego) is confirmed shortly before the First World War (she wears a horrific dress and throws an inkwell at the family governess just before the service). From this I gathered that it was the Anglican analogue of Catholic first communion, required to take communion in an Anglican church – although apparently not, as the Church of England website explains here.

I have combined various sources to produce the graph above.

For 1872 to 1970 the source is Currie, Gilbert and Horsley’s data on confirmations from Churches and Churchgoers (1977), originally sourced from The Official Yearbook of the Church of England. The data and source note is also available on BRIN/figures here.

Secondly, there is a set of annual data compiled by the Church Society for 1950-2005 with a description of sources here (although note that the source description encompasses other measures of attendance and rites of passage). These overlap the CGH figures with a very small divergence between 1963 and 1969.

I also have estimates from two editions of P. Brierley (ed.) Religious Trends: Table 8.14.1 in Religious Trends 1 (1998-1999) and Table 8.3.1 in Religious Trends 4 (2003/2004).

These cover different but sometimes overlapping different years and in some cases differ slightly (perhaps because of revision or rounding) although ultimately sourced from Church Statistics, Research & Statistics Department, Archbishops’ Council, Church House.

The final source is the Church of England’s Church Statistics Online, which provides measures for 2000-2009 (2003-2009 data here; 2000-2002 data from the archive section here ). The 2003-2009 data appear to have been rounded.

How can the decline be interpreted? The Church Society refers people to the following article by Brian Green in Crossway (2003). He argues that:

“church attendance and confirmations are firmly linked… if people are not confirmed, why would they attend a form of worship in which they may not participate fully?”

Paul Handley, editor of the Church Times, wrote yesterday in The Guardian that:

“The Church of England has relaxed its regulations, so that anyone who has been baptised can take communion, even in infancy if the priest agrees. Confirmation, then, has become much more of a conscious, opt-in sort of occasion”.

I’m not clear as to when the change in rules was brought into force (perhaps after Green’s commentary in 2003), or why – any clarification from readers would be welcome.

The CGH, Religious Trends and Church Statistics Online data are also given in the table below. For copyright reasons I refer readers again to the Church Society’s 1950-2005 compilation rather than reproducing them below.

Or download the data as a CSV file here.

Posted in Historical studies, Measuring religion, Religion in the Press, Rites of Passage | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Burka Britain

Posted on April 15, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Two-thirds of Britons would like to see the burka banned in this country, notwithstanding the fact that the Home Secretary has indicated that the Government has no intention of moving in the same direction as France, where a law prohibiting the burka, niqab and other face-coverings being worn in public came into force this week.

This finding comes from an online poll by YouGov conducted on 11 and 12 April 2011 among a representative sample of 2,258 adults aged 18 and over. The full results have been posted at:

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/yg-archives-pol-yougov-burqa-130411.pdf

Following an introductory explanation of what a burka is, respondents were asked whether they thought the garment should be banned in Britain. 40% agreed strongly that it should be and a further 26% agreed. The combined percentage of 66% compared with 67% on 14-15 July 2010, when YouGov first asked the question. 27% disagreed with a ban, while 7% expressed no opinion.

Dissentients were most likely to be found among the young (42% for the 18-24s, 37% for the 25-39s) and Liberal Democrat voters (39%). Proponents of the ban were concentrated among the over-60s (79%) and Conservative voters (77%). These age and party political differentials are characteristic of most British polls measuring attitudes to Islam and Muslims.

Those opposed to the burka often see it as a barrier to integration and a coercion of women, but those resisting a ban worry that such legislative action would be an infringement of human rights.

Several surveys on the topic were conducted last year, in addition to the first YouGov study. See our posts at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=45 (1 February 2010)

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=92 (3 March 2010)

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=378 (9 July 2010)

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=397 (22 July 2010)

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British Muslims and the Police

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Taken as a whole, Muslims in England and Wales express higher levels of trust and confidence in the police than do the general population, notwithstanding the fact that they report crime and disorder impacts more negatively upon them than society at large.

This conclusion, from secondary analysis of the British Crime Surveys (BCS), is held to challenge the oft-repeated claim that Muslims have been profoundly alienated by the workings of Prevent policing since its inception in 2003, as part of the Government’s CONTEST counter-terrorism strategy.

This research is written up in a new report commissioned and published by the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) Terrorism and Allied Matters (TAM) Business Area. Assessing the Effects of Prevent Policing, by Martin Innes, Colin Roberts and Helen Innes of the Universities’ Police Science Institute at Cardiff University, is available for download from:

http://www.acpo.police.uk/documents/TAM/2011/PREVENT%20Innes%200311%20Final%20send%202.pdf

The quantitative data in the report derive from BCS studies undertaken among adults aged 16 and over in England and Wales between 2004/5 and 2008/9. The Muslim sub-samples were large: about 1,800 in 2004/5, 2005/6 and 2006/7 (when there was an ethnic minority booster), and 1,000 in 2007/8 and 2008/9. A few findings are summarized below.

In addition, there was a qualitative investigation, comprising 95 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Muslim community members and police involved in delivering Prevent, but this evidence is not considered here.

The 2008/9 BCS showed that Muslims were more likely than the general population to give their local police a rating of excellent or good. This was true of all Muslim gender and age groups, separately considered. Although young Muslims (aged 16-34) of both sexes were less likely to give this rating than the over-34s, 59% against 66%, this was still 6% more than for young adults generally. But Muslim males aged 16-24 were an exception to this rule, a possible by-product of Prevent policing.

This mostly positive picture was largely confirmed by seven measures of local police effectiveness in the 2008/9 survey, 34% of Muslims compared with 23% of the general population agreeing with all seven. Agreement with individual measures was naturally much higher, for example 75% of Muslims against 67% of the general population having confidence in the police in their area. Only in the matter of being treated with respect when in contact with the police were Muslims slightly more negative than all adults; even so, 81% remained optimistic on this point.

Muslims were more inclined than the general population to regard a raft of criminal activities and social disorders as problematical, especially teenagers hanging around on the street, drug use and public drinking. This was true across all five BCS studies considered. Throughout the same period Muslims were also impacted more (in terms of quality of life) by the fear of crime and actual crime than were citizens generally. Muslim perceptions of the local crime rate were likewise higher than the norm.

On average over the quinquennium, Muslims were about 15% more likely than all adults to be very or fairly worried about falling victim to a crime, the 2008/9 statistics being 52% and 35%. The differential was maintained for concerns about six specific types of crime. However, Muslims were markedly less prone (by a factor of 20% in some years) to have reported to the police that they had been such a victim.

Despite these anxieties about crime, the vast majority of all adults in the 2007/8 BCS endorsed the statement that people from different backgrounds got on well together. This was particularly true of Muslims and, within this faith community, of inner city residents and women. The overall Muslim figure of 87% represented a dramatic recovery from 2006/7, when it had collapsed to 42%, almost certainly a reflection of perceived enmity towards Muslims following the London bombings in 2005.

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Child Poverty and Deprivation among Jews

Posted on April 12, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The common identification of Jews with wealth is partly disproved by a new publication from the Institute for Jewish Policy Research. Written by Jonathan Boyd, Child Poverty and Deprivation in the British Jewish Community is available to download at:

http://www.jpr.org.uk/downloads/JPR%20child%20poverty%20report_7.pdf

The report derives from three main sources: a literature review; secondary analysis of existing quantitative data, especially from the 2001 census; and 40 qualitative interviews in 2009-10 with a range of professionals working within Jewish social care organizations, educational institutions, synagogues and other community charities.

The key finding is that, although cases of poverty and deprivation can be found in various parts of the Jewish population, it is among the strictly Orthodox Charedi community, which has grown ‘at an extraordinary rate over the past two decades’, that the issue of child poverty is most acute.

A ‘potentially toxic mix’ has been created by the combination of their large families, relative lack of focus on the secular education and qualifications of Charedi boys, cuts in public benefits, a likely diminution of donations to Jewish charities, and the high cost of maintaining a religious lifestyle. A negative impact on synagogue membership and participation in Jewish youth programmes is predicted.

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