North African Islamism and Other News

Posted on January 24, 2013 by Clive D. Field

The threat posed by Islamism in North Africa is the lead story in today’s round-up of religious statistical news, with two of the other three items concerning the role of religion in state education.  

North African Islamism

Recent events in Mali and Algeria have raised the profile of ‘Islamist militants in North Africa’ to such an extent that 23% of Britons now consider them to be a great threat to this country and a further 43% a minor threat. Those regarding them as some kind of threat are concentrated among Conservative voters (77%) and the over-60s (81%, almost double the number of 18-24s, 42%, holding this view). Only 19% of Britons deem North African Islamism to pose little or no threat, with 15% undecided (including more than one-fifth of the under-40s).

Source: Online survey by YouGov of 2,119 Britons aged 18 and over on 21 and 22 January 2013. Full data posted on 24 January at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/rnrn313ieq/YouGov-Survey-Terrorism-220113.pdf

Faith schools

Almost half (49%) of Britons support making all state schools secular, and thus severing existing links with particular religions. This is 11% more than implicitly back the status quo arrangement for faith schools, with 14% uncertain. The demographics of support for the proposition are interesting. Men (54%) are more in favour than women (44%), which was predictable. The age breaks are more surprising, almost the reverse of what might have been expected: it is the over-60s (54%) who most support ‘secularization’ of state schools and the 18-24s (42%) who are the least sure. Is this a tacit expression of the elderly’s suspicion of Islam and Muslim schools? Geographically, it is in Scotland (63%) where opposition to faith schools peaks, perhaps reflecting the long-standing controversies around the position of Roman Catholic state schools in Scotland. Parents of children in the state primary sector (where the majority of faith schools in Britain are to be found) are somewhat less in favour of secular schools than parents of children in the secondary sector, 42% versus 51% respectively. Conservative voters (48%) are only slightly less likely than Labourites (52%) to want to abolish faith schools.

Source: Online survey by YouGov of 1,750 Britons aged 18 and over undertaken on 6 and 7 January 2013 for Prospect magazine. Full data tables were posted on 24 January, to coincide with publication of Peter Kellner’s feature about the survey in the February 2013 issue of Prospect. The tables are available at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/gzklm8utri/YG-Archive-Prospect-results-070113-education-state-schools.pdf

EBacc and RE

The Government’s introduction of the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) is having a negative impact on school provision of non-EBacc subjects, including religious education (RE), according to a new survey of schoolteachers. Among respondents, 13% reported a decline in provision for RE in their schools as a consequence of the EBacc (3% more than recorded that their schools were planning to cut RE in a similar survey in May 2011). Comparable reductions in provision for other non-EBacc subjects were: 14% for citizenship, music, and personal, social and health education; 15% for information and communication technology; and 16% for art, and design and technology.

Source: Online survey of over 2,500 schoolteachers by the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), the largest teachers’ union. No methodological details were given in the press release about the survey issued by the NASUWT on 23 January 2013. However, by analogy with the 2011 study, it seems probable that the sample comprised members of the NASUWT working in secondary schools in England, and reporting on the experiences of their own schools. The press release can be found at:

http://www.nasuwt.org.uk/Whatsnew/NASUWTNews/PressReleases/EBaccSurvey#

Ageing priests

Quite a bit is known about the age profile of Church of England clergy (see, for example, Tables 23 and 24 in Church Statistics, 2010/11), but less information has been available about Roman Catholic priests. Now, thanks to new research by the Movement for Married Clergy (MMC), we know that only 4% of secular clergy in England and Wales in 2012 were aged 40 and under, and 38% aged 60 and under. That left 27% aged 61-70 and 35% over 70 years. Projecting the data forward by a decade, the MMC notes ‘a danger sign about replacement’, not least considering that, although ‘secular priests continue to remain in parishes until 70, the most effective work is done by those below the age of 60’.

Source: Analysis by the MMC of the dates of birth of 1,074 secular priests in seven English and Welsh dioceses in 2012, representing 26% of all such priests in England and Wales. Information was either extracted from published diocesan directories or provided by diocesan offices. The analysis is unpublished but has been generously supplied to BRIN by Dr Michael Winter, MMC’s chairman. It should be noted that the snippet about the study in the Catholic Herald of 18 January 2013 is garbled.

 

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Anglican Comments on the Census and Other News

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Clive D. Field

The results of the 2011 religion census for England and Wales continue to reverberate around faith communities. The lead item in today’s BRIN post concerns coverage of the census in the country’s conservative evangelical newspaper for the Church of England.

Church of England Newspaper and the census

In the current issue (13 January 2013) of the Church of England Newspaper (CEN) no fewer than three of its columnists devote space to the religion results of the 2011 census of England and Wales, which were published on 11 December 2012.

The most extensive treatment (‘Making Sense of the Census’, p. 15) is by Peter Brierley, the veteran church statistician. He is unsurprised by the 11% fall in the number of professing Christians between the 2001 and 2011 censuses, which he sees as foreshadowed in the estimated 6% drop in church membership between 2000 and 2010 and the 14% decline in church attendance during the same period. He advances three possible explanations for decreasing Christian ‘adherence’: a) the surge in immigration (with Brierley reckoning the majority of the new immigrants to be non-Christians, although this claim is unevidenced); b) the death of elderly Christians since 2001 (said by Brierley to account for 8% of the 11% decline, which seems a rather high proportion in comparison with the calculation by David Voas on BRIN on 13 December last); and c) the relative lack of new people becoming Christians, the transmission of the faith being said to be at ‘an all-time low’.

The other two columnists take to task Arun Arora, the Church of England’s Director of Communications, who, from his press statement issued on 11 December onwards, has tried to cast the census results in the best possible light for the Church of England. In a CEN short entitled ‘Militant Communicator’ (p. E2), the compiler of ‘The Whispering Gallery’ explicitly criticizes Arora for his selective use of statistics (especially of baptisms) in his recent letter to The Times (31 December 2012), written in response to the call (28 December 2012) by that newspaper’s Phil Collins for the disestablishment of the Church. Arora should realize, the CEN continues, ‘inertia is the best defence of the establishment, not statistics that unravel when they are examined carefully’.     

In his CEN column on ‘The Future for Evangelicalism’ (p. 16), Paul Richardson also fixes his sights on Arora, without actually naming him: ‘it will not do to dismiss the census as just showing the disappearance of “cultural Christians” … People who in the past wrote “C of E” on forms now write “no religion”. Long term this is going to make it difficult to sustain the Church of England’s position as an established church’. Richardson further contends that the Roman Catholic Church is in similar denial in its statement about the census, Richardson pointing out that ‘the census shows … large numbers of people entering Britain over the past 10 years from Poland and other Catholic areas but that this influx is not reflected in figures for mass attendance. These figures have risen only slightly, suggesting there has been a large exodus from the pews of indigenous Anglo-Irish Catholics’.

Twittering Christmas

The Church of England released figures on 8 January 2013 for its Christmas campaign on Twitter, #ChristmasStartsWithChrist (or #CSWC), aimed at the UK’s estimated 10 million ‘Twitterati’. In all, 8,878 Christmas-related tweets were sent by Anglicans (from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York downwards) using these two hashtags, with peak traffic occurring on Christmas Day around 11 am and a smaller peak on Christmas Eve around 11 pm. Over a 24-hour period from 11 pm on 24 December to 11 pm on 25 December there were an average of 370 tweets an hour. See the Church’s press release at:

http://churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2013/01/church-rejoicing-over-christmas-twitter-campaign.aspx

Same-sex marriage

As the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government continues to press ahead with its legislative plans for same-sex marriage, there are continuing indications that many Conservative Parliamentarians have serious misgivings about them. The latest evidence (published on 9 January 2013) comes from a ComRes poll (on behalf of the Coalition for Marriage) of 106 members of the House of Lords during the autumn of 2012, with 69% of Conservative peers wishing to see the proposals postponed until after the next general election and 100% opposing any use of the Parliament Act to steamroller opposition in the Lords.

Moreover, although Government believes it can ensure that churches and other places of worship will not have to perform same-sex marriages against their will, 51% of Conservative peers and 40% of all peers believe that there is no effective way of guaranteeing such an outcome. The proportion thinking this is four times as great for peers born before 1940 as after 1950, and more than 10% higher for peers who have sat in the Upper Chamber since before 1997 as those who became members after that date. Full results available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/Same-Sex_Marriage_Peers_Final_Data_Tables_21_Dec_2012.pdf

 

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Christmas and Other Themes

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Today’s ‘bumper’ round-up of religious statistical news features seven stories. Two are Christmas-themed; two summarize public attitudes to the religious dimensions of the same-sex marriage debate; two report on new research among Roman Catholics; and the last highlights reflections on the 2011 religion census of England and Wales by the Director of the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society programme.

Churchgoing at Christmas

One-quarter of the national population claims they will attend a church service over the Christmas period this year (5% on Christmas Day itself, 11% on Christmas Eve, and 8% on another day around Christmas). The range is from 20% of men and residents of the Midlands and Wales to 30% of Londoners. Two-thirds say that they will not worship at Christmastide with one-tenth uncertain what they will do. Interestingly, when asked to indicate which of a list of Christmas Day activities they would pursue, an additional 2% (making 7% in all) mention going to church. Even so, apart from going to work (4%), this is the least favoured pastime on Christmas Day. Two-thirds anticipate singing Christmas carols over the festive period, women the most (51%) and men (31%) the least, closely followed by Scots on 32%. Among those with children under the age of ten, 45% expect them to take part in a nativity play, and 30% not. If past form is anything to go by, actual religious practices at Christmas will be significantly less than these aspirations.

Source: Online survey by YouGov for The Sun among 1,729 adults aged 18 and over in Great Britain on 9-10 December 2012. Data tables published on 14 December at:

http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/tmd6ug984b/YG-Archive-Pol-Sun-results-101212-Christmas.pdf

Nativity knowledge

Britons’ knowledge of the nativity story is somewhat variable, according to a new survey. Asked ten specific questions about the first Christmas, on average they scored six out of ten, with 22% of parents and 18% of children scoring eight out of ten or more. The best-known facts about the nativity are that Jesus was born in Bethlehem (98%), Mary put the baby Jesus in a manger (89%), and that the Angel Gabriel told Mary she would give birth (83%). At the other end of the spectrum, only 14% knew that the three wise men travelled West following the star, 26% that Mary and Joseph were espoused (and thus not married) when she found out she was going to have a baby, and 32% knew that Immanuel means God is with us. A notable feature of the incorrect answers was the not infrequent appearance of Father Christmas, especially among parents’ responses. Over half of families (52%) said they planned to go to a school nativity play this year.

Source: Online survey by ICM Research on behalf of the Bible Society, undertaken between 6 and 12 December 2012 among approximately 1,000 parents of children aged 12 and under and 1,000 children. Full data tables are not yet available, but headline findings were reported on 17 December, notably in the online edition of the Daily Telegraph at:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/9748554/Scandal-of-Mary-and-Joseph-passes-most-Britons-by-as-they-place-Father-Christmas-by-the-manger.html

The Bible Society’s press release is at:

http://www.biblesociety.org.uk/news/children-and-parents-6-out-of-10-score-on-nativity-knowledge/

Same-sex marriage (1)

Three-quarters of the British public (73%) are in favour of the legalization of same-sex marriages, but they divide over whether religious organizations should be required to provide religious weddings for gay couples. Some 28% of the population feels that these organizations should be put under such an obligation, and this is especially the view of the 18-24s (44%) and Liberal Democrat voters and public sector workers (37% each). Legalization of same-sex marriage but without requiring faith bodies to offer religious ceremonies is backed by 45%, while 17% oppose same-sex marriage but countenance civil partnerships, and a further 7% are hostile both to same-sex marriage and civil partnerships.

Source: Telephone survey of 1,023 adults aged 18 and over in Great Britain, undertaken by Ipsos MORI on 8-10 December 2012 on behalf of Freedom to Marry. Full data table published on 11 December and available at:

http://www.ipsos-mori.com/Assets/Docs/Polls/gay-marriage-poll-tables-december-2012.pdf

Same-sex marriage (2)

The British public is evenly divided about whether ‘marriage is a sacred act between a man and a woman and cannot be a sacred act between same-sex couples’; 42% say yes and exactly the same number no, albeit over-55s (56%) and Conservative voters (52%) are more inclined to take the former view and under-35s (52%) and Liberal Democrats (50%) the latter. This is notwithstanding that 60% (and 73% of under-35s) indicate that they support the legalization of same-sex marriage (in a question worded differently to that in the Ipsos MORI poll, above), albeit it is not generally regarded by the public as a priority for Parliament.

A majority (53%) backs same-sex marriages in churches, provided that churches are willing to conduct such ceremonies, rising to 63% of under-35s and 61% of Liberal Democrats; 39% are hostile, including 53% of over-55s, and 9% undecided. Only 35% endorse the Government’s proposal to prohibit the Church of England from conducting same-sex religious marriages, the majority (54%, including 60% of under-35s and the AB social group) wanting to see Anglican clergy offering such ceremonies if in accordance with their individual consciences. At the same time, 58% believe the Church of England is entitled to oppose the whole concept of same-sex marriage (with 26% disagreeing and 16% unsure). 

Source: Online survey of 1,003 adults aged 18 and over in Great Britain, undertaken by Survation on behalf of The Mail on Sunday on 14 and 15 December 2012. Summarized in Simon Walters, ‘Britons Vote in Favour of Same-Sex Marriage’, The Mail on Sunday, 16 December 2012, p. 13, available at:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2248833/Britons-vote-favour-sex-marriage-Public-backs-PM-gay-marriage-says-hes-doing-trendy.html

Full data tables located at:

http://survation.com/2012/12/same-sex-marriage-public-opinion-political-fall-out-survation-for-the-mail-on-sunday/

Bible engagement

Roman Catholics have a relatively low level of engagement with the Bible, according to a new survey. Of those who attend Mass once a month or more, 57% do not read the Bible week-by-week outside of a church setting. This is despite the fact that around two-thirds of them contend that the Bible has something useful to contribute to contemporary life and society, and that one-third assert that a passage in the Bible directly influenced a decision they made in the past week. For Catholics who worship less frequently than monthly or not at all, 81% seldom or never read the Bible. Less than half of both groups of Catholics feel confident about describing five specific passages from the Bible, with familiarity greater among Catholics aged 18-34 than their older co-religionists.

These findings are consistent with a ‘meta analysis’ of over 150 British sample surveys relating to the Bible and undertaken since 1945, which the present writer has almost completed, one of whose findings is: ‘Protestants in general and Free Church affiliates in particular are more Bible-centric than Catholics (apart from some indicators of literalism)’. Indeed, the faith of Catholics seems to be as much underpinned by the teachings and authority of the Roman Catholic Church as by the foundational text of Christianity.

Source: Survey of 1,012 self-identifying Roman Catholics aged 18 and over undertaken by Christian Research between 17 November and 4 December 2012, and on behalf of the Bible Society, in partnership with the Home Mission Desk of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. The sample divided between 502 Catholics who said that they attended Mass once a month or more and 510 who went less frequently or never. Headline findings are contained in a press release from the Bishops’ Conference dated 7 December, two days before Catholic Bible Sunday, and available at:

http://catholic-ew.org.uk/Home/News-Releases/Catholic-Bible-Engagement

Roman Missal

It is just over a year since Catholic parishes in English-speaking countries started to use the revised English translation of the Missale Romanum edition tertia, which aimed to offer a more literal rendition of the Latin, replacing the translation introduced after Vatican II, with its emphasis on capturing the sense of the words. However, initial responses to the new Missal among the faithful seem to have been decidedly mixed, according to one local survey. In it only 22% described the general experience of their parish with regard to the Missal as positive, with 31% neutral, and 42% negative. Factoring in their personal views brought the negative total to 45%, with 28% positive, and 25% neutral. This underwhelmed reaction is despite the fact that 83% claimed to have been at least somewhat prepared for the new translation, the most common forms of catechesis being at Mass (69%), the parish newsletter (50%), and from a priest or deacon (41%). Pew cards (71%) and parish leaflets (30%) were commonly made available as ‘people’s aids’ at Mass. Qualitative data were collected alongside the statistics, it being noted that ‘concerning the language of the people’s responses and prayers, a panoply of [negative] adjectives and descriptors that would be the envy of Roget’s Thesaurus is wheeled into line’.

Source: Survey conducted by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth between 1 January and 30 April 2012. The survey form was posted on the diocesan website and was thus accessible to people from outside the diocese. Although the majority of the replies came from within the diocese, a significant number came from elsewhere (mainly Northern England). They were received, either in written form or as email attachments, from a self-selecting sample of both laity and clergy. ‘There is no indication of any particular group with an agenda “packing” or skewing the responses’. Even though statistics are cited to two decimal places, the number of respondents (307) is not specified until the very last page of Paul Inwood’s summary of the survey, which can be found at:

http://www.portsmouthdiocese.org.uk/userfiles/Diocesan%20Missal%20Survey%20analysis%20and%20narrative%20report.pdf

The weekly Catholic magazine The Tablet is currently running an online survey on the same subject. To participate, go to:

http://www.thetablet.co.uk/page/survey

Religious census

The religious life of the country is more diverse and complex than a superficial reading of the 2011 census data for England and Wales might suggest, according to the latest commentary on the initial results which were released a week ago. In particular, there is no hard-and-fast fault-line between ‘Christians’ and those professing ‘no religion’. ‘The census is a poor guide because it asks a single question about identity and offers a limited range of answers … The census still works with simple, unitary categories of religion. If forced, most of us can squeeze ourselves into one of these boxes. But if asked what we really mean, we display a heterogeneity which simplistic readings of the census ignore … Most people no longer identify with the labels of religious affiliation … Religion, like secularity, has become a matter of choice. We do not obey authority as we once did, and we no longer take our religious identities “off the shelf”. We explore for ourselves and assemble spiritual packages we find meaningful.’

Source: Linda Woodhead, ‘Faith that Won’t Fit the Mould’, The Tablet, 15 December 2012, p. 8.

 

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Newspaper Religion + Catholic Schools

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Today’s stories feature a longitudinal survey of the religious content of major national newspapers and the results of the 2012 annual census of Catholic schools in England and Wales.

Coverage of religion in newspapers

The proportion of page space (including advertisements) given over to religious issues in the print editions of English national newspapers in 2011 was higher in the broadsheets than in the tabloids, the range being from 0.4% in the Daily Star to 1.1% in The Guardian, with a mean of 0.7%. The mean has increased slightly since a previous survey in 1990 but remains below the figure of 0.8% in 1969. The only newspaper to reduce its religious content between 1990 and 2011 was The Independent (from 1.4 to 0.9%), at a time when The Guardian doubled its coverage. Full details are shown in the table below:  

All figures %

1969

1990

2011
TABLOIDS

 

 

 
Daily Express

0.5

0.4

0.6
Daily Mail

1.0

0.5

0.6
Daily Mirror

0.6

0.4

–
Daily Sketch

1.0

–

–
Daily Star

–

0.4

0.4
The Sun

0.8

0.5

0.6
BROADSHEETS

 

 

 
Daily Telegraph

0.5

0.7

1.0
The Guardian

1.1

0.5

1.1
The Independent

–

1.4

0.9
The Times

0.8

0.7

0.7
MEAN

0.8

0.6

0.7

The amount of this religious newspaper content assessed as being of a hostile nature fell from 18 to 16% across all the newspapers combined between 1969 and 1990 but almost doubled, to 29%, in 2011. The peak is to be found in the tabloid titles. Two-thirds of the religious coverage in the Daily Star is now of a negative character, one-half that in The Sun, and one-third in the Daily Express and Daily Mail. Hostile reporting is around one-fifth in two of the broadsheets (Daily Telegraph and The Guardian) but negligible in The Independent and The Times, albeit back in 1969 The Times stood at 17%. A major explanation for the growth in hostile content is to be found in the large number of anti-Muslim stories today (explored more fully in the forthcoming Cambridge University Press book by Paul Baker, Costas Gabrielatos and Tony McEnery, Discourse Analysis and Media Attitudes: The Representation of Islam in the British Press). The statistics of hostile coverage for each title follow: 

All figures %

1969

1990

2011
TABLOIDS

 

 

 
Daily Express

11

12

31
Daily Mail

18

30

35
Daily Mirror

12

12

–
Daily Sketch

35

–

–
Daily Star

–

25

65
The Sun

28

47

49
BROADSHEETS

 

 

 
Daily Telegraph

11

11

23
The Guardian

13

1

21
The Independent

–

2

3
The Times

17

6

4
MEAN

18

16

29

Source: Survey of the religious content of print editions of English national newspapers undertaken by Professor Robin Gill (now of the University of Kent) over four-week periods in August 1969, July 1990, and January-February 2011. Such content was defined as ‘items referring explicitly to religious institutions, their functionaries, or their central transcendent beliefs’, thereby excluding horoscopes (which occupied a large amount of space in the tabloids). Findings are reported textually in Gill’s Theology in a Social Context: Sociological Theology, Volume 1 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4094-2594-6, paperback, £19.99), chapter 11, pp. 187-205. The foregoing tables have been compiled by BRIN from Gill’s text, with some data also taken from his summary of the 1969 and 1990 surveys in his The Myth of the Empty Church (London: SPCK, 1993), p. 322.

Catholic schools in England and Wales

As at January 2012, there were 2,257 Catholic schools and colleges in England and Wales, 2,118 in the maintained and 139 in the independent sector. Four-fifths of all schools educated children to primary level only. There were 103 fewer schools (4%) than in 2011, although the number of pupils at them rose slightly (by under 1%). The total of pupil enrolments was 795,955 in the maintained sector (equivalent to 10% of all pupils in English schools but somewhat less in Wales) and 42,801 in the independent sector.

The number of Catholic pupils at these Catholic schools was 71% for maintained schools in England, 60% for maintained schools in Wales, and 37% in independent schools. The proportion also varied by educational phase, being 73% in maintained primary schools, 69% in secondary schools, and just 44% in sixth form colleges. Rather fewer of the teachers at Catholic schools were Catholics (55% in the maintained and 34% in the independent sector), the maintained figure having fallen by three points since 2007. In the maintained sector the number of Catholic teachers dropped from 68% in primary schools to 44% in secondary schools to 35% in colleges.

For England some comparisons are possible with the overall national picture. Thus, Catholic maintained schools attracted 6% more pupils from ethnic minorities than the national average, but 2% fewer of all their pupils than the norm were eligible for free school meals. On the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI), 4% more pupils attending Catholic maintained primary schools than all maintained primary schools lived in the most deprived 10% of areas. At secondary level the differential was 5% in favour of Catholic schools.

Source: Census of Catholic schools and colleges in England and Wales undertaken by the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales (CESEW) in January 2012, with a response rate of 98% (the best ever achieved in these annual surveys). Selected tables and analysis are contained in the CESEW’s Digest of 2012 Census Data for Schools and Colleges, which has just been published and is available at:

http://www.catholiceducation.org.uk/index.php/ces-census

An expert commentary on the Digest by Tony Spencer of the Pastoral Research Centre Trust will shortly be published on his blog at:

http://www.prct.org.uk/

 

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Respect for Clergy and Other News

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Clive D. Field

Herewith some news stories about British religious statistics which have come to hand during the past fortnight; they are arranged in order of release date.

Evangelicals and Money

Evangelical Christians are not immune from the economic downturn, with 15% feeling their absolute income has dropped considerably and a further 24% slightly during the last three years. Taking inflation into account, one-fifth contends their income has fallen a lot behind the cost of living and one-half a little below. One-fifth also has a household income of under £20,000 (against 54% with between £20,000 and £50,000, and 25% with more than £50,000). 7% have no savings at all and 18% have less than £1,000 in savings. 43% try to find a bargain whenever possible, and 28% use charity shops frequently because they are cheaper. In the past, 56% have turned to family and friends to borrow money, 25% have received financial help from their church or another Christian, and 11% have been refused credit or a loan after a credit check. 42% currently have some form of debt, although only 3% are concerned about it. 12% sometimes find themselves asking God for more money. At the same time, 63% of evangelicals believe in tithing (and more so among the over-55s), with 14% being the estimated proportion of their income (after tax) which is given away to the church and to Christian and charitable causes.

Source: Online questionnaires completed, in May 2012, by 1,237 members of the Evangelical Alliance’s self-selecting research panel of UK evangelical Christians, a response rate of 43%. A 20-page report, Does Money Matter?, was published by the Alliance on 10 September 2012 in its 21st Century Evangelicals series. It is available at:

http://eauk.org/church/resources/snapshot/upload/does-money-matter-lower.pdf

Respect for Clergy

Ministers and priests enjoy a lower standing in Britain than in Canada or the United States. Whereas 76% of Americans and 66% of Canadians have a great deal or a fair amount of respect for the clergy, the same is true of only 54% of Brits (marginally down on two previous polls, 57% in August 2009 and 56% in July 2010). Of 25 professions evaluated, ministers and priests ranked joint sixteenth (with actors and artists) in Britain, well behind nurses (93%), doctors (90%), scientists (88%), and engineers and veterinarians (both on 86%). Still, at least the men and women of the cloth outperformed journalists (20%), bankers and politicians (each on 15%), and car salesmen (14%), whose reputations really are in tatters.

Source: Online interview with 2,010 adult Britons on Angus Reid Public Opinion’s Springboard UK panel on 30 and 31 August 2012. Press release, with topline findings only for all three countries, published on 2 October 2012 and available at:

http://www.angus-reid.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/2012.10.02_Professions.pdf

Current Issues in the Church of England

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Anglican churchgoers rate the performance of Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury more highly than practising Christians as a whole. Three-fifths think that he has been a good leader of the Church of England (against 44% of all churchgoers); 48% of Anglicans say Williams has been clear in telling people what he believes and why (versus 37% of all churchgoers, with 41% disagreeing); and 49% against 38% respectively regard him as having helped the Church of England to remain relevant in modern Britain. Anglicans are also more likely than all churchgoers to support women bishops in the Church of England (74% compared with 57%, with 66% of Catholics opposed), 38% of Anglicans being poised to take a less favourable view of the Church if it fails to move in this direction.

Source: Online interview with 510 UK adult churchgoers via the ComRes Cpanel between 14 and 28 September 2012. Full data tables, published on 5 October, available at:

http://www.comres.co.uk/polls/ComRes_Women_Bishops_Oct2012.pdf

Identical questions were put by ComRes to a general population sample of 2,594 adults aged 18 and over in England between 24 August and 9 September 2012. The results have already been summarized by BRIN at:

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2012/september-snippets/ and

http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/2012/rating-rowan-williams-and-other-new-sources/

Pastoral Research Centre

The Pastoral Research Centre (PRC), an independent trust for applied socio-religious research, and focused primarily on the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, launched a website on 9 October 2012. Current content includes a potted history of both the PRC and its predecessor organization, the Newman Demographic Survey (which was established in 1953). There is also a brief description of the PRC’s Newman Collection (comprising archival and library material), much of which will eventually go to Durham University. Details of PRC publications (mostly with a statistical bent) will be added in due course. The site is at:

http://www.prct.org.uk/

Joking Apart

Although churchgoing Christians in the UK are mostly supportive of freedom of expression at the level of principle, significant numbers apparently hold ambivalent or contradictory positions in practice. On the one hand, 74% agree that freedom of expression should not be curbed even if it offends those with deeply-held religious convictions; 76% praise tolerance in the face of aggressive anti-religious attacks; and 69% accept that ‘strong anti-Christian opinion provided opportunities to exchange ideas’. On the other, 61% believe that UK Christians are too tolerant of anti-Christian expression; 40% are unhappy with the portrayal of the Christian faith in the media or popular culture; and the reinstatement of the offence of common law blasphemy or blasphemous libel is opposed by just two-fifths. In the wake of the international controversy surrounding the Innocence of Muslims film, 84% are willing to defend believers of another faith from anti-religious sentiment even though they personally disagree with the basis of that faith; 34% think that the film should not have been allowed to enter the public domain.

Source: Online survey of 2,100 churchgoing Christians via Christian Research’s panel, Resonate. Fieldwork apparently took place in September 2012, following the furore over Innocence of Muslims. The foregoing topline data have been abstracted from reports in the Daily Telegraph, 10 October 2012 and on the Christian Today website. The full data have yet to be released by Christian Research.

Heritage at Risk

A higher proportion of England’s religious heritage assets appear to be at risk than is the case with any other type. Some 17.4% of places of worship appearing on the national listed buildings register and which have been surveyed to date (the work is incomplete) have been designated as at risk by English Heritage. This compares with 16.6% of scheduled monuments, 14.0% of registered battlefields, 8.7% of protected wreck sites, 6.6% of conservation areas, 6.1% of registered parks and gardens, and 3.0% of all grade I and grade II* listed buildings.

Source: Summary report of the Heritage at Risk, 2012 survey, published by English Heritage on 12 October 2012, and available at:

http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/publications/har-2012-national-summary/HAR-2012-national-summary.pdf/

 

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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).

 

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Benedict Bounce

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The so-called ‘Benedict bounce’, the reinvigoration of Catholic life in Britain consequent upon the state and pastoral visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Scotland and England in September 2010, is a reality according to a press release from the Diocese of Westminster on 29 November 2011, and available at: 

http://www.rcdow.org.uk/diocese/default.asp?library_ref=4&content_ref=3588
Continue reading →

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Papal Visit Anniversary

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Clive D. Field

Seven-tenths of the British public can still recall Pope Benedict XVI’s state and pastoral visit to Scotland and England, which took place from 16 to 19 September 2010, but fewer than one-third consider that his presence here was good for the country.

This is according to a poll by Opinion Research Business (ORB) for the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales which was published on 18 September. 2,049 Britons aged 18 and over were interviewed online on 9-11 September 2011. With ORB’s kind permission, the data tables are available on BRIN:

ORB papal visit 9-11 Sep 2011

Recollection of the visit was relatively high, at 71% (ranging from 60% to 89% by demographic sub-groups), 91% of whom were even able to remember a specific event or aspect of it, albeit sometimes a negative one.

But approval of the visit ran at only 31% (with the notable exception of Catholics, on 62%), with 36% saying it had been a bad thing (46% in Eastern England, 44% in Scotland, 42% of the AB social group, and 41% of men), and 32% uncertain what to think.

Moreover, the overall favourability rating of the Pope was only 24% (just 2% more than a year ago), against 42% holding a negative opinion of him (rising to 52% in Scotland and 48% among men). 58% (peaking at 69% in Scotland) were dissatisfied with his apology for the child sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, compared with 24% who were satisfied.

However, there was more support for some of the messages which the Pope had communicated during his visit, including his statements touching on religion (there were also some more ‘motherhood and apple pie’ homilies about society in general, such as recognizing the worth of all people, including the old and disabled, which few would contradict).

For example, 67% agreed with the Pope that religious people should not be forced to keep their beliefs to themselves in the name of political correctness; 62% that the UK should guard against aggressive forms of secularism; 59% that there is a place for God, religion and virtue in public life; and 51% that schools should teach religion and morals. On the other hand, just 35% agreed with the Pope that true happiness is to be found in God (45% disagreeing).

The rating of the Catholic Church was even lower than the Pope’s. 21% entertained a favourable and 59% an unfavourable view of it. 70% (79% in Scotland) described it as out of touch with contemporary society, and 43% denied that – on balance – it was a force for good (13% more than made the same allegation about religion in general). Opinions were doubtless coloured by the sex abuse scandals, with 45% doubting whether the right steps were being taken by the Church to avoid their repetition.

At the same time, there was some backing for the Catholic Church taking a moral lead in British society, especially in encouraging mutual respect between individuals (48%), promoting self-respect and self-discipline (45%), tackling poverty and social exclusion (43%), developing and sharing strategies to combat child abuse (42%), and defending the family unit and family values (41%). In a separate question promotion of family values and family life was ranked as the most important function the Church could perform.

The Catholic Communications Network’s official press release on the survey majored on this finding (‘Catholic Church should take a lead in promoting the family unit, says poll’). It can be read at:

http://catholic-ew.org.uk/Catholic-Church/Media-Centre/Press-Releases/Press-Releases-2011/Catholic-Church-should-take-a-lead-in-promoting-the-family-unit-says-poll

The press release also highlighted an apparent increase over the past year in the proportion of Britons describing themselves as spiritual or religious, with an implication that this could legitimately be attributed to the papal visit. This was picked up in a brief Sunday Telegraph report (‘Spiritual surge from Pope visit’), which spoke of ‘a lasting rise in religious feeling’.

Yet if the figures are examined carefully, it will be apparent that there was some overlap between the spiritual and religious categories, since all possible responses to this question sum to 105%. Also, when those recalling the papal visit were asked whether it had put them more or less in touch with their own personal spiritual values, 91% said it had made no difference, with the more and less answers cancelling out at 4% each.

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New Reports from the Pastoral Research Centre

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Clive D. Field

The Pastoral Research Centre (PRC), the Roman Catholic socio-religious research institute established following the demise of the Newman Demographic Survey (NDS) in 1964, has launched two new series of reports on Catholic schools in England and Wales. They are all edited by Anthony E.C.W. Spencer and issued under the PRC imprint of Russell-Spencer Ltd.

One series publishes for the first time the detailed findings of the inaugural census of Catholic schools carried out by Ronald Barley and Audrey Donnithorne for the NDS in 1955. The three reports currently available comprise a general introduction to the series and the returns for the Dioceses of Brentwood and Menevia. In the pipeline are reports for the Dioceses of Clifton, Nottingham, and Plymouth.

The other series is a reconstruction of the 2009 census of Catholic schools, originally undertaken by the Catholic Education Service for England and Wales (CESEW). However, because the CESEW has published only a summary account of this census – see BRIN’s coverage at http://www.brin.ac.uk/news/?p=824 – and has declined Spencer’s requests for access to detailed data, he has needed to reconstruct the census from eleven different sources, including Freedom of Information Act requests to local education authorities.

Four reports have been issued for 2009 thus far: a general introduction and the results for the Dioceses of Brentwood, Menevia, and Wrexham. Next in line for publication are reports for the Archdiocese of Cardiff and the Dioceses of Clifton, Hexham and Newcastle, and Lancaster. The introductory report contains twelve invaluable tables of national Catholic baptismal and school statistics since 1955, with associated commentary.

In an accompanying press release, Spencer has likewise used these 1955 and 2009 censuses to begin to review the achievements of the educational policy of the Catholic Church over the last six decades, measured against its own seven longstanding strategic principles.

He finds that the Church appears to have abandoned or to have ‘turned upside down’ five of its principles, that:

  • every Catholic child should attend a Catholic school
  • Catholic children are prohibited from attending schools also open to non-Catholics
  • Catholic schools should be single sex
  • Catholic schools should be controlled by the institutional Church
  • Catholic children should be taught only by Catholic teachers

A sixth principle, that there must be a place in a Catholic school for every Catholic child, is said to have been achieved, albeit the achievement turns out to be hollow, since many non-Catholic pupils now take up places not sought out by Catholic parents. The seventh principle remains unchanged: that the Catholic Church should ‘have’ its own schools for the Catholic community.

Spencer comments: ‘Many Catholics – and many of their fellow citizens – would applaud the above developments if they were aware of them; many would regret them, and many would be indifferent. But as the institutional leaders of the Church do not accept that they are accountable to the Catholic community, and have set up neither a National Pastoral Council, nor the National Conference on Catholic Education – “a national platform for major public debate on Catholic education” – planned in 1988, or any other conflict resolution system, the Catholic community will continue to be kept uninformed, unconsulted, its views ignored.’

To obtain copies of these seven reports on the 1955 and 2009 Catholic school censuses, the press release and a list of all PRC publications in print, contact Mr Spencer at the Pastoral Research Centre, Stone House, Hele, Tanuton, Somerset, TA4 1AJ, telephone: 01823 461669, email: sociorelresearch@btinternet.com

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Religious Affiliation by Birth Decade

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Siobhan McAndrew

Religious Affiliation in England by Five-Year Birth Period

Religious Affiliation in Scotland by Birth Decade

Affiliation in Wales by Birth Decade

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My former colleague Rod Ling did some excellent work creating a single data file integrating the religion questions from all of the British Social Attitudes surveys from 1983 to 2008. Looking at the pooled sample, I wanted to see how religious affiliation varies by birth decade in England, Scotland and Wales, and how the affiliation of younger birth cohorts compares with that of older birth cohorts.

My concern was that there would not be a big enough sample size for the oldest cohort (born 1900-1910) and the youngest (born in the 1980s) to break them down reliably by broad religious affiliation (Anglican, Roman Catholic, Non-denominational Christian, Free Churches, Other Christian, Other Religion and No Religion). For that reason I have looked at percentage affiliated by birth decade for Scotland and Wales (where sample sizes are smaller) and percentage affiliated by five-year birth period for England.

The patterns are interesting – we can see that an increasing proportion of the younger birth cohorts are ‘none’, other religion or non-denominational Christian. In some cases non-denominational Christian describes those who are members of independent churches; in other cases those who identify as ‘Christian’ as a cultural or ethnic marker without affiliating to any particular group or institution.

Among those born between 1900 and 1909 in the combined English samples, 55% identify as Anglican and 16% as ‘no religion’. By comparison, among those born between 1980 and 1989 in the combined English samples collected over the course of the BSA surveys, 9% identify as Anglican and 58% identify as ‘no religion’. For the combined Scottish samples from the 1983-2008 surveys, among those born between 1900 and 1909, 56% identify as Church of Scotland and 16% as ‘no religion’. Among those born between 1980 and 1989, 12% identify as Church of Scotland and 63% as ‘no religion’. Overall, it appears that the increase in ‘nones’ among younger birth cohorts is largely at the expense of the established churches.

While the charts are beguiling, be aware that the x-axis points are period categories rather than indicating a continuum: properly, the changes in proportions should be shown in steps (as illustrated below), rather than a trend existing between 1970-1979 and 1980-1989. But overall I think it’s fair enough to illustrate composition change between cohorts in this way (because the differences in the bars are not easy to read); please comment below if you think not!

Religious Affiliation in Scotland - Bar Area Chart

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